How leaders generate hope in their followers

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to understand how leaders in organisations generate hope in their followers. High hope leaders who generate hope in their followers may be described as leaders who have a positive and engaging management style, and who positively influence the people around them by generating hope. There is significant evidence that a large part of a leader’s role is to inspire hope in followers, and that high hope managers are more effective and successful than leaders who lack hope. Leaders who inspire hope in followers were identified, and nine qualitative semistructured depth interviews were conducted with the followers of these leaders. What emerged was a checklist of behaviours, actions and attitudes of high-hope leaders, which may in future serve as a guide for other leaders who seek to increase their positive influence on followers, and consequently, their positive impact on organisations and the economy. Nine common behaviours which were key in generating hope in followers emerged from this research, these are: 1. Each of the leaders has a high level of personal competence and credibility – they are personally very smart and very successful 2. They trust their people implicitly, and don’t micromanage followers 3. They empower their people 4. They are keen developers of people 5. Access to the leader is relatively easy – they are available to their people 6. They believe in and believe the best about their people 7. They are great communicators, and willingly share knowledge and information with their followers 8. They relentlessly drive high performance 9. They inspire their followers to work hard, and contribute large amounts of discretionary effort