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Humble Leaders Make Teams More Effective

Humble Leaders Make Teams More Effective

by | 2022 Sep 2 | Public, Quick Hits

Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

team high performance

The headline is a bit of a sweeping statement, whether that is generally true is open to further research (and is in fact supported by plenty of other research), but that was what was found in this particular context of leaders of collaborative teacher groups.

So, what was this study and how did it show that humility improved performance?

This study was done in China in what are called Teacher Research Groups (TRG). These are what would be called Professional Learning Communities (PLC) in other parts of the world where teachers group up to share their experiences and to guide better learning and improve the quality of teaching. These are led by an experienced educator.

The study by Yun Qu of Ohio State University followed 537 teachers in 238 TRGs in various locations, urban and rural. They rated the group leaders on three dimensions of humility:

  1. Willingness to view themselves accurately (e.g. their knowledge or lack thereof)
  2. Appreciation of others’ strengths
  3. Teachability (i.e. being open to others’ advice).

The data showed that those in groups with leaders who showed the highest humility reported multiple positive results all of which can be directly correlated to higher performance:

  • Reported sharing more knowledge and expertise at TRG meetings
  • Reported higher levels of psychological safety
  • Felt they could take risks and others wouldn’t undermine their efforts
  • Felt more empowered

All these are very positive findings. In the case of the TRGs, this made them more effective and serve their purpose better which is sharing knowledge and expertise, learning, and applying this knowledge and expertise in the classroom.

All of the above are, however, standard themes in standard corporate leadership literature and all have large bodies of evidence behind them to show their effectiveness. In fact, psychological safety is a big theme currently in corporate development.

So, though this was conducted in China in a specific context the findings suggest that this would be transferable to many leadership scenarios because they are eliciting the exact same results that leadership literature does point to and I am sure all businesses would be more than happy to have – and is supported by masses of literature on the subject:

  • Increased sharing of knowledge and expertise
  • Increased psychological safety
  • Higher empowerment

And that is helped by leadership humility – other research has shown that leadership narcissism does the exact opposite.

And just yesterday I was closing a workshop for a team that is world-leading (no exaggeration) in their field. What struck me was that the leadership, on top of being very knowledgable, results-focused, and very experienced in their roles, were also very open, caring, and humble.

They were also explicitly trying to (further) improve the above three points, hence the workshop. They were doing that because they know that will be critical to their results and success.

So, here’s to a healthy dose of humility in leadership!

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Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

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Reference

Yun Qu, Jinjie Zhu, Roger D. Goddard. 
Modesty brings gains: linking humble leadership to knowledge sharing via psychological safety and psychological empowerment in professional learning communities. 
Educational Studies, 2022; 1
DOI: 10.1080/03055698.2022.2103648

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Micro Breaks Improve Performance and Wellbeing

Micro Breaks Improve Performance and Wellbeing

by | 2022 Sep 1 | Public, Quick Hits

Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

break brain performanceWe all know that taking breaks is good for our brain and wellbeing – in fact we absolutely need to take breaks. It is just the way our brain and body is designed.

But oftentimes in the workplace this can be challenging – we get stuck into piles of work and our attention is constantly pulled in different directions. We may also feel we do not have the time for a break with work to be done and deadlines looming. I know that feeling well.

Enter the micro-break. The term micro-break has now entered the world of research and refers to short breaks – less than 10 minutes according to many studies but often as short as one minute. The idea is that a micro-break is precisely that, micro, short, and doesn’t interrupt workflow for too long, or can be completed quickly.

Interestingly there is some research to show that we tend to automatically increase our micro-breaks when fatigued. This can be getting a cup of tea/coffee a visit to the toilet, or a simple stretch and look out of the window.

The results into micro-breaks are generally positive but are they consistent? Enter Patricia Albulescu et al. who have just conducted a review of 22 studies from the last 30 years. These included multiple variations of micro-breaks: different work settings, in controlled experiments, different types of breaks, and at different lengths.

The results were interesting – some intuitive and some counterintuitive.

First off, they found that micro-breaks increased vigour and decreased fatigue. That’s a very good thing: higher energy and lower tiredness. Therefore, a clear correlation with improved wellbeing.

However, on first glance the data didn’t show any increase in performance. But on second look they found that there was a link to better performance with creative or clerical tasks and here the longer breaks were more effective. This did not translate to cognitive demanding tasks.

This may seem counterintuitive but shows that a short break from monotony or creative tasks can really help but that demanding cognitive “heavy lifting” type of tasks seem to require more recovery. This is actually logical.

What this therefore shows is that micro-breaks should be a part of a daily work routine for many, if possible. They contribute to increasing energy and reducing fatigue. But be aware that longer breaks are also necessary to reset cognitive functions. Note also that combining this with exercise can be highly beneficial. One of my top tips is take a 3-minute walk every 45 minutes.

This is because light activity, and particularly walking, can also contribute to cognitive function and health – multiple short walks are as beneficial to health as a few longer walks. And that ain’t bad either.

I also wonder how much of this is contribution to the sense of comfort, energy, and motivation with working virtually or work from our home offices. Micro-breaks are easier and more common in the home environment is my intuition and therfore contributes to the comfort (amongst other factors).

But for now, remember that micro-breaks are good for you. So don’t feel guilty about it. Rather make this a fixed part of your workday!

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Premium Brain
Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

twitter / LinkedIn

Reference

Patricia Albulescu, Irina Macsinga, Andrei Rusu, Coralia Sulea, Alexandra Bodnaru, Bogdan Tudor Tulbure.
‘Give me a break!’ A systematic review and meta-analysis on the efficacy of micro-breaks for increasing well-being and performance.
PLOS ONE, 2022; 17 (8): e0272460
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0272460

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