John Lloyd B. Macuñat Atty.

John Jacome
Second Year Seminar IV Professor

Reflection on the Rule of Humility and Moderation: Turning Managerial Ego on Its Head

According to St. Benedict, individuals demonstrating excitability, anxiousness, extremism, pride,

jealously and overly suspicious behavior should never be placed in positions of authority. Humility
is an important personal virtue for the leader and follower alike. As was said by various writers,
humility does not mean timidity or a broken spirit. Compassion must be carefully distinguished
from a groveling attitude. Thus, humility, in its purest form is actually the greatest source of
personal power.

The first step of humility is obedience.. with the ready step of obedience, they follow the voice of
authority in their actions. The rule provides that humility is important for the in positions of
leadership.

The lessons of humility must be learned early in a management career. One of the teachings of St.
Benedict is that if leaders are to expect obedience they must. In turn, show compassion,
moderation, kindness, and care.

Pride has many faces, five of the most important are listed as follows: the pride of natural ego,
achievement, association, power and emotion. Pride must be properly harnessed in order to acquire
humility.St. Benedict provides us with 12 steps to humility and he reminds us to study these steps
but above all, practice them everyday.