Since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economies and trade of many countries have recovered. Executives in various countries have demonstrated self-sacrificial leadership in response to the pandemic by reducing their salaries, emphasizing solidarity and social responsibility, and setting a good example of how companies can weather a storm. In this context, this study investigated the effects of self-sacrificial leadership on China’s service industry. Based on self-determination theory, a moderated mediation model was constructed to investigate the impact on the service industry in China. Surveys were conducted with 472 employees from three service companies located in Hebei Province, China, to construct a research model of self-sacrificial leadership, autonomy, competence, and creative behavior. We employed a two-wave approach with a one-month interval between waves for data collection. Statistical analysis and hypothesis testing were performed using STATA 18.0. Intriguingly, as competence intensifies, the mediating role of autonomy between self-sacrificial leadership and creative behavior intensifies. Our study underscores that increasing competence is imperative for organizations to harness self-sacrificial leadership and boost creative behavior via autonomy.