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🧠 The Science Says People Need Optimistic Leadership
A Commentary by Victor Perton
Optimism is the Number One Trait for Strong Leadership in Today’s Organisations
Today, leadership faces a new test: surviving turbulence and transforming through it.
McKinsey’s decades-long research has determined that optimism is the first of six key traits that define strong leadership for modern organizations. The other five? Selfless leadership, continuous learning, resilience, levity, and stewardship.
And McKinsey isn’t alone.
Korn Ferry’s leadership research has concluded that infectious optimism is central to contemporary leadership.
So, too, Gallup’s 2025 Global Leadership Report, "What Followers Want", sends a crystal-clear message. Across 52 countries, Gallup found that optimism is the most critical leadership trait people seek. Not charisma. Not intelligence. Optimism. People crave hope, positivity, and belief in their leaders.
Our research at the Australian Leadership Project and The Centre for Optimism has echoed this truth. Across thousands of interviews in boardrooms, classrooms, town halls, and even prisons, we found the leader people most want is a realistic and infectiously optimistic leader: someone who listens, believes in possibility and energises others through hope in action.
✅ Why I Believe Optimism Matters More Than Ever
Optimism is fuel. It’s the mindset that powers action fuels creativity, and anchors resilience.
A 2025 study from the University of Sydney Business School, The Optimism Effect, confirmed what I’ve long believed: optimism drives national productivity, innovation, and investment. It does the same in teams and organizations.
People perform better when they believe their efforts matter. Optimistic leaders cultivate that belief. They inspire people to reach higher, try harder, and recover faster.
Dominic Barton, then Global Managing Director of McKinsey and now Chair of Rio Tinto, told me:
“Optimism is at the very core of leadership. The best leaders I have encountered in my career are those that remain optimistic –– and ambitious –– for their organisations even in the face of great adversity. They are those whose optimism enables them to recognise the potential in others and help them develop to be leaders themselves.”
Bob Iger, CEO of Walt Disney, wrote in The Ride of a Lifetime:
“One of the most important qualities of a good leader is optimism, a pragmatic enthusiasm for what can be achieved. Even in the face of difficult choices and less-than-ideal outcomes, an optimistic leader does not yield to pessimism. Simply put, people are not motivated or energised by pessimists.”
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