What Do People Need Most From Leaders? Hope, trust, compassion and stability

Great leadership is defined not by authority alone, but by how many people who follow leaders trust and support them. The best leaders — of countries, organizations or other groups — keep their followers in mind when making decisions, because without them, even the most capable leader lacks true influence.

In a rapidly changing world of technological advancement and geopolitical uncertainty, Gallup set out to learn what people around the world need from their leaders — simply by asking them. The full results from what we found are detailed in the newly released Global Leadership Report: What Followers Want.

The Universality of Hope

Across 52 countries and territories — accounting for 76% of the world’s adult population and 86% of global gross domestic product — Gallup asked two questions:

Which 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.

The three words that people use to describe the most positive leaders in their lives fall into four themes. Hope stands out as the dominant need, accounting for 56% of all attributes tied to positive leaders, far outnumbering mentions of the next key need, trust (33%).

Compassion (7%) and stability (4%) combined account for about one in nine positive leadership traits mentioned.

Family members and managers are the leaders mentioned most often, but people’s needs from leaders are consistent regardless of the type of leader people choose.

There are some slight variations based on factors such as age and geography. Despite these subtleties, the most important quality followers seek in their leaders is remarkably consistent worldwide: the universality of hope.