Humility as an asset in France
Not many world leaders would pitch the virtue of humility as a strategic asset for their country鈥檚 competitiveness. Yet that is what French President Emmanuel聽Macron聽did this week at a gathering of the global elite in Davos, Switzerland. He claimed his reforms since being elected last year are helping the French 鈥� especially its rising number of entrepreneurs 鈥� to learn from mistakes in business.
鈥淚n France, it was forbidden to fail and forbidden to succeed,鈥� he said at the World Economic Forum. 鈥淣ow it should be more easy to fail, to take risk.鈥�
Mr. Macron seeks to create 鈥渂reakthrough聽innovation鈥� in France that will help the country to produce more world-class technologies. But he realizes this will take a 鈥渃ultural change.鈥� France has a long tradition of people relying on workplace stability and the state. He said too many workers still fear globalization.
One solution for such fear lies in humility, or a willingness to recover from trials and errors. As French statesman Georges Clemenceau once said: 鈥淟ife gets interesting if you聽fail because it means we鈥檝e surpassed ourselves.鈥�
Macron has pledged money to retrain workers and provide more venture capital 鈥� which will balance new labor reforms. He has given more freedom for schools to experiment in ways that would teach critical thinking.
He also seeks to link up French entrepreneurs with other hotbeds of innovation, such as California鈥檚 Silicon Valley and China. And he has proposed an 鈥渋nnovation聽agency鈥� for the European Union to rival the Pentagon鈥檚 research agency.
Macron represents the latest model of what is called 鈥渇ailure-tolerant鈥� leadership. Such leaders must show humility and compassion in allowing people to learn from dead-end experiments in order to come up with better concepts for success.
In electing Macron, the French showed they were willing for a shift in thinking. His new political party defeated the country鈥檚 two well-established parties in the 2017 elections.
He now dubs France as a 鈥渟tart-up nation.鈥� But he says that with some humility 鈥� just in case some of his reforms fail.
