By Megan J. Shen
A common question among leaders and organizations is, “What type of leader is the most effective at helping organizations thrive?” Often, the focus is on clear leadership traits, such as emotional resilience, courage and patience. These traits are critical to the success of a leader, but there is one overlooked trait that can help propel good leaders to becoming great leaders. A trait that can help organizations thrive, especially in the current climate of rapid change and uncertainty, is hope.One of the best and clearest definitions of hope, from the Cambridge dictionary, is “to want something to happen or to be true, and usually have a good reason to think that it might.”
Hopeful leaders, as this definition implies, acknowledge the challenges they face and those they lead, but they are motivated and hopeful that they can collaboratively find a solution. Leading with hope allows leaders, and thus their teams, to imagine a better future. This positive but realistic outlook creates energy that can push the team towards finding solutions to their problems and reimagining how work can be done more efficiently, effectively, and enjoyably.
Scientific research backs the claim that hope is a valuable leadership trait. Research by Arizona State University scholars notes that hope merely reflects “wishful thinking.” Rather, it is a positive psychological trait that contains both willpower (or agency) and way-power (or finding pathways to success). Their research demonstrates that high-hope leaders, compared to low-hope, had more profitable work units and better satisfaction and retention rates among their subordinates.
Individuals with high levels of hope have more goal-oriented strategies than those with low levels of hope. They are also more motivated to achieve those goals. Across multiple job levels and industries, employees with high levels of hope had higher levels of job performance, even after controlling for their self-efficacy and cognitive abilities. Another research study found that management executives with high hopes produced solutions to work-related problems that were both of better quality and more frequent.
Employee retention and satisfaction are among companies’ biggest and most expensive challenges today. A recent Harvard Business Review article noted that employee retention is expected to be 50–75 percent higher than companies have experienced previously, and it now takes 18 percent longer to fill those vacant roles than it did pre-pandemic. Gartner, a company focused on supporting executives, found that 65 percent of employees say the pandemic has made them rethink the place work should take in their lives.
Whereas an optimistic leader might think: “We can keep hiring, and it will work itself out!” in response to retention issues, the hopeful leader can reimagine how to motivate and retain employees. They can fully remodel the house rather than keep repairing the leaks. This ability is precisely because they can imagine an entirely different and better future and then set goals and implement strategies to get there. Their talents extend beyond employee retention and apply to the rapidly changing business market we find ourselves in due to rising inflation, unpredictable customer preferences, and artificial intelligence/digital disruption.
So, how do you become a more hopeful leader? Here are six quick tips:
Remember the power of being a hopeful leader and moving forward with a clear vision that you can make your team’s and company’s future better and have some ideas on how to do it.