HUMILITY

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You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you do not mind who gets the credit. —President Harry S. Truman

Level five leaders demonstrate humility and a compelling modesty, shun public adulation, and are never boastful. —Jim Collins, Good to Great

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. —Paul of Tarsus (Phil. 2:3 NRSV)

Happy are people who are humble, because they will inherit the earth. —Jesus (Matt. 5:5)

Each summer the Butler University men's basketball team conducts a skills camp for elementary and junior high school students. At the camp, Coach Brad Stevens and his wife, Tracy, work in the cafeteria line on the first night, serving food to the young players and their parents who come through.

On one occasion, a mother of a prospective student came through the line to receive her food. She looked intently at Coach Stevens and said, "I think I have seen you someplace before. Are you connected with the Butler basketball team?"

Coach Stevens replied, "Yes, I am connected to the team."

The woman replied, "Good! Maybe you can tell me more about Blue [the Butler bulldog mascot]. Will we get to see him at the camp?"

Coach Stevens told her he also liked Blue but that Blue would not be at the camp. The woman said, "I just love that bulldog!"

She walked off, never knowing that the head basketball coach and his wife had served her food and answered her questions.

Brad later relayed this story to his team and reminded them not to think too highly of themselves. Some of their fans are more interested in the bulldog mascot than in the players on the team!

No Task Is Too Unimportant

Many head coaches simply show up at their basketball camps to say a few words of welcome. Coach Stevens and his wife put on an apron and serve. Their simple act speaks loudly to the Butler players and the young camp participants. When players see their head coach behind the counter serving food, they receive an important message: no task is too demeaning or unimportant when it makes a contribution to the well-being of others.

The players who make it on the Butler basketball team have all been high school basketball stars and have received various awards for their outstanding athletic abilities. They often come to college with a fairly high opinion of their ability and talent. When players have a high opinion of their existing abilities, it is often difficult to teach them a new system for playing basketball. If they are overfilled with pride in their own abilities, they may be resistant to learning a new role on a new team.

Humble people, however, are teachable people who realize that there is always more for them to learn. They are open and willing to learn new skills in the game of basketball. They are willing to acknowledge they can grow and increase in their basketball skills as well as in their life skills.

In every field of life, those who are filled with pride and arrogance are usually not open to new learning because they believe they know all there is to know about their area of work. Truly great people are those who are humble enough to be open to new growth and learning in their lives.

Genuine humility has been defined as realizing at the core of our being that we are not superior to anyone else and that we are not inferior to anyone else. Externally, we have differing abilities and talents, but as persons created in the image of God, we are all of equal value in the sight of God.

A History of Humility

When asked how these principles became such a significant part of the Butler athletic program, Coach Stevens refers to Butler's athletic director, Barry Collier.

At six foot seven, Barry Collier was a star athlete at Palmetto High School in Miami, Florida. After graduation he played basketball at Miami Dade, where he received a two-year Associate of Arts degree. Collier then transferred to Butler University, located in Indianapolis, Indiana, because he was deeply impressed with Hinkle Fieldhouse, Butler's huge basketball arena, and the importance of basketball in the Hoosier state. He played two years as center and forward at Butler on teams that were not particularly outstanding.

After graduation, Collier received his M.S. degree from Indiana University and then served as an assistant basketball coach at several different universities around the nation. In 1989, Collier returned to Butler University as the men's head basketball coach and served for eleven years.

The first two years as head coach were disappointing for Coach Collier. In his first year, the team won six games and lost twenty-two. The second year was not much better. Coach Collier and his team were very discouraged. So Collier went to see Coach Dick Bennett, who at the time was the head coach at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin. Coach Bennett had been exceedingly successful as a basketball coach, and Collier hoped that he would learn some basketball strategies and secrets to help him improve his team.

Coach Bennett spent two days with Collier and Jim Larranaga, then coach at George Mason University. They talked about the underlying principles and values that coaches had to demonstrate and young players had to learn if they were to be successful on the basketball court and in life. It was from Coach Bennett that Collier learned the values of humility, passion, unity, servanthood, and thankfulness. These were principles that had guided Bennett as a coach for decades—from his earliest days teaching in public high schools on through to leading the University of Wisconsin to four appearances in the NCAA tournament. He coached the team to the Final Four in 2000. These virtues became the foundation of The Butler Way, even as they had proven to be a winning formula years earlier at different schools.

Inspiration for these virtues to become guiding principles in coaching began early for Bennett, when he was coaching at a high school in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. A former player had returned to the school in the mid-1960s to finish his training in graduate school. He then volunteered for Bennett and Bennett observed that the young man had a profound sense of peace about him, so profound that Bennett was compelled to ask where it came from. Then, in a quiet way he just talked about his Christian faith and how it had sustained him in good times and in bad times. From that point on, Bennett's faith took on a new dimension, as did his coaching.

Bennett had grown up Catholic in Pittsburgh, one of four boys in an Italian-American family. Mom stayed home with the kids. Dad worked in steel mills and later in a factory that made fire engines. Faith and hard work had long been cornerstones of life, he recalled. However, with a newfound connection between the two, Bennett soared as a coach. All of the schools were public universities where outward expression of religious values was not appropriate. Yet Bennett found a way through values-based coaching to live his faith.

Like Bennett, Coach Collier was a devoted follower of Jesus Christ and he realized that all the five values were based in the Scriptures. He compiled a list of verses supporting each of these values, which to this day he carries on a laminated slip of paper in his pocket. Coach Collier returned to Butler University inspired to teach these values to his team. His goal shifted from just winning games to developing character among the Butler players. He carries this list:

• HUMILITY: "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves." Philippians 2:3 NIV

• PASSION: "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way to get the prize." 1 Corinthians 9:24 NIV

• UNITY: "If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand." Mark 3:24 NIV

• SERVANTHOOD: "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." Proverbs 27:17 NIV

• THANKFULNESS: "Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NIV 1984

As Collier taught the five principles to his team, the Butler program turned around. During the next nine years of coaching, Collier's team had a winning season every year. The Bulldogs made it to the NCAA postseason tournament for the first time in thirty-four years and ended up with invitations to six postseason tournaments during his nine-year coaching stretch. A high-quality basketball program was under way at Butler.

Collier credits the program's turnaround to the mentoring of Coach Dick Bennett, which helped him rediscover and put into practice principles and values that had earlier been articulated by legendary coach Tony Hinkle at Butler. Later, Coach Collier became head coach at the University of Nebraska for six years, then returned to Butler University as the athletic director, in 2006.

In 2007, as athletic director, Coach Collier made the risky decision to hire a thirty-year-old Butler assistant coach named Brad Stevens as head coach of the Butler men's basketball team. Sports reporters and alumni around the nation questioned the wisdom of Collier's decision. Most had never heard of his hire. Some felt that Butler could have pursued a nationally known coach with much more coaching experience and significantly improved their chances of developing a first-rate team. But Collier hired Brad Stevens.

Brad Stevens was born on October 22, 1976, and grew up in Zionsville, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis. He was a star player on the Zionsville Community High School basketball team, where he still holds school records for most points scored, most assists, most steals, and most three-point field goals.

Stevens studied economics and business at De-Pauw University, a United Methodist-affiliated university in Greencastle, Indiana. At DePauw he played point guard, earned multiple all-conference and academic all-conference awards, and was an Academic All-American nominee. His DePauw basketball coach described Brad as one of the most selfless, team-oriented players he had ever coached.

After graduating from DePauw in 1999, Stevens was hired by Eli Lilly and Company, in Indianapolis. With a good-paying position, Stevens had a bright future at one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world.

However, Brad Stevens's passion was basketball. He had a deep desire to become a basketball coach, so Stevens resigned the position at Lilly to pursue his passion. He took a serving job at an Applebee's restaurant and arranged to share an apartment with some other young men. "Looking back, it looks like a great idea," Stevens later remarked. "At the time, I thought it was something I really wanted to try." Stevens became a volunteer assistant for the Butler basketball team and Coach Thad Matta.

Matta was the first head coach to actually post leadership principles on the wall of the men's basketball locker room and remind the coaches and players to practice them regularly. He left Butler the next year, however. Assistant coach Todd Lickliter was promoted to head coach for the 2001–2002 season, and in turn promoted Brad to an assistant coach position. Coach Todd Lickliter led six Butler squads with success, including two appearances in the Sweet 16 round of the sixty-four-team NCAA tournament, before resigning to become coach of the University of Iowa Hawkeyes. A pattern had evolved that when Butler University developed a successful basketball coach, the coach moved on to a larger and more prestigious basketball program. Barry Collier went to Nebraska, Thad Matta to Xavier, and Todd Lickliter to Iowa. Coach Stevens would break that pattern.

In 2007, he became the second youngest head coach in Division I basketball and his success was immediate. Stevens had thirty wins in his first year as a head basketball coach, becoming the third youngest head coach in NCAA history to have a thirty-win season. By 2010, Stevens had broken the NCAA record for the most wins in a coach's first three years. After leading his team to the NCAA Championship game in 2010, many universities approached Brad Stevens about leaving Butler. Many people expected that Stevens would follow in the footsteps of other Butler coaches and move on to a larger university with bigger and newer facilities, a larger budget for recruiting top-notch basketball players, and a much larger salary.

However, Brad and his wife, Tracy, loved the Butler program and The Butler Way and wanted to stay in the community where their family and friends lived and where they had a church home at St. Luke's United Methodist Church. Brad said, "Why would I leave the place I love?" In spite of lucrative offers to coach other places, Stevens modeled humility above large salaries and prestigious positions. He signed a contract to coach at Butler University for the next ten years, until the 2021–22 season.

The First Value

Butler Athletic Director Barry Collier says that humility is the foundation value for student athletes at Butler. Humility encourages players to honestly recognize strengths and weaknesses and opens them to improving their gifts and strengthening their weaknesses. Humility also helps the players recognize that they need each other and that none of them can accomplish their goals alone. Constant reminders come from the professionally printed signs on display in the team locker room. Humility, as with all aspirational values, must be practiced always if it is to be lived. Perfection is strived for, but never achieved.

One of the signs in the locker room has the word "humility" in large letters followed by a statement that describes a humble person: "Does his job to the best of his ability, regardless of circumstances." Coach Stevens explains that this means that each player is to give his best effort to the team all the time regardless of whether he is on the court or on the bench, whether he is given public praise or ignored.

American society often lifts up and honors loud and boastful leaders in government, business, sports, and religion, as if these are the most effective leaders in our world. However, self-righteous and arrogant leaders are the ones who often bring down businesses, government, sports teams, and congregations. Proverbs 16:18 says, "Pride comes before distaster, and arrogance before a fall." The wisdom of the Scriptures and the ages has provided example after example of leaders who were overimpressed with themselves and felt they were above the rules of morality and honesty that apply to others. Their pride and haughty spirit eventually led to their fall from leadership and power.

So the old story goes, there was once a group of clergy who gathered for a workshop and, as a simulation exercise, the leader asked them all to choose an imaginary role in an orchestra. One person felt that she would like to be the first violinist because that is the key instrument in leading all the other instruments in the orchestra. Another person said that he would like to play the bass drum because it helps set the cadence for the rest of the orchestra. Several said they would like to be the director of the orchestra because they felt that was the most important and influential position in the orchestra. However, one pastor thought for a while and then said he would like to be the music stand, the one to hold the sheet music so that others could make beautiful music.

The conversation became subdued, because they all recognized that while they had chosen the position or instrument that gave them honor and recognition, one person chose the lowest and most humble position, the music stand. While most had chosen a position that offered honor and recognition, one saw himself as the humble servant of others. Most of us do not automatically think about taking the role of the humble servant of others; yet, ironically, people willingly follow and admire leaders who are not primarily focused on their position, power, and prestige.

Leading with Humility

Current key leadership studies in business seem to be working on the same points that Butler University basketball program has been working on since the mid-1990s. Leaders who lead with a strong sense of personal humility engender strong and dedicated followers who also lead with a strong sense of personal humility and deep commitment to the goals and visions of the organization.

After a long-term study of companies in the United States that had outstanding growth over a fifteen-year period during both good and poor economic times and in times of key leadership transitions, Jim Collins, a recognized leadership expert, published his findings in the bestselling book, Good to Great.

Collins developed a leadership pyramid of five levels of leadership. Bottom level leaders are highly capable individuals who make productive contributions through their talent, knowledge, and skills. Level two leaders apply their skills by working effectively with others in a group setting. Level three leaders are competent managers who can organize people and resources toward the effective pursuit of predetermined objectives. Level four leaders catalyze commitment to a clear and compelling vision. The highest level of leaders Collins calls level five leaders. These leaders build enduring greatness in an organization through a blend of personal humility and professional will. All of the companies thriving during both economic upturns and downturns had level five leaders who were characterized by personal humility and a deep commitment to their organization.