How do we want to be led? Team aspirations and adaptive leadership in virtual and hybrid work

We are excited to share the publication of our latest article in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being:

‘How do we want to be led?’ Team aspirations and adaptive leadership in virtual and hybrid work.

Developed at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, this paper was co-authored with Dr Myanna Duncan, Professor Sukhi Shergill and Dr Ricardo Twumasi and supported by independent funding from the Deloitte Human Capital team.

At the heart of the research was a simple question:

How do people want to be led in virtual and hybrid teams, in ways that support both well-being and team effectiveness?

Across interviews with leaders and focus groups with their team members globally, across multiple industries, three themes emerged:

1. Connected Leadership Aspirations

People want leaders who create meaningful connection, not just more communication, especially when work is dispersed and informal moments are reduced.

2. Leadership as a Positive Social Influence

Leaders shape the climate of hybrid teams through what they model every day. Trust, autonomy, psychological safety, well-being and healthy boundaries are not just communicated through words. They are signalled through behaviour.

3. The Leadership Tension

This was the theme I keep coming back to.

The very behaviours that help teams feel supported to bring their best to work: connection, care, trust, availability and emotional presence, have become increasingly demanding for leaders when not properly resourced.

So perhaps the question for leaders, teams and organisations is not only:

How do we want to be led?

It is also:

How do we make this kind of leadership sustainable?

For us at Beacon, this feels like one of the big leadership questions for the future of work:

How do we build teams where people feel connected, trusted, challenged and supported to do their best work, without expecting leaders to simply stretch themselves further?

This requires more than individual leadership effort. It calls for intentional design, shared responsibility, and spaces where leaders and teams can rethink how connection, trust, performance, and well-being are sustained in practice, together.