Humble CEOs Come with Benefits

Building CEO reputation is not about enhancing egos or celebrity.

Humility is now the new green among chief executives, possibly because they’ve all experienced their 15 minutes of shame in addition to their 15 minutes of fame in this tell-all world.

Being humble is one thing, but is humility an effective CEO characteristic?

According to research, the answer is a clear “Yes!” Executives with humble CEOs are more likely than average to describe their CEO as a good communicator (internally and externally), comfortable talking to the news media and open and accessible. Humble CEOs are even more likely to win awards for themselves or for the company and are about twice as likely as the average CEO to participate in social media. A new study among Chinese CEOs from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University found that humble CEOs are strong bosses because they empower and motivate those around them.