Where does humility fit into your thinking about leadership?

Despite working in the world of leadership development for over 25 years, the topic of humility has not been something I’ve given very much thought to. Over the last few years, I’ve become focused on the need for leaders to cultivate an environment in which people can thrive. However, the impact of leaders’ humility on thriving as work has not been on my radar.

Until recently that it is…

The subject of Dan James's dissertation on his Masters in Occupational and Organisational Psychology was “Exploring whether humble leadership helps employees to thrive at work”.

Reading this research really sparked my interest, and over the last few months, I have been diving into the subject further, and thinking about how I might be able to use the ideas in my practice. In particular, I’ve been looking at how leaders might develop and demonstrate more humility, in order to help people to thrive more at work.

Having attended his graduation ceremony at Liverpool University yesterday, I’m pleased to share the attached summary of the research about the link between humble leadership thriving at work.

I’ll be following this next week with part 2, which focuses on the practical application of the research. Watch this space for more…