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’, she found that humbler CEOs encouraged greater collaboration and information sharing among the firm’s top management team. The improved decision making resulted in greater overall profits.
Questioning questions
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.
Irina Cojuharenco at the University of Surrey created different vignettes describing leaders’ behaviour, and asked participants to rate them on their perceived competence. Although blunt admissions of ignorance on an important issue – explicitly saying “I don’t know” – did harm the leaders’ ratings a bit, the effect was much less pronounced if they expressed their ignorance as a question requesting more information on the matter.
What’s more, the display of ignorance – by asking questions – only really made a difference if the leader’s competence was already in doubt. (For people who had already proven their knowledge – through a prestigious degree, for instance – it had little effect.) And even then, the participants’ overall trust of the leader remained unchanged. They seemed to appreciate the leaders’ genuine desire for more information and respected their humility, even if their belief in the leaders’ technical competence had been shaken.
Given these findings, Cojuharenco argues that leaders should be much readier to ask questions that may reveal their ignorance – rather than attempting to maintain the illusion of knowledge. “In the four studies we’ve conducted, we’ve never seen negative overall effects,” she says.
If you still doubt humility’s power, she suggests that you think of inspirational figures within your own life. The chances are, you’ll 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.
David Robson is a science writer and author of The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes, which examines the psychology of our most common thinking errors and the ways to make wiser decisions. He is @d_a_robson on Twitter.
