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Leading Well is a short, impactful podcast for executive women, and the men who support them, who want to lead with purpose and show up well in every part of their lives.
Through 10–15 minute solo episodes, leadership coach and speaker Gretchen Schott shares insights, practical tools, and personal reflections that help you navigate people problems, lead with authenticity, and grow your confidence from the inside out.
Rooted in faith and designed to inspire, each episode ends with a brief prayer—an invitation to pause, reflect, and reconnect.
If you’re ready to build trust, clarity, and connection in your work and life, Leading Well is your weekly dose of encouragement and strategy.
[00:00:00] Gretchen Schott: We can practice good humility by being very centered in ourself, in who we are. Not being self-centered, but being centered on who we are. You're listening to Leading Well, the podcast for executive women and the men who support them, who are ready to lead with clarity, confidence, and compassion. I'm your host, Gretchen Schott. Let's dive in. Hey guys, thanks so much for being here. Let's have a conversation today about humility. Leading with love is a choice, and I believe that the only way that we can lead with love is by having a good sense of humility, motivation, and confidence. And I define humility, I think as most do, as valuing others as much or more than ourselves. And the way that humility can show up in our leadership is in a variety of ways. One way might be you're giving credit where credit is due.
[00:01:09] Gretchen Schott: It might mean that you are listening with curiosity and not defensiveness. Humility can show up as making space for other voices to be heard. And humility can be, and I am really bad at this, but humility can be admitting when you don't know something. So if you're doing those types of things, great, you are showing up as a humble leader. And I love that for you. But can you be too humble? And the answer is yes. Have you ever worked with somebody who is overly humble, too humble, right? So folks that are overusing humility or overindulging in humility might be doing things like deflecting all the recognition, oh, no, no, it's not me. It's not the team. We're just happy to serve. And when we do that, it actually can diminish the team's ability to understand leadership and direction and where that came from. Sometimes when people are being too humble, they are actually avoiding decisions because they don't want to come across as being too dominant.
[00:02:18] Gretchen Schott: And so they kind of deflect into a collaborative or into a way in which everybody can have a say instead of actually being very clear and making decisions. And another way that I think that folks show up sometimes when they are overusing humility is they undervalue their own skills and abilities. They undervalue themselves. And then this has given the impression then that you might be insecure to lead. So maybe you've worked with somebody that's so, so humble and they might need to hear this, like it's okay for you to be confident and humble. So what does healthy humility look like? Healthy humility is when we are checking our motives, right? Are we listening to respond to something or are we listening to actually learn something? It's sharing credit with others and publicly owning mistakes, right? That's demonstrating of good humility. We can practice good humility by being very centered in ourself, in who we are, not being self-centered, but being centered on who we are.
[00:03:29] Gretchen Schott: And we do that through reflection. We do that through journaling. We do that through prayer. We might do that with a great accountability partner or perhaps a great group of people that you love and trust that can help you get centered on who you are and the value that you bring. And knowing that is what allows you to be humble, because we can be confident, which is about knowing ourself and humble, which is about loving ourself and loving others. And so for me, when I started about my leadership, and I talk about this in my book quite a bit about humility and my journey with humility, a prayer was introduced to me called the Litany of Humility. And I was so grateful to have this prayer brought into my life, but when it was brought into my life, a friend from church said, oh, you're thinking about humility.
[00:04:23] Gretchen Schott: Here's a great prayer for you. And I was like, great. And then I read it. And you guys, literally, everything in this prayer is stuff that I have always desired and wanted, right? Which is very embarrassing to kind of say all those things. But I want to share this prayer with you today, and I invite you to pray this prayer regularly if you struggle with humility, if you struggle with feeling confident and humble. So I'm going to read this. It's a little bit long, so I'm going to read it here. And I want you just to take a moment and think about which of these statements resonate most with you. And maybe if one of those statements really resonates with you, that's something for you to spend some time in reflection on. Alright? So let me share the prayer with you. Oh Jesus, meek and humble of heart, hear me from the desire of being esteemed deliver me. Oh, Jesus, from the desire of being loved, deliver me. Oh Jesus, from the desire of being extolled, deliver me. Oh, Jesus, from the desire of being honored, deliver me. Oo, Jesus, from the desire of being praised, deliver me. Oh, Jesus, from the desire of being preferred to others, deliver me. Oh, Jesus, from the desire of being consulted, deliver me. Oh Jesus, from the desire of being approved, deliver me. Oh, Jesus, from the fear of being humiliated, deliver me. Oh, Jesus, from the fear of being despised deliver me. Oh, Jesus, from the fear of suffering, rebukes deliver me. Oh, Jesus, from the fear of being culminated deliver me. Oh, Jesus, from the fear of being forgotten, deliver me.
[00:06:26] Gretchen Schott: Oh, Jesus, from the fear of being ridiculed, deliver me. Oh, Jesus, from the fear of being wronged deliver me. Oh, Jesus, from the fear of being suspected, deliver me. Oh, Jesus, that others may be loved more than I. Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it, that others may be esteemed more than I. Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it, that in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease. Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it, that others may be chosen and I set aside. Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it, that others may be praised and I go unnoticed. Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it that others may be preferred to me in everything. Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it, that others may become holier than I provided, that I become as holy as I should.
[00:07:40] Gretchen Schott: Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. Amen. Man, that's a hard prayer. I mean, literally pick out any one of those. And I have been guilty of having that fear and having that desire. But in my reflection of this prayer and praying it literally for years on a regular basis, what I recognized about myself was an understood that desire that I have that is very self-serving at times. It's based in pride. And an overindulgence in my pride is not what allows me to be my best self, but rather how well I serve others. And so perhaps sharing this with you today, you might get a little bit of an insight into some areas that might need a little bit more deep work with you. Maybe there's some of those statements in that prayer that have made you pause and maybe want you to think a little bit about why do I have that fear?
[00:08:45] Gretchen Schott: Why do I desire that? So reflection for you today, I would invite you to ask yourself two questions. One, where might I be overplaying, humility that undermines my influence? And the second is, where do I need to show more humility in my leadership? Reflect on those. And I would love to hear how that reflection goes for you. If you are ready to lead well and you need a coach, look me up. Let's talk. Let's have a personal consultation. If you love this content, I'd love for you to subscribe to my newsletter monthly, get more content like this. And if you like the episode, I would be so grateful if you would like the show, review the show and share it with somebody else until we talk next time. Be sure to be leading well ready to lead well or need some coaching and encouragement. Sign up for my newsletter or reach out for a personal consultation. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe and leave a review.