Leadership Research

LEADERSHIP IQ'S MOST CITED STUDIES 

Leadership IQ's studies have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fortune, Forbes, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, U.S. News & World Report, CNN, NPR, CBS News Sunday Morning, ABC’s 20/20, and thousands more publications and websites. Below are some of our most frequently cited research studies.

Career Growth Or Stalled Progress

A New Study Of 3,577 Employees Reveals The Dire State Of Career Growth For Today's Employees  SEE MORE

Managers Don't Love Innovators 

A New Study Of 1,258 Managers and 4,314 Employees Reveals The Most Innovative Personalities Are Generally Disliked By Managers  SEE MORE

Why Company Values Are Falling Short

A new study of 4,360 employees and leaders reveals serious problems (and solutions) for the majority of company values.  SEE MORE

Frustration At Work In 2022

Leadership IQ surveyed 2,553 employees and discovered that for about 60% of people, their work frustrations are so severe that they want to look for other jobs.  SEE MORE

How Effective Is Your Executive Leadership Team?

Leadership IQ studied 1,000+ senior executives and discovered surprising challenges for the top management team...SEE MORE

Why New Hires Fail

The Landmark "Hiring For Attitude" Study Updated With New Data...Leadership IQ studied more than 20,000 new hires and 1,400 HR Executives to determine WHY new hires fail....SEE MORE

The Worker Shortage Is Partially Self-Inflicted

Leadership IQ surveyed 2,770 leaders and employees about their companies' hiring practices and worker shortage, and we discovered that the current labor shortage is at least partially self-inflicted. SEE MORE

Are SMART Goals Dumb?

Leadership IQ studied more than 16,000 people and discovered that SMART goal setting is actually leading to lower performance, less inspiration and may even impede career success...SEE MORE

Employee Engagement Is Higher For Low Performers In 42% Of Companies

Leadership IQ matched engagement survey and performance appraisal data for 207 organizations and discovered that in 42% of those 207 organizations (i.e. 87 companies), high performers were less engaged than low performers. SEE MORE

The State Of Leadership Development

Leadership IQ surveyed 21,008 employees to assess how well their leaders were performing in seven key leadership areas...SEE MORE

The Leadership Skills Gap

Leadership IQ surveyed 3,018 leaders about their self-rated expertise across 18 critical leadership skills, and the results are likely to surprise you....SEE MORE

How Good Is Your Employee Engagement Survey?

Shockingly, only 22% of companies are currently getting good results from their employee engagement survey. Take the test below and see how your survey stacks up!  SEE MORE

Optimal Hours with the Boss

Leadership IQ studied more than 32,000 employees to discover precisely how many hours per week employees should be interacting with their boss...SEE MORE

Don't Expect Layoff Survivors To Be Grateful (Survivor’s Guilt After A Downsizing)

Leadership IQ studied more than 4,000 employees who survived a corporate layoff and discovered that their productivity, quality and engagement all declined significantly. SEE MORE

The State Of Working From Home

Leadership IQ surveyed 3,706 employees currently working from home to discover the truth about their WFH experiences. And we learned that while working from home has been positive for many people, people with certain personality characteristics fared much better...SEE MORE

Resistance To Change In Organizations Comes From These 5 Factors

Leadership IQ studied more than 79,000 employees and leaders, and discovered that employees’ resistance to change management efforts comes from these 5 factors...SEE MORE

Words That Cost You The Job Interview

If you want to cost yourself a job interview, just use words like “you”, “they”, “always” and “can’t”. New research from Leadership IQ finds that interview answers rated poorly by hiring managers contain very different words than interview answers rated highly.  SEE MORE

Why The CEO Gets Fired (Change Management And More)

It's a commonly-held belief that the CEO gets fired (or forced to resign or retire under pressure) because of "current financial performance." But that's wrong,  SEE MORE

The Risks Of Ignoring Employee Feedback

Many companies don’t want to hear candid and truthful feedback from their employees. And it’s having a chilling effect on employees’ engagement. Leadership IQ surveyed 27,048 executives, managers and employees...SEE MORE

Employee Burnout In 2021

Leadership IQ surveyed 4,913 leaders and discovered that employee burnout is causing lost productivity, more mistakes, employee turnover, decreased optimism, lowered resilience, and more...SEE MORE

The Links Between Self Forgiveness, Forgiving Others, and Employee Engagement

Leadership IQ studied more than 11,000 employees and discovered that employees who are adept at self forgiveness and forgiving others have significantly higher employee engagement...SEE MORE

Employee Engagement Is Less Dependent On Managers Than You Think

Leadership IQ studied more than 11,000 employees and discovered that employees’ Self-Engagement (i.e. their personal outlooks like optimism, resilience, proactivity, etc.) can actually matter more than working for a great manager....SEE MORE

Many Leaders Don’t Want To Hear About Discrimination In The Workplace

Leadership IQ surveyed 5,778 Americans and found that people do not feel like their corporate leaders are listening to concerns about discrimination in the workplace...SEE MORE

Virtual Training Is Here To Stay

Leadership IQ surveyed 1,809 leaders about the perseverance of virtual training...SEE MORE

Optimism: Definition And Research

Leadership IQ studied 11,308 employees to learn how optimism impacts employees' inspiration at work and feelings about their career...SEE MORE

Internal Locus Of Control: Definition And Research On It's Surprising Impact At Work

Leadership IQ surveyed 11,308 employees about their locus of control and discovered some surprising effects on employee engagement and inspiration...SEE MORE 

Performance Appraisal: New Data Reveals Why Employees And Managers Dislike Them

In this Leadership IQ study, we surveyed 48,012 employees, managers and CEOs to find out what they thought of their annual performance appraisal process (aka performance review, or annual performance ratings, etc.)...SEE MORE

Guide To Management Training Programs: Definition, Benefits and Common Topics

Management training programs teach people in management positions (e.g., leaders, supervisors, executives) the management skills that separate the best managers from their peers.   SEE MORE

Transformational Leadership: Quiz And Research

Transformational leadership is an approach for getting your followers to give their best efforts, deliver better quality and service, generate more creative ideas, exhibit more mental toughness, and strive for bigger goals.   SEE MORE

REPORT: 6 Words That Ruin Behavioral Interview Questions

The majority of behavioral interview questions contain 5-6 words at the end that completely ruin their effectiveness.  SEE MORE

Disengaged Employees Are More Motivated Than You Think

31,664 employees across 63 organizations in the US completed Leadership IQ’s employee engagement survey and we discovered that 26% of employees are Motivated But Unhappy.  SEE MORE