What makes a leader worth following? At Gallup, this question has long guided both our research and our conversations with those shaping the course of society. As The Gallup Podcast pauses for the summer, we invite you to explore Leading With Strengths, a special series on global leadership. This collection of stories profiles real leaders confronting real challenges and shows how impact is shaped by each leader's unique strengths.

Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report captures the voice of global employees in an evolving workplace. While the annual report has found a generally upward trajectory for global employee engagement, this year is an exception. Gallup’s Jim Harter, Claire DeCarteret and Benedict Vigers join the conversation to explore what the report finds about how employees are feeling around the world – and why it matters.    

Read the latest State of the Global Workplace report:
https://on.gallup.com/45DhNWc

Gallup research with the Equity Research Action Coalition at the University of North Carolina explores how Black parents bond with their children and navigate through challenges, from transportation to conversations about race. Camille Lloyd, director of the Gallup Center on Black Voices, talks with Dr. Iheoma Iruka, the coalition’s founding director, about the findings.

Read up on Gallup’s latest findings on this topic:

Discrimination Takes Less Toll on Socially Connected Black Parents: 
https://news.gallup.com/poll/648344/discrimination-takes-less-toll-socially-connected-black-parents.aspx  

Most Black Parents Discuss Racial Challenges With Children: 
https://news.gallup.com/poll/648410/black-parents-discuss-racial-challenges-children.aspx  

25% of Black Parents Agree: Transportation a Childcare Barrier: 
https://news.gallup.com/poll/649631/black-parents-agree-transportation-childcare-barrier.aspx

Togetherness: Shared Activities Within Black Families: https://news.gallup.com/poll/654335/togetherness-shared-activities-within-black-families.aspx

A surge in liberal identity among U.S. young women reveals itself in various Gallup trends, creating new gender divides not previously seen. Gallup Director of U.S. Social Research Lydia Saad speaks with Daniel Cox, Director of the Survey Center on American Life and Senior Fellow in Polling and Public Opinion, about emerging differences between men and women -- and what will be important for public opinion researchers to track in the coming years.

Read up on Gallup’s latest findings on this topic:  

U.S. Women Have Become More Liberal; Men Mostly Stable: https://news.gallup.com/poll/609914/women-become-liberal-men-mostly-stable.aspx  

Exploring Young Women's Leftward Expansion: https://news.gallup.com/poll/649826/exploring-young-women-leftward-expansion.aspx

A new administration has already made significant changes to the government’s approach to public health in the U.S., with more changes likely on the way. But where do Americans stand on key health issues? The Rollins-Gallup Public Health Priorities Survey from Gallup and Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health provides some early insights into Americans’ priorities for the Trump administration in terms of public health.

There’s a large contrast between how Americans view small business versus big business in Gallup’s annual “confidence in institutions” list. But there is more to Americans’ attitudes toward and expectations of business, research with Bentley University finds. At the local level, businesses are crucial. Gallup’s partnership with the Detroit Regional Chamber sheds light on the role business can play in supporting cities and localities across the U.S. This week’s guests include:

• Kristjan Archer, senior communications consultant at Gallup
• Cynthia Clark, Poduska Professor of Governance at Bentley University
• Justin Lall, principal at Gallup
• Sandy Baruah, president and chief executive officer of the Detroit Regional Chamber

Gallup’s 2024 Global Safety Report finds that people’s trust in their local police is one of the keys to their overall perceptions of safety. In the U.S., police were the only institution that saw an increase in public confidence in 2024. But racial gaps on this measure persist -- and research from the Gallup Center on Black Voices provides greater context to Black Americans’ relationship with the police. This week’s guests include:

• Lydia Saad, Gallup director of U.S. Social Research
• Camille Lloyd, director of the Gallup Center on Black Voices
• Dr. Rashawn Ray, senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution
• Julie Ray, Gallup managing editor for World News
• Benedict Vigers, Gallup senior global news writer

Generation Z has a unique way of looking at the world, but also U.S. institutions. Gallup’s research with the Walton Family Foundation yields new insights into the young adults and children who are nearing adulthood -- about their confidence in institutions and their desires and needs as they come of age.

Though confidence in organized labor is stable, U.S. approval of labor unions -- one of Gallup’s oldest trends -- has seen a major rebound over the past 15 years. More recently, Gallup research has yielded new insights about the experiences of union members themselves amid this eventful period for the labor movement.     This week’s guests include: 

• Megan Brenan, Gallup Senior Editor
• Dr. Ben Wigert, Director of Research and Strategy, Workplace Management at Gallup
• Mike Ritz, Executive Director for Gallup's Federal Government Initiative
• Patrick Crowley, Secretary-Treasurer and incoming President for the Rhode Island AFL-CIO 

The media are among the institutions in which Gallup has documented the greatest loss in public confidence. The trend -- which predates the Watergate scandal -- paints a picture of an institution that was once highly revered and is now hardly trusted.

Is this crisis in confidence unique to the U.S.? What role is technology playing in the decline in confidence in the media? And could local media provide a glimmer of hope for the industry?

Read Gallup’s latest update on confidence in mass media: Media Confidence in U.S. Matches 2016 Record Low  

This week’s guests include:

• Dr. Sarah Fioroni, Senior Researcher at Gallup
• Delano Massey, Managing Editor of Axios Local
• Amy Mitchell, founding Executive Director of the Center for News, Technology & Innovation