How do we produce more future leaders for the nation? Change how young people think about leadership
New research shows how to help young people believe they can lead
New York University
Americans are dissatisfied with the state of leadership in the United States across several sectors—business, education, government, and healthcare—a Harris poll showed last year. The survey raised a foundational question about developing the next generation of leaders: How can today’s young people be encouraged to become CEOs, principals, directors, and even presidents?
A pair of studies by a team of New York University psychology researchers offers a means to expand the pool of tomorrow’s leaders.
These studies with racially diverse teens showed the following: When they were taught that leadership is not an innate trait reserved for a select few and when they were encouraged to imagine people in leadership that they might not have considered before, they became significantly more likely to see themselves as belonging in leadership roles.
“The next generation of leaders is shaped not only by who gets opportunities, but by who young people believe leadership is for,” says Emily Balcetis, a professor in NYU’s Department of Psychology and the senior author of the paper, which appears in the journal Self and Identity. “This research suggests that helping adolescents reject the idea that leadership is a quality some people are born with and others not—and by expanding who they imagine can be a leader—may strengthen ambition among youth to become future leaders.”
How teens view leaders—and themselves
Recognizing existing demographic-based disparities in leadership across government, healthcare, and other fields, the NYU research team conducted two studies—involving more than 400 primarily non-White American teens in workshop settings—designed to both understand and overcome perceived barriers to leadership.
Study One
The NYU research team, which included Nallely De La Rosa and Jordan Daley*, asked the participants a series of questions about their views of leadership as it pertained to them personally (e.g., “I feel that I belong as a leader”) and whether or not leadership skills are fixed or innate (e.g., “Your leadership ability is something about you that you can’t change very much”).
The participants, which included non-White 8th grade and high school students, then attended a series of learning modules—all of which conveyed that leadership ability grows through effort, strategy, and learning—in a two-hour workshop. The modules included scientific videos about brain development, real-world examples of young people from a variety of backgrounds in leadership, and skill-building exercises. The activities guided students away from the belief that qualities are innate and toward the understanding that abilities can be developed with supported, well-directed effort—consistent with previous research on leadership development.
After these activities and learning sessions, the participants were surveyed again. Overall, teens who came to see leadership as less of an innate, fixed trait after the workshop were also the ones who showed a stronger sense of belonging in leadership—for example, they were more likely to respond affirmatively to questions such as “I feel that I belong as a leader.”
Study Two
In a study of a new and larger set of teens from the same demographic groups, the researchers focused on the participants’ mental representations of successful leaders. In other words, who comes to mind when they think of such leaders? Previous research has shown that beliefs about personal belonging in leadership are shaped in part by one’s mental representations of leaders—or, put differently, if those you see as leaders also look like you, you’re more likely to see yourself as a potential leader, too.
As with the first study, the participants were surveyed about their views of leadership and took part in a similar workshop. However, in the second study the researchers added an element designed to better understand—and address—the impact of the teens’ mental representations of leaders.
To measure these mental representations, the participants were asked to draw pictures of what they thought leaders looked like. These pictures were rated by an independent panel of adults that determined whether or not the artist was trying to depict people from multiple racial or ethnic groups as it applied to each drawing. As with the first study, the participants, after partaking in the workshop and the drawing exercise, were surveyed again about their perceptions of their own leadership potential.
Overall, the teens who reported weaker beliefs that leadership was innate after the workshop and who held mental representations of leadership that were broad—they drew pictures of leaders who were not only White and male—were more likely to show increases in feelings of personal belonging in leadership. These results suggest the impact of mental representations of leadership on one’s views of their own leadership potential.
“By showing that adolescents’ sense of leadership belonging can shift when we support their beliefs they can grow needed skills to lead and we help them adopt more inclusive mental representations of leaders, the research offers a potential means for expanding future leadership opportunities across professions,” concludes Balcetis.
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*Editor’s note: Jordan Daley will be a member of the faculty in the Department of Psychology at Loyola University of Chicago beginning in August 2026.
Journal
Self and Identity
Method of Research
Experimental study
Subject of Research
People
Article Title
Challenging fixed mindsets fosters belonging in leadership among adolescents from historically excluded groups
Article Publication Date
14-Jul-2026
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