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In the previous article, we explored Adam Smith's concept of sympathy in The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Smith argued that sympathy is not mere emotional empathy, but a comprehensive judgment that combines reason and feeling in an effort to see from another person's perspective—an essential condition for a healthy organizational culture.
He then takes the discussion a step further, distinguishing a special emotional response that arises when we encounter another person's extraordinary insight—something that surpasses the boundaries of our own understanding and experience. This response is what he calls admiration, which Smith describes as follows.
“Emulation, the anxious desire that we ourselves should excel, is originally founded in our admiration of the excellence of others.”
This is why Adam Smith regarded admiration as a powerful motive for personal growth and social progress. When we admire the excellence of others, we become aware of our own shortcomings while also recognizing the possibility of becoming better ourselves. In this sense, admiration is deeply connected to our desire to learn and grow.
Just as we compared sympathy with empathy in Part 1 to better understand the concept of sympathy, in Part 2 it is equally important to examine admiration alongside the related concept of wonder. Adam Smith distinguishes these two emotions in the following way.
Admiration
· Excellence encountered within a familiar frame of reference
· Based on prior understanding and a basis for comparison
· Generally accompanied by pleasant and stable feelings
· Example: Recognizing the exceptional abilities of a colleague in the same role
Wonder
· A response to something unfamiliar or astonishing
· Arises when it cannot be connected to prior experience or imagination
· Occurs when existing categories fail to explain what we encounter
· More neutral in tone, often accompanied by bewilderment or unease
· Example: Encountering an unprecedented natural phenomenon or a technology that defies common understanding
These two emotional responses share one important characteristic: both lead us beyond our current level of understanding. The difference is that admiration arises when we encounter excellence that we can comprehend but have not yet attained, whereas wonder stems from encountering something we cannot fully understand.
Both sympathy and admiration are social emotions that arise through our relationships with others and with the groups to which we belong. To understand the significance of admiration for individual and organizational growth, it is therefore important to briefly examine its relationship with sympathy.
Admiration is typically grounded in sympathy. Only when we first engage in the process of sympathy—an effort to understand another person's perspective and way of thinking—can admiration emerge, allowing us to recognize another's excellence and discover possibilities we had not previously seen.
In this sense, sympathy provides the relational foundation for trust, collaboration, and mutual understanding within an organization, while admiration serves as the driving force behind learning, development, and growth to a higher level.
The more admiration flourishes within an organization, the less we see our colleagues merely as peers, seniors, juniors, or collaborators. Instead, we willingly recognize the excellence of those who are ahead of us in certain areas and, depending on the situation, accept them as guides, mentors, or experts.
Admiration prevents us from viewing others' excellence solely as a threat or a point of comparison. Instead, it fosters a willingness to learn and encourages intellectual humility. It makes people unafraid to acknowledge their own limitations and naturally inclined to ask questions, seek advice, and actively exchange knowledge and experience.
As a result, a culture of voluntary learning begins to emerge. In any organization, when people are willing to recognize and learn from one another's excellence, that excellence no longer remains the possession of a few individuals. It starts to circulate throughout the organization. And it is this circulation of knowledge that ultimately strengthens an organization's capacity to solve problems and innovate.
This is precisely why Adam Smith regarded admiration as a driving force behind personal growth and social progress. Admiration is not merely the act of looking up to exceptional people; it is the fundamental force that transforms individual excellence into collective growth.
By contrast, in organizations where the circuit of admiration is closed, encountering another person's excellence often triggers emotions such as envy, jealousy, and self-interest. Adam Smith describes this condition as follows.
“But if we do not entirely enter into, and go along with, the joy of another, we have no sort of regard or fellow-feeling for it.”
Those who cannot genuinely rejoice in the achievements, accomplishments, or excellence of others often seek to diminish them instead. When this tendency becomes widespread across an organization, it signals that an essential foundation for innovation, growth, and performance has already begun to erode. Such organizations typically exhibit two defining characteristics.
· Absence of Receptivity: Exceptional ideas are dismissed as simply "wrong" because they seem irrational or fall outside the boundaries of one's own experience and knowledge. Organizations with this tendency rarely rise above mediocrity.
· Envy and Exclusion: Praise and recognition for excellence are resisted under the pretext that "others may feel uncomfortable." Yet those who possess the moral sentiments of sympathy, admiration, and empathy feel no discomfort in celebrating praise that someone rightfully deserves. More often than not, such envy and exclusion stem from a defensive response to one's own sense of inadequacy.
What, then, does it take to become an organization rich in admiration—one that willingly recognizes the excellence of others?: Above all, organizations that aspire to innovation, growth, and sustained performance must embrace a simple truth: regardless of tenure, title, rank, or age, there can always be insights superior to our own.
Many people assume that innovation is created by the brilliance of a few exceptional individuals or leaders. In reality, however, innovation emerges only when organizations recognize and connect the diverse experiences, perspectives, and expertise that exist throughout them. Such a mindset is, in essence, the very "aspiration to become more excellent ourselves" that we discussed earlier. To cultivate this aspiration, three attitudes are particularly important..
· Intellectual Humility: The willingness to recognize the excellence of others with openness and perspective, and to actively elevate our own capabilities in the process.
· The Courage to Learn: Recognizing another's excellence is not enough; we must also have the courage to learn from it. This is especially important in cross-functional collaboration, where each party is often a non-expert in the other's domain
· A Culture of Applause: Only when celebrating the excellence of others becomes part of the culture can individuals fully realize their potential.
Through these two articles on Adam Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments, we have seen that innovation ultimately emerges from connecting with the insights, experiences, and expertise of others that extend beyond our own perspectives and understanding.
Put differently, innovation begins with the willingness to acknowledge our own limitations and embrace the excellence that exists beyond ourselves. When we willingly applaud the excellence of colleagues, seniors, juniors, and external partners—and seek to learn from their insights and expertise—organizations become capable of creating meaningful change in the form of innovation, growth, and performance.
So, what if we began to view the excellence of others not as a source of competition or threat, but more consciously as an object of admiration? After all, organizational innovation is built through the accumulation of these small shifts in perspective. More importantly, our admiration for the excellence of others often marks the beginning of discovering new possibilities within ourselves.
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