Unfortunately, Ou says that CEOs themselves tend to be very split in their opinions on the virtue of humility, with many believing that it can undermine their team’s confidence in their abilities to lead. This was true even in China, she says, where she had expected to see greater respect for a humble mindset. ‘Even there, when I’m talking to those high-profile CEOs, they reject the term humility,’ she told me. ‘They think that if I’m humble, I can’t manage my team well. But my study shows that it actually works.’
