Short Abstract:

The leader-follower relationship is key to unlocking development. This interactive workshop will share new research on what people want from their leaders, and engage participants in a live survey experiment to build their own prototypical leader who could solve a complex development challenge.

Long Abstract:

What do people want from their leaders? When does a leader's identity matter more than their personality or performance? Across the world, people evaluate leaders differently. In practice, we often see puzzling relationships between what seems to be in followers' interests, and the leaders they choose. By uncovering what's going on beneath the surface of this crucial leader-follower relationship, we can start to unpick when and how it might be enabling or disabling developmental change.

This interactive workshop will share new research from the Developmental Leadership Program (DLP) on what people want from leaders. This includes the results of a large survey of leadership perceptions across Indonesia, which found that the identity of a leader, including their age, gender and perceived values, strongly influences people's willingness to support them. Leaders who reflect the identity and characteristics of a group - 'prototypical' leaders - are more likely to be considered trustworthy, effective and likely to represent people's interests.

The workshop will engage participants in a live survey experiment to build their own prototypical leader. Participants will be presented with a scenario of a complex development challenge and asked to complete an online survey to build the leader they believe could best solve this challenge. The results will be presented and debated in real time. This interactive process will reveal people's own preferences and biases, illustrate the survey findings, and form the basis of a debate about when and why people don't always get the leaders they need.