The publicity seems to go to leaders who are not humble. Yet, high hubris leaders tend to ruin their companies because they are overconfident and do not listen to others. Followers often feel disrespected and unmotivated.

Results are achieved by humble leaders. Jim Collins’ book “Good to Great” has been a best seller for years. A key result of his extensive studies was that “Level 5 Leaders” inspire the greatest company success. There were several traits, but the foundational trait was humility.

Ongoing studies have reinforced the fact that a humble leader is not a weak leader. A recent Wall Street Journal article said:

“Humility is a core quality of leaders who inspire close teamwork, rapid learning, and high performance in their teams, according to several studies in the past three years. Humble people tend to be aware of their own weaknesses, eager to improve themselves, appreciative of others’ strengths and focused on goals beyond their own self-interest.

“Among employees, it’s linked to lower turnover and absenteeism. These strengths are often overlooked because humble people tend to fly under the radar, making outsiders think it’s their team that’s doing all the work.”

The article lists the Hogan Assessment Systems that help identify the humble leaders. Attributes of humble leaders include truthfulness, modesty, sincerity and avoidance of manipulation. Such leaders tend to foster executive teams that work well together.