Harvard Business Review

August 4, 2025

Humility at the Top Inspires Others to Lead

When executives acknowledge mistakes, give credit to their teams, or engage in other humble behaviors, it helps build a culture of trust. Now new research shows that it can also ignite employees’ desire to become leaders themselves.

In a field study 216 pairs of supervisors and employees in China filled out three sets of surveys, each a few weeks apart. The employees rated how willing their supervisors were to admit mistakes, how open they seemed to feedback, and how much they appeared to value their staff’s contributions in the previous weeks. The employees also noted how strong their own desire for growth and achievement was and how highly regarded they felt in their organizations. The supervisors, meanwhile, rated how motivated each employee was to lead and how often that person took charge of a project or situation.

The researchers found that the more supervisors exhibited humility, the more highly regarded their employees felt, which in turn increased their leadership ambitions. The effect was especially strong among highly individualistic employees, who prioritize personal uniqueness and growth (in contrast to collectivist employees, who prioritize group harmony over personal recognition).

To see whether these findings held true in Western cultures, which tend to have a higher concentration of individualistic workers, the researchers conducted a follow-up survey with 210 participants in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They found the same pattern: Humble leaders made others want to lead.

“Behaviors [that exhibit] self-awareness, appreciation of others’ contributions, and teachability…signal respect and recognition,” which can help employees gain the confidence that they have what it takes to lead, the researchers write.

Go deeper: “Research: Humble Leaders Inspire Others to Step Up,” by Xiaoshuang Lin and Herman Tse.