A NATIONAL THINK-AND-DO TANK
The Future Belongs to
Hopeful Leaders.
The Center for Hopeful Leadership advances the science and practice of Hopeful Leadership—helping mission-driven organizations build the goals, pathways, and agency needed for people and communities to thrive.
WHY HOPE MATTERS
Most Organizations are Running on Empty.
Burnout. Disengagement. High turnover.
These are not personality problems — they are hope problems.
When people cannot see a clear goal, cannot find a path forward, or do not believe their effort will matter — they stop trying. And no amount of strategy, policy, or performance management will fix that.
Hope is a measurable, teachable, and transformative force that shapes how people lead, how teams perform, and how organizations change the world.
"The Center for Hopeful Leadership exists because there is a better way — one grounded in science, proven in practice, and urgently needed in every sector." - Jess Lewis, Founder, Center for Hopeful Leadership
The foundation
Built on 40 Years of Research.
In the early 1990s, psychologist C. R. Snyder made a discovery that changed how we understand human motivation: hope is not a passive emotion. It is an active, cognitive process — one that can be measured, developed, and taught.
His research showed that people with higher hope consistently outperformed their peers — not because they were smarter or more talented, but because they had a goal worth pursuing, a plan to get there, and the belief that their effort would make a difference.
The Center for Hopeful Leadership builds on Snyder’s foundation — extending his scholarship from the individual into the heart of organizations, teams, and communities.
the three pillars
Hope Has a Structure
Snyder identified three interdependent components that together create hope. Remove any one of them, and hope collapses. Develop all three — and something remarkable happens.
Goals
Hope begins with a destination worth moving toward. Not just any goal — but one that is meaningful, clear, and connected to something larger than the task at hand. Without a compelling goal, there is nothing to hope for.
Pathways
Hopeful people — and hopeful organizations — don’t just have a plan. They have multiple plans. When one route is blocked, they find another. Pathways thinking is the creative, strategic capacity to navigate obstacles without losing direction.
Agency
Agency is the belief that you have the power to act — and that your action will matter. It is the motivational fuel that keeps people moving when the path gets hard. Without agency, even the best goals and plans remain unrealized.
Unlike optimism — which is a general expectation that things will go well — hope is active. It requires a goal, a plan, and the motivation to execute. This is why hope can be taught, measured, and strategically developed in organizations.
what research shows
The Evidence is Clear.
Across health, education, athletics, and the workplace — higher hope consistently predicts better outcomes. This is not anecdotal. It is one of the most replicated findings in positive psychology.
14%
Higher Productivity
Employees with high hope scores demonstrate measurably higher productivity and work quality than their lower-hope counterparts — independent of intelligence or experience.
Gallup Workplace Research
28%
Greater Profitability
Business units with high-hope employees show significantly greater profitability, customer satisfaction, and retention rates — making hope a measurable business asset.
Luthans & Jensen, 2002
2x
Resilience Under Stress
High-hope individuals generate twice as many coping strategies when facing obstacles — making them significantly more resilient in the face of organizational change and adversity.
Snyder et al., 1991
Employee Retention
Hope is one of the strongest predictors of employee engagement and intent to stay. Organizations that cultivate hope reduce costly turnover and build institutional knowledge.
Luthans, Youssef & Avolio, 2007
Youth Achievement
Hope is a stronger predictor of academic achievement than intelligence, optimism, or self-esteem — making it a critical developmental asset for young people in any setting.
Snyder et al., 1997
Mental Health and Well-Being
Higher hope is consistently associated with lower rates of anxiety, depression, and burnout — and greater life satisfaction, meaning, and psychological well-being.
Magaletta & Oliver, 1999
Hope and justice
Hope is the Root of Justice.
Systemic barriers — racism, sexism, ablism, homophobia, transphobia, poverty, exclusion, and marginalization — are not just social problems. They suppress hope. They restrict pathways. They erode agency. They make it harder for people to believe that their goals are even possible.
This is why the Center for Hopeful Leadership amplifies equity as an initiative that is woven into the core of our framework. You cannot build a truly hopeful organization without confronting the systems that diminish hope for some while amplifying it for others.
“You cannot build a truly hopeful organization without confronting the systems that diminish hope for some while amplifying it for others. – Jess Lewis, Founder, Center for Hopeful Leadership.
From individual to organizational
CHL’s Contribution: Hope at the System Level
Snyder’s original research focused on the individual. The Center for Hopeful Leadership extends this scholarship into the organizational nervous system — applying hope at the team, department, and institutional level.
Organizational Hope Capacity
Just as individuals have a hope score, organizations have a collective hope capacity — the degree to which their culture, structure, and leadership actively generate goals, pathways, and agency across the system.
Hope as a Leadership Practice
Hopeful Leadership is not a personality trait — it is a set of learnable, practicable behaviors. Leaders can be trained to build hope in their teams through specific communication, planning, and culture-building practices.
Hope and Equity
Systemic barriers — racism, poverty, exclusion — suppress hope. They restrict pathways and erode agency. CHL’s framework explicitly addresses the relationship between equity and hope, recognizing that justice work is hope work.
Measuring What Matters
Through the Hope Capacity Index™, CHL provides organizations with a validated tool to assess, track, and develop hope across their teams — turning an abstract concept into an actionable organizational metric.
What’s next for you
Ready to Lead with Hope?
Whether you are just discovering this work or ready to bring it into your organization — there is a next step for you.
Explore the Framework
See how CHL translates Hope Theory into a practical leadership framework your organization can actually use.
Start a Conversation
Curious where your organization falls on the Hope Spectrum? Let’s talk about what’s possible.
Keep Learning
Explore the Hopeful Leadership blog for practical insights, research summaries, and tools you can use today.