Contemporary leaders are tasked with the tremendous challenge of navigating paradoxes between both structural and interpersonal competing demands, one of which is the paradox between maintaining or letting go of control. While past work assumes that to be effective, it is best for leaders to balance both opposite demands, based on evidence from the leadership and power literatures, we propose that downward deference (i.e.: the practice of relinquishing authority to lower-power others) which is prioritizing flexibility over control can still increase effectiveness. Building on social perception research, we argue that downward deference enhances, rather than deters, leadership effectiveness through increasing perceptions of both leader warmth and leader competence. We first developed and validated a scale to measure downward deference at work (Study 1). Then, via one multi- wave field survey and one preregistered experiment (Study 2 & 3), we tested our hypotheses by exploring the relationship between downward deference and leader outcomes. Our research has several theoretical and practical implications for our knowledge of paradox, leadership, power, and social perception at work.
