Mitigating the bullying effects of power

To win in life, you don't require ambition for its own sake. Leaders need to think of humility as being in the service of ambition

I received positive reader responses to my last column (Beware of competence without humility or humanity, March 13). One reader posed a tricky question: Why are so many leaders arrogant if it is obvious that humility is very important? I had to delve back into my readings and available research.

Ambition is about glory; humility is about burden and suffering. Do ambition and humility mix at all? 
 

The word “ambition” originated from the Latin ambitionem which meant canvassing; it used to have a negative connotation. Plato and Aristotle preached that ambition was no virtue because it meant politicians wanted glory more