Humble Leadership, Second Edition: The Power of Relationships, Openness, and Trust

Legendary organizational scholar Edgar Schein and former Silicon Valley executive Peter Schein say leadership today requires that people transcend their hierarchical roles and relate to one another as human beings-what they call humble leadership. In such relationships new ideas can go with the flow freely, mistakes can come to light immediately, and course corrections will also be made in real time quite than by committee or by order of the lone heroic CEO.

This second edition includes three new chapters. Chapter 1 zeros-in on the Schein’s actionable definition of leadership-relative to management and administration-focused on leading people toward new and better. Chapter 2 introduces the concept that of situational humility-leaders now want to shift between different types of relationships to maintain the accelerating complexity of a supply-constrained, quiet-quitting, and two-days-in-the-office world. And Chapter 5 explains how to create a culture of humble leadership.

Illustrated with examples from healthcare, government, the military, tech, and more, this can be a compact, accessible guide to a leadership paradigm far better suited to a world that demands fast, nimble response to change, and a workplace hungry for mutual respect and consider.