Edgar H. Schein & Peter A. Schein
Sergio CareddaSchein, E. H., & Schein, P. A. (2018). Humble Leadership: The Power of Relationships, Openness, and Trust. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Description
Humble Leadership, developed by Edgar H. Schein and Peter A. Schein (2018), argues that the key challenge of 21st-century leadership is not competence or vision, but the quality of relationships between leaders and those they lead. In a world of increasing complexity and interdependence, transactional, role-based relationships are no longer sufficient — they must be replaced by deeper, more personal and trusting connections.
The model defines three levels of relationship between leaders and followers:
- Level 1 – Transactional (Professional Distance): The default mode in most organisations. Interactions are task-focused, role-bound, and emotionally neutral. People are treated as means to an end. Appropriate for routine, low-complexity work but inadequate for innovation or crisis.
- Level 2 – Personal Openness (Trusting Cooperation): Leaders and team members open up as whole people — sharing concerns, admitting uncertainty, and building genuine mutual trust. This level enables honest communication, psychological safety, and adaptive problem-solving.
- Level 3 – Emotional Intimacy (Total Openness): Characteristic of close friendships, families, or long-standing teams facing extreme conditions. Rare in professional settings but occasionally present in high-stakes teams.
The Scheins argue that most organisations are stuck at Level 1 when they urgently need to shift to Level 2. Humble Leadership is the intentional practice of building Level 2 relationships — replacing "telling" with "asking," vulnerability with curiosity, and authority with collaborative sense-making.
Key behaviours of Humble Leadership include:
- Asking rather than telling
- Admitting what you don't know
- Actively showing curiosity about others' experiences and expertise
- Building psychological safety as a precondition for real work
This framework builds directly on Edgar Schein's earlier concept of Humble Inquiry (2013), which explored the art of asking questions to which you genuinely don't know the answer.
→ Berrett-Koehler – Humble Leadership
→ ILA summary – Humble Inquiry to Humble Leadership
Notes
- Directly extends Humble Inquiry (Schein, 2013) — the practice of asking rather than telling as the foundation of trust.
- Conceptually aligned with Servant Leadership (Greenleaf) but more explicitly grounded in relationship depth and psychological safety research.
- Relevant to Amy Edmondson's work on Psychological Safety — Humble Leadership creates the conditions for teams to speak up.
- Particularly applicable to healthcare, innovation, and change management contexts where interdependence is high and errors are costly.
- Contrast with Charismatic Leadership models — Humble Leadership deliberately moves away from the "heroic leader" archetype.
Other Sources
Books:
- Schein, E. H. (2013). Humble Inquiry: The Gentle Art of Asking Instead of Telling. Berrett-Koehler.
- Schein, E. H., & Schein, P. A. (2018). Humble Leadership: The Power of Relationships, Openness, and Trust. Berrett-Koehler.
- Schein, E. H. (2016). Humble Consulting: How to Provide Real Help Faster. Berrett-Koehler.
