Leadership
Leadership: Is There a Secret Ingredient?
The key to great leadership today turns out to be humility.
Posted August 5, 2024 Reviewed by Hara Estroff Marano
Key points
- Do the requirements for leadership remain constant and unchanging?
- What it takes to be a good CEO today is not what it took even 20 years ago.
- As the requirements of leadership change, so does the culture of the workplace.
In an earlier era, the prototypical inhabitants of the C-suite were unquestioned and unquestioning. They issued orders, barked commands, and spent very little time mastering the arts of listening.
A classic example of old-style dictatorial leadership was Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric from 1981 to 2001. Welch was demanding, opinionated, and tyrannical, more famous for firing than hiring people. He struck fear into the hearts and minds of employees.
But times have changed.
We’re living in a time defined by change: Our world is becoming rapidly more digitized; workplace gender roles are evolving; AI is rapidly transforming the world of communication and more; our planet is undergoing tumultuous climate change; and Covid has radically altered office attendance norms.
And it’s all happening all at once. It’s as though we’re living through a time when Gutenberg’s printing press, the electric light bulb, and the automobile were all invented in the same year.
How are we to respond?
Our current era of high flux and uncertainty requires a dramatically different style of leadership. And recent research has shown that one surprising leadership trait is among the most valuable:
Humility.
This discovery was the result of research done in part by Dr. David Hekman, associate professor of organizational leadership and information analytics at Leeds Business School in England. “Humility in leadership benefits teams, individuals and entire organizations,” Hekman explains.
“Humility in leadership helps employees experience more psychological freedom, authenticity, job satisfaction, improved team performance, and motivation.”
Tony Kong, associate professor of organizational leadership at Leeds Business School, concurs. “When a leader can show tenderness, empathy, and compassion, especially in times of crisis and uncertainty, it can trigger employees’ feelings of gratitude and make them want to go above and beyond.”
It turns out that humility, far from exhibiting weakness, can be a source of great strength in a leader. By admitting their mistakes, highlighting others’ strengths, and exhibiting a learning attitude, leaders cultivate a different kind of workplace environment, one oriented toward openness and growth.
Indeed, as the role of the leader evolves, the whole culture of the workplace evolves with it. According to the World Economic Forum’s 2023 report, skills like creativity, resilience, self-awareness, and empathy will be among the most valued skills in the emerging workplace over the next five years.
And successfully guiding this mutated workplace is a new kind of leader, characterized and strengthened by his or her humility. As Professors Hekman and Kong both point out: “Being a good leader is all about being a good human.”
Wouldn’t Jack Welch be surprised?
