What are your answers to these questions?
What leader has the most positive influence on your daily life?
Now, please list three words that best describe what this person contributes to your life.
In 2005, Gallup Research identified the “four needs of followers” in a study of 10,000 adults in the US. A second study in 2008 across 10 countries confirmed the same four needs. Last year, they expanded their research to 30,000 adults aged 18 to 75+ in 52 countries, using the questions above, to understand leadership in a world grappling with climate change, AI, major conflicts, and other big challenges. In their Global Leadership Report: What Followers Want, released last month, the same themes were again confirmed. “These four needs are consistent, irrespective of country, demographics or the type of leader in question.”
Survey says
What leaders have the most positive influence? Key to understanding the answers below are the words in the question “in your daily life.”
Overall, a family member was identified by 57% as having the most positive influence on daily lives. 18% overall credited a manager, colleague, or organizational leader with having the most positive influence. Of those “employed by an employer,” a family member was still the top response, but it dropped to 44%, while workplace leaders rose to 34%.
Of course there is variability from country to country. In China, Germany, and Australia, for example, workplace leaders were most influential for 70%, 60%, and 49% respectively of the respondents.
No other category of leader made it out of single digits. Not political leaders, educators, religious leaders, friends, celebrities, etc.
What are the top four contributions provided by these leaders?
Hope, the need to feel positive about the future and for leaders to provide a clear direction, is the primary need of followers, identified by 56% of respondents. Specific attributes of hope include:
Inspiration, vision, and personal integrity
Growth, learning, development, and achievement
Financial growth, support, and independence
The next most important need, Trust, the need for honesty, respect, and integrity, accounted for 33% of the responses. Important but far below from the need for hope. Specific attributes of trust include:
Communication, approachability, and trust
Collaboration, teamwork, and compromise
Younger age groups ranked the need for hope higher than older ones, and the inverse is true of trust. Older adults ranked trust higher than the younger age groups.
Compassion, the need to feel cared about and listened to, and Stability, the need for psychological safety and secure foundations during times of uncertainty, rounded out the four top factors, accounting for 7% and 4% respectively.
Really?
If you have an all caps ”WHAT?!” in the word bubble over your head, you already know you aren’t alone. I was surprised for a minute, partly because I wasn’t thinking of family members as leaders, and mostly due to what swirls daily in our news feeds, experiences, and social media. As I pondered my own answers to these questions and reflected on my clients and my own family, it made sense. No matter how much our world changes, our basic needs don’t. And, we spend most of our time with family and at work, making them significant influencers.
Followers are leaders too
I often ask clients who their “culture leaders” are — those people you can count on. Others go to them with their challenges, and they move people forward instead of engaging in gossip. They get their jobs done, ooze good energy, and bring people together. When pondering the question, these clients' faces soften into a smile. They know exactly who these people are. And it’s rarely a senior leader. Leadership isn’t conferred by title, it’s the result of how we make others feel.
Who do you spend your time with? Who lifts you up? Who do you trust? It can even be the people on our podcasts or apps. Spend more time with those uplifters.
In the giving direction, how can we show up as a better mom or dad or sister or brother, co-worker, community member, or friend? And, many of the attributes of hope and trust are things we can give ourselves: learn, grow, develop, and find inspiration.
One of the maxims in the coaching world is baby steps. Little tweaks can have an outsized effect. Try to get those daily steps in!
Sunday Morning: 181