Gaining Influence by Being Humble: an Empirical Test of the Virtue Theory of Status Attainment

Recognition has grown that leader humility is a core organizational virtue that has various positive impacts in organizational settings. Yet it remains unclear how humble individuals get ahead and attain leadership roles at the first place; it is also unclear how empowering and giving credit to followers can help maintain and/or enhance, rather than undermine, humble leaders’ status and influence. To address these questions, we draw on the moral virtue theory of status attainment. The moral virtue theory predicts that expressing humility, despite the risk of being seen as incompetent or vulnerable, can help the humble actor to get ahead and maintain and/or enhance status and influence by garnering admiration from others. We found consistent support for our predictions in two experiments using self-report and behavioral measures of status and influence. Even humble leaders who are seen as incompetent can benefit from and enhance their status by acting humbly. Implications for theory and organizational applications are discussed.