{"id":27509,"date":"2020-06-16T08:08:42","date_gmt":"2020-06-16T04:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=27509"},"modified":"2020-06-16T08:08:42","modified_gmt":"2020-06-16T04:08:42","slug":"is-this-the-secret-of-smart-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/is-this-the-secret-of-smart-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Is this the secret of smart leadership?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Business Essentials<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

By David Robson<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s more than two millennia since the philosopher Socrates argued that humility is the greatest of all virtues. His timeless observation was that the wisest people are the first to admit how little they really know.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Science has been slow to catch up to this argument, but the last decade has offered a spate of new studies examining this trait and its effects on our thinking and reasoning. According to this research, people with greater humility are better learners, decision-makers and problem solvers. One study even found that someone\u2019s humility could trump actual IQ in predicting their performance.<\/span><\/p>\n

The latest findings suggest that the trait is especially important for leaders, with evidence that displays of humility can improve strategic thinking and boost the performance of colleagues across an organisation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018You need confidence to be humble\u2019<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The recent focus on humility is a refreshing shift in perspective after decades of interest into self-esteem and self-confidence, which were often considered to be cure-alls for many of the ills in our society.<\/span><\/p>\n

High self-esteem and humility need not necessarily be at odds, of course. As Khalid Aziz, a leadership coach in the UK, points out, \u201cyou need confidence to be humble.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, a lot of the writing about self-esteem and self-belief often neglected to consider need for humility alongside confidence. As Will Storr describes in his book \u2018Selfie\u2019, the self-esteem movement\u2019 \u2013 promoted in the popular media and absorbed into educational policy \u2013 encouraged parents and teachers to provide unconditional positivity and optimism at the expense of any criticism or doubt. This hardly set the stage for healthy humility. And that oversight may have been to our great detriment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Consider a 2013 paper published by Bradley Owens, an organisational psychologist at Brigham Young University, which examined the performance of 144 undergraduate students studying for a management course.<\/span><\/p>\n

Figuring that each individual may not be very good at assessing their own humility, Owens asked the participants to rate each other on statements such as \u201cThis person actively seeks feedback, even if it is critical\u201d, \u201cThis person admits it when they don\u2019t know how to do something\u201d and \u201cThis person acknowledges when others have more knowledge and skills than him – or herself\u201d. He then tracked various measures of their performance over the course of the year.<\/span><\/p>\n

The results were striking, with the students rated humblest achieving better grades than those who were considered to have more inflated opinions of themselves. Indeed, the humility ratings proved to be a better predictor of performance than measures of actual intelligence. Humility was particularly important for some of the less gifted students, almost completely compensating for their lack of natural intelligence and allowing them to perform as well as people with much higher IQ scores.<\/span><\/p>\n

The reason for this advantage was apparent when Owens and his colleagues looked more carefully at the students\u2019 trajectories across the term. The people with the greatest humility may not have started out the strongest, but by acknowledging the gaps in their knowledge or skillsets and then correcting them, they made the greatest improvements over the course. The less humble students were more likely to plateau. Overall, the humbler students were just more \u201cteachable\u201d than the less humble students, irrespective of their actual IQ.<\/span><\/p>\n

Owens\u2019 study helped establish the importance of humility as a distinct psychology trait, with later research confirming that intellectual humility can boost learning and many other measures of successful thinking. Elizabeth Krumrei Mancuso at Pepperdine University in California has found that humbler participants tend to show greater curiosity, and appear to be more willing to learn for the sake of learning. \u201cThese qualities may provide a greater openness to gaining new knowledge,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Krumrei Mancuso found that humbler people also score higher on tests of \u201ccognitive reflection\u201d, which measure your tendency to override your gut reactions and question your assumptions. That\u2019s an important result, since more reflective thinkers tend to be less susceptible to cognitive bias and misinformation \u2013 suggesting that humility could have an important effect on people\u2019s general decision making.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of the world leaders today, Angela Merkel\u2019s scientific background is sometimes credited with giving her greater intellectual humility \u2013 including the tendency to check her assumptions and to listen to others\u2019 opinions before forming her own. And this is thought to have helped her to navigate the country through a series of crises during her 15 years as Germany\u2019s Chancellor. In the past, Abraham Lincoln was famed for his humble attitude, and his capacity to acknowledge his own flaws and errors was thought to have improved his tactical decision making.<\/span><\/p>\n

Avoiding groupthink<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Besides these individual benefits, the recent research shows that a leader\u2019s humility can also have important knock-on effects for their team members.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a survey of more than 700 employees at a US health services provider, Owens found that humbler leaders cultivated greater work engagement and job satisfaction among their employees. Although Owens didn\u2019t probe the reasons for the link in this study, his later research suggests that the leader\u2019s humility improves the communication among team members. Not only does that give the employees the confidence to disagree with decisions, the fact that the leader is willing to admit their own limits should encourage the team members to admit their own flaws \u2013 all of which should create a more honest and constructive workplace.<\/span><\/p>\n

Humbler CEOs encouraged greater collaboration and information sharing among the firm\u2019s top management team<\/span><\/p>\n

Amy Yi Ou at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University has found similar benefits in a study of 105 technology companies. Using surveys similar to Owens\u2019, she found that humbler CEOs encouraged greater collaboration and information sharing among the firm\u2019s top management team. The improved decision making resulted in greater overall profits.<\/span><\/p>\n

Questioning questions<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Despite these benefits, some leaders may still fear that expressing humility could undermine their authority. But the latest research on humility, published earlier this year, suggests that this need not be an issue, provided you go about it in the right way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Irina Cojuharenco at the University of Surrey created different vignettes describing leaders\u2019 behaviour, and asked participants to rate them on their perceived competence. Although blunt admissions of ignorance on an important issue \u2013 explicitly saying \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d \u2013 did harm the leaders\u2019 ratings a bit, the effect was much less pronounced if they expressed their ignorance as a question requesting more information on the matter.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, the display of ignorance \u2013 by asking questions \u2013 only really made a difference if the leader\u2019s competence was already in doubt. (For people who had already proven their knowledge \u2013 through a prestigious degree, for instance \u2013 it had little effect.) And even then, the participants\u2019 overall trust of the leader remained unchanged. They seemed to appreciate the leaders\u2019 genuine desire for more information and respected their humility, even if their belief in the leaders\u2019 technical competence had been shaken.<\/span><\/p>\n

Given these findings, Cojuharenco argues that leaders should be much readier to ask questions that may reveal their ignorance \u2013 rather than attempting to maintain the illusion of knowledge. \u201cIn the four studies we\u2019ve conducted, we’ve never seen negative overall effects,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you still doubt humility\u2019s power, she suggests that you think of inspirational figures within your own life. The chances are, you\u2019ll realise that they were the individuals who demonstrated the most humility, she says. And by following their lead, you can improve your own thinking and decision making.<\/span><\/p>\n

David Robson is a science writer and author of \u2018The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes\u2019, which examines the psychology of our most common thinking errors and the ways to make wiser decisions.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

* Published in print edition on 16 June 2020<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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