Brown Bag: Professor Lauren Howe
“Does playing up one's humanity pay off for leaders?”, Date: Thursday, September 21st, 12:00-14:00
The Chair of Strategic Management and Innovation at ETH invites you to the brown bag seminar with:
Lauren Howe
University of Zurich
external page https://work.dsi.uzh.ch/member/lauren-howe/
Date: Thursday, September 21st, 12:00-14:00
Location: WEV F 109-111
Presentation title
Does playing up one's humanity pay off for leaders?
Abstract
In recent decades, leaders have been increasingly encouraged to show their more human sides at work, including openly sharing their personal flaws and vulnerabilities. But how do leaders approach revealing their more human sides, and when does showing one's more human sides have benefits for leaders? In this talk, I share two lines of ongoing research that examine whether and when playing up one's humanity pays off for leaders. First, I ask how particularly high-status leaders like CEOs might show their more human sides and examine the consequences of them doing so for their approval and organization ratings. Second, I ask how in the consequential context of entrepreneurs seeking funding for their ventures when sharing some personal flaws might win investors over, and when it might not. Taken together, this research reveals that appearing more human - by disclosing some human failings or revealing one's more ordinary sides - can sometimes help leaders to be more effective, but that leaders should exercise some caution, as not all weaknesses build connection with others.
About the speaker
Lauren Howe is an Assistant Professor in Management with a focus on the future of work at the University of Zurich. In her research, she explores the "human side" of the future of work, including how human beliefs and mindsets about the changing world of work play a role in shaping it, and how leaders reveal their more human sides, such as by disclosing flaws and shortcomings. Dr. Howe's findings have been published in widely read journals in management, psychology, and other fields, including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Journal of Business Ethics, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the Annual Review of Psychology, Human-Computer Interaction, and the Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings. Dr. Howe also enjoys writing about science for the popular press and has been published in outlets such as the New York Times, The Atlantic, the Harvard Business Review, and Scientific American. She received her PhD in Social Psychology from Stanford University.
We look forward to welcoming you!
Kind regards,
The Chair of Strategic Management and Innovation