The imaginaries of Leadership
Warrior? Paternalistic? Creative? Powerful? Sensitive? Intuitive? Conductor? Charismatic? What were the prevailing perceptions of leadership in the past? What are they today? What perspectives and levers can influence these perceptions? For our association, whose mission is to contribute to preserving our humanity in the 21st century, this research program is essential. It is becoming urgent, necessary, to map, question, and contribute to renewing the perceptions of leadership in order to promote a desirable model of leadership, inspired by life and driven by the heart, creating economic activities that are truly beneficial to the world.
Research objectives
In June 2022, we commissioned the sociology firm Eranos to conduct a research program on “the imaginaries of leadership” with the following objectives:
- To put the question of leadership up for debate as a way to respond to the major challenges of the 21st century.
- Defining and documenting the imaginaries of leadership:
- from yesterday, through a historical approach to the forms of expression of Western leadership;
- of today, with French youth in order to understand what a good leader or a desirable leader would be for them, what skills/abilities are favored, and where their imaginaries are “made”;
- of tomorrow, to recontextualize them in the world to come (particularly with regard to the perception of global risks by French youth).
The three stages of the project
The first step involved creating a historical genealogy of leadership based on academic and professional texts. The aim was to understand the contemporary definition of this concept by tracing its social history and identifying key stages and major figures.
One of the challenges was to identify to what extent the “heart-driven leader” (empathy, intuition, courage) promoted by our association was part of a historical continuity or not.
Download the report “An investigation into the historical origins and current forms of economic leadership” (in french)
The second stage aimed to explore the perceptions of leadership among today’s youth and what constitutes a desirable leader. It also sought to identify the actors and mechanisms involved in shaping these perceptions. This stage was based on three surveys.
- A quantitative survey conducted with a representative sample of the French population aged 18-30 on the Opinéa panel (1014 respondents)
- An exploratory survey of young French professionals and students (139 respondents) to approach the making and expression of leadership among older audiences (18-35 years old) and more exposed to current and future experiences of leading organizations.
- An exploratory survey of young English speakers (40 respondents, mostly from East Africa) to gather a non-French perspective
Exploratory surveys are not intended to be representative.
Download the report detailing the results of the three surveys. (in french)
The research results were presented and debated at the event “A Desirable Imaginary for 21st Century Leadership?” organized with Usbek & Rica on June 6, 2023 at the Hotel de l’Industrie.
Our objectives: to launch the debate on the importance of renewing the imaginaries of leadership; to enrich our work by identifying complementary questions and points to explore further; to build with interested actors a roadmap, in order to promote the rise of a movement of leaders inspired by life and driven by heart, and to deploy a robust influence strategy on the imaginaries of leadership.
Download the magazine “Leadership Through an Imagination of the Heart,” produced with Usbek & Rica (in french)
Key findings from surveys of young people
- Perception of overall risks
- Young people are primarily aware of global environmental risks, and less so of social and geostrategic risks. Exploratory samples are much more sensitive to global risks than the representative panel of French youth.
- The risks of technological misuse are generally less perceived than other risks. That said, young people do not have an idealized view of digital technology. Exploratory surveys have identified numerous risks associated with the development of artificial intelligence systems.
- In the French-speaking exploratory sample, respondents expressed doubt about the ability of their training to respond effectively to global risks.
- The making of imaginaries / of leaders
- The development of leadership models is primarily driven by the family circle. This circle expands, particularly among students and young professionals, to include colleagues, professors, or friends.
- Thus, when it comes to identifying personalities representing their ideal leader in the world of politics, music, sports, series/cinema or the associative sector, no figure stands out.
- In addition to the family circle, social networks in the business sector are gaining influence in shaping perceptions.
- Counter-models
- The figure of the “small entrepreneur” seems more desirable and closer to the values of French youth than that of the great leader.
- Young French people identify certain major leaders as negative role models and explicitly state the reasons for their rejection.
- The skills and competencies expected of the ideal leader
- The report on the history of leadership theories (phase 1 of the study) identified two major leadership regimes: one very individual and embodied, and the other with a stronger relational component.
- There is an intensification of expectations relating to each of these two regimes: young people expect a leader to reconcile both vision and relational skills.
- When young people are asked to rate the expected skills of a leader, those of Heart Leadership (in particular empathy and courage, and to a lesser extent intuition) stand out strongly whether in the representative sample of French youth or for the exploratory Francophone sample.
Download
the results of the research
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Eranos is a strategy consulting firm bridging the gap between the humanities and business, specializing in the societal transformation of companies. For 15 years and in more than 10 countries, the Eranos team has been helping companies take the first steps towards a socially responsible business model, whose purpose is to support life and whose means are its commercial and productive activity.