Leadership Humility: A Characteristic That Enhances Professional Effectiveness

This book deals in depth with an ancient attribute of effective leaders that has in recent years caught the attention of leadership writers and researchers. Today’s effective leader is expected to demonstrate humility in addition to standard leadership attributes such as self-confidence, high-level cognitive skills, creativity, charisma, and the ability to articulate visions. The theme of this book is that leadership and professional effectiveness are enhanced when interspersed with other key leadership attributes including those mentioned above, assertiveness, a sense of humor, and strategic thinking ability. Many brash and aggressive successful leaders would be even more successful if they sprinkled their leadership approach with humility.

This book describes an opinion about the most relevant aspects of humility as it applies to leadership and professional effectiveness, yet the emphasis is on leadership. Equally important, each chapter contains suggestions for making better use of humility. Humility as it relates to leadership and professional effectiveness is covered from many angles. Among these topics are the many meanings and components of humility and how leadership humility impacts group member performance and behavior. We also describe the attributes of humble leaders and professionals and their type of interpersonal relationships. Servant leadership, because of its tie-in with humility, receives a separate chapter.

A description is provided about how narcissism, hubris, and charisma can be blended with humility to improve leadership effectiveness. Two other key topics are developing and enhancing your humility and making effective use of humility in leadership and professional life. The major contribution of this book is its systematic presentation of applied information about humility related to leadership effectiveness, such as the impact of humility on job performance and employee behavior, and how humility is part of servant leadership. At the same time, the book provides practical guidelines for applying the information to make optimum use of humility in the workplace.

Andrew J. DuBrin is professor emeritus of management in the Saunders College of Business at the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he has taught courses and conducts research in management, organizational behavior, leadership, and human resource management. He has served the college as chairman of the management department and as team leader.

He received his PhD in industrial psychology from Michigan State University, and an MS in industrial psychology at Purdue University. DuBrin is a licensed psychologist in New York State and a Diplomate in Industrial Psychology. His business experience is in human resource management, and he consults with organizations and with individuals. His specialties include leadership and career management

DuBrin is an established author of textbooks, scholarly books, and trade titles. He also has written for professional journals and magazines. He has written textbooks on leadership, managerial psychology, business psychology, human resource management, introduction to management, political behavior in organizations, and human relations. His scholarly books include the subjects of crisis leadership, impression management, narcissism, and the proactive personality. His trade titles cover many current issues, including coaching and mentoring, team play, office politics, coping with adversity, and big-picture thinking.