Science has just shown that a leader who is not proud of himself or herself boosts workers’ feeling of worth and increases their leading capabilities. Approaches like this, where one accepts his own weaknesses, acknowledges other people’s strengths plus shows that they are willing to learn allows status elevation for employees at their workplaces thereby motivating them to perform as leaders and initiate.
Humble Leadership Defined
It refers to leaders acknowledging their limitations openly, appreciating others’ contributions and being open for training. This manner creates an environment for supportiveness and collaboration at the workplace while equally making workers feel respected and valued. Prior researches show that humble leadership has been related with positive staff outcomes like team innovation, engagement and general well-being yet it had not been examined extensively until now how humble leadership heightens employee status and potential.
In-Depth Field Studies
Two all-embracing field studies were done by the researchers so as to understand the effect of humble leadership on employees’ workplace status and leadership potentiality. The first study was conducted involving employees from various service industries in China while the second one was the same but it was carried online via Prolific where respondents were taken from western states such as United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Data collection took place in three stages over six weeks in both cases. Employees assessed their supervisors’ humility levels, perceived workplace status as well as motivation to lead other people below them in rank whereas supervisors rated subordinates taking charge behaviors. Eventually after matching subordinate-supervisor pairs 216 Chinese managers with each having a subordinate making up a final sample size & 210 Western bosses/employees belonged to one group or another.
Cultural Consistency
Thus far similar results have been obtained across cultures both in terms of East-West contexts: In either case; there is strong positive relationship between humble leadership style demonstrated by supervisors and workers’ perceived status in that firm. Leaders admitting their errors, recognizing their abilities and showing willingness of learning from subordinates resulted in employees feeling more valued and respected. More so, for an individualistic-oriented personnel who is sensitive to status signals and driven by the need for uniqueness the impact on perceived status was rather pronounced.
This greater workplace standing resulting from humility-based leadership led to enhanced motivation for leading as well as proactive behaviors like taking initiative. Employees with higher perceived status were more likely to aspire to positions of leadership and engage in activities denoting leadership potential. This effect held constant across both cultural groups thereby demonstrating how humble leaders are beneficial universally.
Towards Organizational Success
In conclusion, this study highlights the significance of implementing a kind leader who sets up a positive environment at work where people feel empowered. It is suggested that organizations ought to invest into training programs meant for developing or displaying humility such as acknowledging one’s limits, appreciating his/her subordinates’ input and being ready to learn from others. Therefore, humility must become one of those essential qualities of leadership which should be added into performance management systems in order to encourage or even reward acts of humble leadership.
“Humble leadership can improve work outcomes such as engagement, proactive behavior, well-being, resilience, innovation, learning and performance both at individual and team levels therefore it is important for us to understand it,” notes Xiaoshuang Lin – study co-author and senior lecturer at University of South Australia also associated with Centre for Workplace Excellence (CWE).
Creating a Future of Efficient Managers
Humble leadership has the power to lift employees’ status and unlock their potential, thus creating more active, innovative and high performing organizations. It also assists in developing potential leaders for tomorrow to enable companies retain competitiveness.
According to Lin, employees’ reactions to humble leadership differ from one individual to another given they have personal traits. Those that focus on self-improvement and competition tend to react positively while less involved employees in personal growth are unlikely to gain from it. “These kinds of workers will do anything which their bosses would say them without question. They do not want to play any role in educating their bosses or demonstrating what strengths they have,” said Lin.
The research article entitled “How do humble leaders unleash followers’ leadership potential? The roles of workplace status and individualistic orientation” was written by Xiaoshuang Lin, Herman H. M. Tse, Bo Shao, and Jinyun Duan.
