In their humble opinion: How expressions of humility affect superiors’ assessments of leadership potential in the US Army

ABSTRACT

While leader humility has been linked to a number of positive outcomes, existing research speculates that expressions of humility may not be viewed positively in organizations with a highly directive or masculine culture – such as the military. Research has also suggested that men and women may be perceived differently when behaving humbly. A combination of four studies revealed that military superiors do take a positive view of humble behaviors in their subordinates, but it is not clear that humble leaders are viewed as having more potential than those who exhibit other positive leadership behaviors. Further, it appears that gender and humility interact to affect perceptions of leadership potential in the military, with humble men receiving more benefit from acting humbly than their female counterparts.

KEYWORDS:

• Humility
• leadership potential
• military
• leader prototypes
• role congruity
• gender