Intellectual Humility: The Skill That Leaders Miss but Are Too Arrogant to Realize

Why leaders and teams fail to see their own ignorance, and how to cultivate this crucial meta-skill

Valeriya Simantovskaya/ Stocksy

In the early 2000s, Blockbuster was the undisputed king of video rentals, with thousands of stores across the globe. However, a lack of intellectual humility was brewing beneath the surface, eventually leading to the company's downfall.

A three-year-old startup approached Blockbuster, offering to develop its online business. The unprofitable yet promising startup would expand Blockbuster's brick-and-mortar dominance into the digital world. However, Blockbuster’s leaders dismissed the opportunity outright.

That promising startup was none other than Netflix. Blockbuster could have bought it for $50 million, but then-CEO John Antioco believed online streaming was just a fad, and the price a joke.

As Marc Randolph, Netflix's co-founder, recalls, "They laughed us out of the room." However, he added that now, "the company that once had 9,000 stores, is down to a single one."

This story shows how mental arrogance clouds even the smartest person's judgment. In retro…