It was John F. Kennedy who said, “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” Ego inhibits learning, growth, and progress.
Humility, however, encourages it. The word Humility comes from the word humus, which is the rich, organic part of the soil that allows for growth. Ask yourself if you are sufficiently humble? Do you allow yourself to learn and grow? Do you allow others to grow and develop? Humility is what Jim Collins (in Good to Great) says separates good leaders from great leaders.
The leadership capacity of someone with true humility is absolutely immense, because you cannot contain or restrain his or her personal growth and development.
There is a story of a boy who was walking through the garden with his father. His dad was one of the best gardeners in the town and proud of his work. As they finished the father asked the boy if he had learned anything. All the boy could come up with was that he could tell his dad loved gardening. At that point the dad said, “Son, I had hoped you would observe that as long as the vegetables were green, they were growing, but when they got ripe, they started to rot.”
Successful people stay green; they are constantly learning and growing.