How does humble leadership influence team performance？

Xingyu Chen

Executive Summary：In recent studies，leader humility was researched as an important interpersonal characteristic.The current study examined the relations among leader humility，team cohesion，and team membersperformance and in the context of team cohesion as a mediational variable.6 participants were interviewed about perceptions of their coachs humility，team cohesion，and their performances.By analyzing the results，there is a positive relation between humble leadership and team membersperformance，which was mediated by team cohesion.My recommendation is that a leader who acknowledges his mistakes，has an accurate self-cognition and recognizes othersstrengths and contributions can encourage them to cooperate and improve team performance.

Keywords：humility；team cohesion；team performance；leader behavior

The definition of humility came from the Latin humus，which means”earth”or“ground，”and came from the Latin humilis“on the ground”（Argandona，2015；Owens，Rowatt，&Wilkins;，2012）.Then the word was used to describe the key factors in contexts of society and means（a）“a willingness to view oneself accurately”，（b）”an appreciation of othersstrengths and contributions”，and（c）“teachability，or openness to new ideas and feedback”（Owens，Johnson，&Mitchell;，2013）；Enhance subordinatessatisfaction，work performance and retention（Owens el al.，2013）；and decreases the defects of leadersnarcissism，contributing to positive follower attitutes（Owens，Wallace，& Waldman，2015）.Even though the results of these studies are regarding the importance of humble leadership in organizational contexts，figuring out whether and how humble leadership has influences on team membersperformance in a mediational model where the team cohesion is mediational variable is rarely explored.Therefore，the main aim of this research was to examine a mediational structure of the three variables so that we can evaluate the hypothesis that team cohesion mediates the relation between leader humility and team performance.

一、Theory to Hypotheses

Leader humility：In the early 2000s，the advent of positive psychology stimulated interest in character strengths，which involved leader humility，in psychological journal article（Owens，Rowatt，&Wilkins;，2011）.Furthermore，scholars tried to categorize humble leadership as an increasingly important factor in organization.The resent years researches showed that on an individual level，humility was positively related to team member contributions in group projects and individual performance（Owens et al.，2013）.Given the previous studies conducted by Owens and Hekman，there was a positive relation between humility and team memberspsychological safety.So，according to the similarities of Owenss study，it was expected that humility would relate to team cohesion positively（Hypothesis1）.

Team membersperformance：Russel and Bernardin have stated performance“A method to measure how much contributions made by employees to their organizations.”In Owens and Hekman research in 2012，“giving decision-making discretion and voice to followers，and encouraging followersgrowth and learning，humble leaders would increase follower engagement.”Given the connections among the results of their research about humility，engagement and performance，it was expected humility should relate to performance positively（Hypothesis2）.

Team cohesion：although team cohesion has been defined in different ways，the most enduring definition is that a process that enables team members to“stay together”as they accomplish their goals/ objectives and/ or to satisfy the affective needs of each other（Carron，Brawley，& Widmeyer，1998，pp.213-226）.when controlling for midseason cohesion，midseason team performance significantly and positively predicted task and social cohesion later in the season（Benson et al.，2016）.We made a conclusion that enhancing group relationships，communication frequency and degree of socialization，team cohesion and reintegrate the isolated members in our group，can help us in working as a union and get a better performance（Sabin，S.I.，&Marcel;，P.，2015）.Therefore，it was expected that team cohesion would mediate the relation between humble leadership and team performance.The depiction of my mediational model is in Figure 1（Hypothesis3）.

This current study interviews were conducted with 6 members in Troy State University football team.They are all full-time students.The representative football program is Troy Trojans football team in Troy，Alabama，in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision，formerly famous for Division I-A and this potential team has been a member form 2001.

Method Description

Troy football team program participated in the Sun Belt Conference when it was 2004，however，in Troy，the other sport programs joined Sun Belt Conference in 2005Neal Brown was Kentucky offensive coordinator，and had worked for the equivalent position at Troy during 2008—2009 and in November2014he was named the head coach in Troy football team.Browns team got a4-8record in2015.Trojans broke into the AP top25on November13，2016.It was the first team ranked from SBC in the Top25and got10-3at the end of that year.For it is coachs correct leadership，Troy football team are getting better performance than before.

Following and modifying the emerging dimensions from research of Burak Oc and Michael R.Bashshur（2015），I provided total 9 dimensions from humble leadership（please see Table 1）as options in a form and then I contacted participants to interview.The ahead7dimensions were cited from their study and the hind2dimensions were added as2comparative options to humble leader behaviors and they were not related to leader humility indeed.They are1）Having a precise self-knowledge，2）Recognizing team membersstrengths and achievements，3）Modeling teachability and being correctable，4）showing modesty，5）working together for the collective goal，6）empathy and approachability，7）Showing respect and equity to members，8）leader of sweatshop，9）middle-of-the-road leadership.Following the9dimensions and3questions were putted blow it，1）If your coach wants to enhance your team cohesion，which coaching behaviors do you think are important.（please choose at least4choices.）In your answers，please select one of them and give a reason why it is important.The aim to putted this question here is to explore that whether there is a relationship between leader humility and team cohesion.2）If your coach wants to improve your team performance，which coaching behaviors do you think are crucial.（please choose at least4choices.）In your answers，please select one of them and give a reason why it is crucial.This question was to find the relationship between leader humility and team membersperformance.3）In your experience，please describe a coach who you admire and which characteristics you like in him/her？

Incorporate Interview Data into Theory and Hypotheses.

It was obviously shown the frequency count（please see Table2），in terms of the relationship between Humility and Team Cohesion，there were several options standing out：“Having a precise self-knowledge”accounted for about 21% of the statements，“Recognizing team membersstrengths”，“Modeling teachability and being correctable”，“Working together for the collective goal”，“Empathy and approachability”，“Showing respect and equity to members”，accounted for 12.5%，respectively.When it comes to the relationship between Humility and Team Performance，“Having a precise self-knowledge”accounted for 25%，“Recognizing team membersstrengths and achievements”accounted for 17%，“Empathy and approachability”accounted for 17%.

Interestingly，one of the participants explained that”because I have to be respected for me to even listen to anyone.”Participants also argued”because if you are not teachable or coachable then we wont be a very good team.”

The outcomes of my study referred to Burak Oc and Michael R.Bashshurs（2015） nine dimensions of humble leadership，however，I changed two of the dimensions as irrelevant options of humble leadership and the results showed that the irrelevant factors were not related to team cohesion and team membersperformance.Additionally，the results showed the dimensions that got involved with humility were related to team cohesion directly and team membersperformance as well.For example，as one participant mentioned，“humble leadership because if we do not have a coach that is concerned about everyone than I do not want to play for him and if we do not work together than we wont be successful and others will blame other people”According to Sabin，S.I.& Marcel，P.s study，at the initial experiment there was no significant correlation between team cohesion with low level and good team performance but after reintegrating the isolated team members and improving the communication between team members there was a better relationship in this team（2015）.Additionally，the cohesion of this team grown to a better level and the results of the second test showed significant improvement in the process of the test（Sabin，S.I.&Marcel;，P，2015）.Following the process and results of the above study，thus we can reach a conclusion that there is a significant relation between team cohesion and team performance.In our initial research，we provide evidence that there was a relationship between leader humility and both team cohesion and team performance.Finally，we can draw a conclusion that the relation between leader humility and team performance was mediated by team cohesion.All hypotheses were supported.

二、Recommendations

In conclusion，we suggest that leader humility is a most important factor that can bring a positive for team performance.By admitting mistakes and weaknesses，recognizing team membersstrengths and contributions，and modeling teachability，coaches can give an effective in which members can stick together and perform better than before.The specific way to do it is that change the task-orientated as consideration-orientated to people and task.Thus，the team members can engage in their tasks.

Reference

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作者簡介

陈星宇（1990.09—），男，河南扶沟县人，河南大学，硕士研究生在读，研究方向：应用心理。