While some leaders commonly hold that presenting an image of perfection to their teams is essential, recent research highlights the advantages of introspection and learning from mistakes. This series of four interconnected studies demonstrates that leaders who ponder their mistakes and derive lessons from them exhibit increased humility, a trait identified as enhancing managerial effectiveness. Moreover, the studies reveal that, under certain conditions, teams show improved performance when their leaders adopt a learning stance towards their errors.
The notion that even exemplary leaders are prone to mistakes is crucial, as leaders often face expectations to embody dominance and confidence, assuming roles more aligned with correcting errors rather than admitting to them. This perspective, however, might detract from their effectiveness, suggests Jasmine Hu, the study’s principal investigator and a professor of management at The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business. She advocates for leaders to recognise their blind spots and vulnerabilities to become more adept managers and leaders.
Published in the Personnel Psychology journal, the study elaborates on humble leadership. Humble leaders are characterised by recognising personal limitations and errors, appreciating others’ strengths and contributions, and being open to new ideas and feedback. This research underscores how teams led by humble leaders are more inclined to exchange knowledge, express concerns, and pursue activities aimed at improvement.
A pivotal finding from Hu and her team’s research is the significance of acknowledging mistakes and engaging in reflection to extract valuable lessons for future improvement. In one study segment, 454 managers from diverse sectors, including finance, retail, manufacturing, and healthcare, were asked to participate in an online study. Participants were prompted to reflect on a mistake made with their subordinates, the lessons learned, or an error they believed held no lessons. Following this reflection, they were tasked with responding to a hypothetical workplace scenario, with their responses assessed for humility by trained graduate students.
The outcomes indicated that managers who reflected on mistakes they learned exhibited greater humility than those who considered mistakes without deriving any lessons. Hu emphasises the importance of learning from mistakes rather than solely focusing on the negative aspects.
Another critical aspect of maximising the benefits from mistakes is adopting a promotion focus over a prevention focus. Leaders with a promotion focus are driven by improvement and growth, seeing mistakes as opportunities to enhance goal achievement. Conversely, a prevention focus views learning from mistakes as a means to rectify failures and avoid repercussions.
The research also highlights the importance of a promotion focus through various studies, including one with 210 college students working in teams for a small business project and another real-life study involving 85 non-physician managers from medical schools and hospitals. These studies showed that a promotion focus strengthens the link between learning from mistakes and expressing humility and correlates with improved team performance and behaviour oriented towards improvement.
Hu’s findings call for a reevaluation of traditional perceptions of leadership within organisations and society at large. Leaders’ fear of admitting mistakes due to concerns that it contradicts established leadership imagery must be addressed. Hu’s research suggests that reflecting on and learning from mistakes can enhance managerial effectiveness and leadership quality, advocating for a shift towards embracing vulnerability and growth from errors.
More information: Jasmine Hu et al, When leaders heed the lessons of mistakes: Linking leaders’ recall of learning from mistakes to expressed humility, Personnel Psychology. DOI: 10.1111/peps.12570
Journal information: Personnel Psychology Provided by The Ohio State University