A new Gallup-style workplace survey reveals that 56 percent of employees want hope from their leaders, yet most managers are missing the mark. The gap between what workers seek and what leaders deliver is widening, with implications for retention, engagement, and bottom-line performance.
The data that got my attention
Gallup’s 2026 Global Leadership Report found something that should stop every executive cold. When researchers asked followers worldwide what they need most from their leaders, 56 percent named hope. Another 33 percent named trust. Together, hope and trust account for roughly 80 percent of all desired leadership traits globally. Yet most leadership development programs spend the majority of their time on strategy, execution, and technical skill-building.
The gap between what followers want and what organizations teach is not minor. It is structural. And it is expensive. Gallup’s 2025 State of the Global Workplace report puts the cost of low global engagement at $10 trillion in lost productivity, with engagement falling to 20 percent worldwide. Manager engagement has crashed hardest, dropping 9 points since 2022 to just 22 percent. The people responsible for delivering hope to their teams are themselves running on empty.
Why this matters now
Human-centered leadership has moved from a nice-to-have to a measurable performance driver. The 2026 Gallup data show that only 33 percent of followers thrive without a hopeful leader. When the need for hope is met, that number rises to 38 percent. That 5-point swing across an entire workforce translates into real dollars in retention, productivity, and discretionary effort.
At the same time, organizations are layering AI adoption on top of already stressed teams. Only 1 in 3 leaders is seen as genuinely understanding AI concepts, according to a Harvard Business Review 2025 Global Leadership Development Study. Yet 56 percent of organizations expect leaders to integrate AI into strategic decisions. The strongest predictor of successful AI adoption is not the technology itself but whether a direct manager actively champions it. Leaders who lack empathy and communication skills cannot fill that role.
The pressure is showing up in manager wellbeing. Leaders now report 7 points more stress, 12 points more anger, 11 points more sadness, and 10 points more loneliness daily than the individual contributors they manage. Forty percent of managers are considering leaving their roles due to stress, according to DDI’s 2025 Global Leadership Survey. You cannot deliver hope when you are drowning.
What the research actually shows
The training gap is the root cause. Less than half of the world’s managers, just 44 percent, have received formal management training. In the UK, the number is worse: 82 percent of managers entering a leadership role have no formal training at all. Organizations are promoting people into roles that require emotional intelligence, strategic communication, and change leadership, then handing them nothing but a job title.
Spending trends tell a contradictory story. Global organizations invest more than $60 million annually in leadership development. But only 54 percent say leadership development is mandatory, and senior leadership capability ranks just fourth in L&D priorities. The money is there. The commitment is not.
The data below shows the gap between what organizations spend on and what followers actually need.
| Leadership development priority | Organizations increasing emphasis (2025-2026) | Followers who say they need it |
|---|---|---|
| Social and emotional intelligence | 47% | 56% (hope) + 33% (trust) |
| Stress and burnout reduction | 46% | 40% of managers considering leaving |
| AI integration capability | 56% expect it | Only 33% of leaders understand AI |
| Formal management training | 54% make it mandatory | Only 44% of managers have received it |
A practical framework for leaders
Closing the human-centered leadership gap requires a deliberate shift in how organizations develop and support their managers. Here is a four-step framework that leaders can implement now.
- Audit your leadership development curriculum. List what percentage of training hours goes to technical skills versus emotional intelligence, communication, and change leadership. If the split is more than 70 percent technical, rebalance now.
- Measure hope and trust directly. Add two questions to your next engagement survey: Does your manager give you confidence about the future? Do you trust your manager to act in your best interest? Track the scores quarterly.
- Make manager training mandatory before promotion. No one should step into a people-leader role without completing a structured program on emotional intelligence, difficult conversations, and change communication. The 82 percent of UK managers with zero training is not an acceptable benchmark.
- Address manager wellbeing as a business priority. With 40 percent of managers considering leaving due to stress, wellbeing is a retention strategy. Provide coaching, reduce meeting load, and protect time for deep work. Burned-out managers cannot deliver hope to anyone.
The bottom line
The data is clear. Followers want hope and trust from their leaders. Most managers have never been trained to deliver either. The cost of that gap is $10 trillion in lost global productivity and a manager engagement rate that has fallen 9 points in three years. Organizations that rebalance their leadership development toward human skills, and that support manager wellbeing as a business strategy, will see measurable returns in engagement, retention, and AI adoption. Those that do not will keep losing their best people to the companies that already figured this out.
Where to go from here
If your leadership development program is still mostly technical training, it is time to rebuild it around the skills followers actually need. Start with structured leadership workshops that develop emotional intelligence, change communication, and coaching capability across your manager population. leadership workshops →
