Man Oh Man! Love this report! Soak it in folks! Are you the leader in your home? What example are you showing to the world?
Baptist Press
By Aaron Earls, posted April 2, 2025
Pastors and other leaders often feel responsible for providing countless benefits to those under their care. But what is it people actually need from those leading them?
Gallup released the “Global Leadership Report: What Followers Want” report after conducting a worldwide study to discover the types of leaders with the most positive influence on people’s daily lives and the most dominant need among followers.
Most people (57%) point to a family leader as contributing the most positive influence on their lives each day. Fewer point to a manager (11%), political leader (7%), religious leader (7%), organizational leader (5%), or friends (5%). Even fewer say the leader with the most positive influence for them is a colleague (2%), mentor (2%), educator (2%), or celebrity (2%). Less than one percent point to a medical professional or a customer.
Gallup asked respondents to list three words that best describe what their most positive leader contributes to their life. Using this open-ended question in multiple leadership studies in the U.S. and additional countries, Gallup identified four key expectations followers have of their leaders. They need leaders to provide hope, trust, compassion, and stability.
Of those four, followers most need hope. Of all the attributes individuals list about their most impactful positive leader, 56% are tied to hope, particularly attributes of inspiration, vision, and personal integrity.
“Hope is a powerful motivator; it gives something better to look forward to, enabling them to navigate challenges and work toward a brighter future,” according to Gallup’s report. “Without hope, people can disengage, lose confidence, and become less resilient.”
Following hope, the attributes individuals most identify in a positive leader are trust (33%), compassion (7%), and stability (4%). In the U.S. specifically, the percentages are very similar to the global needs: hope (57%), trust (32%), compassion (8%), and stability (3%).
Every age group is more likely to say they need hope than trust, but the gap narrows the older a person gets. Among 18-29-year-olds, 57% point first to hope and 32% to trust. Among those 75 and older, 52% look to leaders most for hope and 36% for trust. More Here
