The 9 Percent Club
Humble people learning to build their authority at work
What Is The 9 Percent Club?
The 9 Percent Club is a collective of humble professionals who want to be known for doing great work.
No bragging or bluster.
No modesty or cringe.
Just swagger that matches your skills.
The name The 9 Percent Club refers to the 9% of people who accurately report their own abilities. The remaining 91% of people either over- or under-report their skills.
This percentage was determined in a 2012 meta-analysis conducted by Philipp Freund and Nadine (Kasten) Wedderhoff. The researchers reviewed 41 different studies, involving more than 20,000 subjects, to compare self-reported intelligence against actual intelligence scores.
The research confirmed that most of us are poor judges of our own abilities.
Over-confidence is great for careers.
People who over-report their abilities tend to earn praise, promotions and positions of power more often than their modest colleagues.
Over-confident chest-thumpers sincereley believe they’re capable. And, because confidence is one of the (unreliable) metrics humans use to evaluate others’ potential, we believe they’re capable, too.
Over-confidence, however, is bad for business.
When over-reporters fail to deliver promised results, the organization falters.
Meanwhile, people who under-report their abilities have hidden talent.
They think they’re not ready when they actually are.
Or they know they’re capable but hate to self-promote.
Out of modesty, these potential leaders stay silent. And sadly, their talents go unseen. These quietly competent people get undervalued and overlooked.
As a result, careers stall and companies underperform.
The 9% Club fixes that.
We share communication insights that help competent people build their authority at work - so companies win and careers thrive.
Being humble won’t get you promoted.
Become part of The 9 Percent.
1 Freund, P. and Kasten, N. “How Smart Do You Think You Are? A Meta-Analysis on the Validity of Self-Estimates of Cognitive Ability.” Psychological Bulletin. 2012. Vol. 138, No. 2, 296–321.
2 Chamorro-Premuzic, T. Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders (and How to Fix It). Harvard Business Review Press. 2019.