A TED Talk stopped me in my tracks. Delivered by Dr. Chan Hellman, a professor of social work at the University of Oklahoma, director of the Hope Research Center and co-author with Casey Gwinn of Hope Rising: How the Science of HOPE Can Change Your Life, the talk is titled “The Science and Power of Hope.” In it, Hellman recounts a time in middle school when he was struggling with despair and anger, when a teacher reached out to him and told him he would be alright. That teacher did not offer him a solution or a lecture. He offered young Chan something more powerful: his attention and his belief in him. And in that connection, something shifted. For the first time in a long while, the teen began to imagine a better future. He began to hope.
“Hope is a social gift,” Hellman declares. And the science behind that simple statement has profound implications for every leader, every team, and every organization navigating a difficult and uncertain world.
What hope actually is
We tend to think of hope as a feeling — a vague, passive sense that things might get better (“I hope someone finds a cure for [name a disease] someday.”). But Hellman’s research tells a more precise and actionable story. Hope, in the scientific literature, has three interconnected components. First, goals — a clear and desirable picture of a better future. Second, pathways — the belief that there are routes to get there, and the ability to imagine and navigate them. Third, agency — the mental energy and willpower to pursue the journey, even when obstacles arise.
This hope is active, not on the sidelines, wondering, waiting and watching for someone else to act. It is not about wishful thinking. In a group context, the components of this hope would have people clarify what they are striving toward, identify different ways they might get there and then move forward with a shared, positive mindset as they build momentum together.
What is striking about this framework of hope is how clearly it maps onto the conditions that great leaders create — or fail to create — for their people. Hope is not something that simply happens to people. It is something that environments either nurture or extinguish.
And critically, Hellman notes, hope is contagious. Being around hopeful people increases your own hope. Conversely, prolonged exposure to hopelessness — to environments where the future feels opaque, where individual voices go unheard, where people feel like interchangeable parts rather than valued human beings — drains the agency that hope requires. Fear and rumination, Hellman observes, are hope’s greatest enemies. They deplete the willpower people need to pursue their goals. Fear is contagious, too.
Why this matters right now
We are living through a period of significant anxiety. Many people are genuinely worried about the future — economically, politically and personally. Research consistently shows that stress and loneliness are rising across nearly every demographic. In this environment, what leaders do — the cultures they create or allow — matters more than ever.
A leader who communicates a compelling vision of a better future gives their people something to hope toward. A leader who treats each person as a valued individual — not merely as a resource to be deployed — gives their people the dignity that sustains hope. A leader who creates space for people to share their ideas and concerns gives their people the agency that hope requires. This is not soft leadership. It is the most strategically important leadership there is.
The connection culture answer
For more than two decades, I have studied and taught what distinguishes organizations that sustain superior performance over time from those that burn bright and fade. The answer, consistently, is culture — and specifically what I call a Connection Culture: one built on three foundational elements.
The first is vision, and by this, I mean having a shared identity and sense of purpose that unites people around something meaningful and worth striving for. This maps directly onto Hellman’s first element of hope: a desirable goal. When people understand why their individual and collective work matters, and feel genuinely connected to that purpose, the future becomes something to move toward rather than something to fear.
The second is value. Here, I am not referring to the exercise of naming corporate values such as integrity and sustainability, that may or may not actually be embraced by members, but to people valuing one another. Do colleagues have a genuine commitment to the worth and dignity of every person in the organization? In a Connection Culture, through a leader’s attitudes, words and behaviors, it should be unmistakably clear that each person is valued as an end in themselves, not as a means to achieving a business outcome. Leaders who see and affirm the humanity of the people they are responsible for leading give their teams one of the most powerful gifts in human experience: the sense that they matter. Hellman’s research suggests that hope requires someone to believe in you, as that teacher believed in him.
The third is voice — the practice of actively seeking people’s input, ideas and concerns, and taking them seriously. This is where agency lives. As Oprah Winfrey has stated, she believes all people want validation and want to know: “Did you see me?” “Did you hear me?” and “Did what I say mean anything to you?” When people feel that their unique perspective is welcome and that they have a genuine opportunity to influence their circumstances, the sense of helplessness that drains hope is replaced by a sense of ownership that fuels it.
Together, the connecting elements of vision, value and voice create the conditions in which hope — as Hellman describes it — can be given as a social gift. And the research is unambiguous: organizations with strong Connection Cultures perform better than those with disengaging cultures of control or indifference. Their people are healthier, more resilient, more engaged and more capable of sustaining effort in good times as well as in difficult times.
The gift leaders can give
Chan Hellman’s middle school teacher did not solve his problems. He connected with Chan and saw him. He voiced his belief in Chan as a person. And that connection opened a door in Chan’s imagination that had been closed by pain and anger — a door to a better future he could begin to work toward.
That is what leaders have the power to do every single day.
In the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, as it rapidly spread around the world, leaders at all levels and across all sectors were struggling with what to do and what to say. In an April 202o interview, Dov Seidman, founder and chairman of an ethics and compliance company and an organization promoting values-based leadership, was asked what, in general, the best leaders have in common. He focused on three areas: trust, hope and humility.
“Great leaders trust people with the truth. And they make hard decisions guided by values and principles, not just politics, popularity or short-term profits,” Seidman explained. “Whenever there is more trust in a company, country or community, good things happen.” He went on to distinguish between hope and optimism, and the point he made came to mind as I listened to Hellman’s TED Talk. “[The] true antidote to fear is hope, not optimism. Hope comes from seeing your leader lead in a way that brings out the best in people by inspiring collaboration, common purpose and future possibilities. It takes hope to overcome great fear and meet great challenges.”
In a time when so many people are struggling to see a hopeful path forward, the cultures we build — in our teams, organizations, communities and families — either extinguish hope or kindle it.
The good news, as Hellman reminds us, is that hope begets hope. Start giving it. The ripple effects may surprise you.
Opinions expressed by SmartBrief contributors are their own.
____________________________________
Take advantage of SmartBrief’s FREE email newsletters on leadership and business transformation, among the company’s more than 250 industry-focused newsletters.