Humility and Flourishing | Seminar

This seminar provides a reflective, evidence-informed exploration of the VIA character strength of humility within a university and higher education context. Humility is framed not as self-minimisation or modesty, but as the capacity to hold an accurate view of oneself while remaining open to learning, feedback, and the contributions of others. The seminar situates humility as a foundational strength for effective learning, collaboration, leadership development, and personal growth. Participants are guided through a clear definition of humility, its empirically supported benefits, and its role in academic and professional environments. The seminar examines humility across a continuum of underuse, optimal use, and overuse, highlighting how arrogance, defensiveness, or excessive self-effacement can each undermine flourishing. Through affirmations, applied examples, reflective questions, multiple-choice learning checks, and structured daily practices, participants are supported in cultivating humility as a balanced, practical strength. The seminar concludes with a WOOP-based action framework, enabling learners to translate humility into intentional behaviours that support feedback engagement, growth-oriented learning, and constructive relationships in higher education. Learning Outcomes By the end of this seminar, participants will be able to: Define humility as a character strength involving accurate self-assessment, openness to learning, and receptivity to feedback, rather than self-denial or lack of confidence. Explain the benefits of humility for learning, collaboration, leadership development, and personal growth within university and professional contexts. Differentiate between underuse, optimal use, and overuse of humility, recognizing how arrogance, defensiveness, or excessive self-effacement can each hinder flourishing. Reflect on personal patterns of humility, particularly in situations involving feedback, academic challenge, disagreement, or leadership responsibility. Apply humility in practical academic and interpersonal situations, including receiving feedback, engaging in group work, acknowledging limitations, and valuing others’ perspectives. Demonstrate balanced humility, integrating confidence in one’s abilities with openness to growth, correction, and shared learning. Incorporate humility into daily routines and learning practices, using reflection, intentional behaviour, and relational awareness. Develop a personalised humility action plan using the WOOP framework, identifying a desired growth outcome, potential obstacles, and concrete strategies for practicing humility in higher education settings.