Leadership Benchmark 2026: How Employees Rate Leadership at Work

Leadership scores 8.04 out of 10 in CultureMonkey's 2026 benchmark, joint 13th of 22 engagement drivers, with a 0.48 correlation to eNPS (7th strongest of 22).

Based on ~1.0M survey answers.Q3 2026 dataLast updated: October 2026

Industries, regions and company sizes appear here only when they have at least 3 companies for Leadership, so this page can list fewer than the parent's segment tables. Industry rankings cover the 14 industries with a full driver breakdown.

SNAPSHOT

Leadership benchmark for 2026 at a glance

Score

8.04 / 10

Link to eNPS (r)

0.48

7th strongest of 22

Top quartile starts at

8.53

How much of the ten-point scale Leadership reaches

Top quartile starts at 8.53

The ring fills to the all-company score as a share of the full ten-point scale, and the marker on the outside shows where the top quartile begins.

HIGHEST

Industries where employees rate Leadership highest

Hospitality employees rate Leadership highest, at 8.54 out of 10. That puts it 0.50 above the all-company Leadership score of 8.04.
Creative and Media employees rate Leadership second highest, at 8.42 out of 10. That puts it 0.38 above the all-company Leadership score of 8.04.

Industries that rate Leadership highest

Hospitality8.54

Creative and Media8.42

6.00Driver score, 0 to 10 scale, axis truncated at 6.00 so differences are visible10.00

This segmentAll companies 8.04

Each bar runs to that segment's score. The upright tick on every bar is the all-company score for this driver, and the figure under each bar is its distance from that score. Only industries with enough answers to report are shown.

See employee engagement scores for every industry.

LOWEST

Industries where employees rate Leadership lowest

Education employees rate Leadership lowest, at 7.20 out of 10. That puts it 0.84 below the all-company Leadership score of 8.04.
Telecommunications employees rate Leadership second lowest, at 7.55 out of 10. That puts it 0.49 below the all-company Leadership score of 8.04.
Food and Beverage employees rate Leadership third lowest, at 7.61 out of 10. That puts it 0.43 below the all-company Leadership score of 8.04.

Industries that rate Leadership lowest

Food and Beverage7.61

Telecommunications7.55

Education7.20

6.00Driver score, 0 to 10 scale, axis truncated at 6.00 so differences are visible10.00

This segmentAll companies 8.04

Every reported segment is a dot on one shared scale, ordered highest to lowest, with the top and bottom emphasised. The upright line is the all-company score for this driver. Only industries with enough answers to report are shown.

The spread of Leadership across industries

7.20 Education8.54 Hospitality

6.00Driver score, 0 to 10 scale, axis truncated at 6.00 so differences are visible10.00

Reported rangeAll companies 8.04

Of the industries with enough answers to report, Leadership ranges from 7.20 in Education to 8.54 in Hospitality, around an all-company score of 8.04.

See how all 22 drivers rank on score and on their link to eNPS.

BREAKDOWN

Leadership scores by region and company size

How Leadership varies by region

APACMiddle East and AfricaLatin AmericaNorth AmericaEurope

6.00Driver score, 0 to 10 scale, axis truncated at 6.00 so differences are visible10.00

This segmentAll companies 8.04

All 5 regions, highest first. The line joins the segments in order, so its slope shows how quickly the score changes from one to the next. The dashed line is the all-company score for this driver. Regions are ordered highest to lowest.

How Leadership changes as companies get bigger

Micro (under 100)SMB (100 to 499)Mid-Market (500 to 1,999)Enterprise (2,000+)

6.00Driver score, 0 to 10 scale, axis truncated at 6.00 so differences are visible10.00

This segmentAll companies 8.04

All 4 company sizes, smallest first. Each column is one segment's score. The dashed line is the all-company score for this driver, so a column above the line scores higher than the benchmark and one below it scores lower. Company sizes run from the smallest headcount band to the largest.

See employee engagement by region and by company size.

Next in the ranking: Involvement ranks just above Leadership, and Inclusivity just below.

QUESTIONS

Common questions about the Leadership benchmark

What is a good leadership score?

A Leadership score of 8.53 or higher puts a company in the top quartile of CultureMonkey's 2026 benchmark. The all-company Leadership score is 8.04 out of 10, joint 13th of 22 drivers.

Which industries score highest and lowest on leadership?

Of the industries with enough answers to report, Hospitality (8.54) and Creative and Media (8.42) score highest on Leadership, and Education scores lowest at 7.20.

How strongly does leadership affect eNPS?

Leadership has a 0.48 correlation with eNPS, 7th strongest of the 22 drivers and a moderate link on CultureMonkey's scale (0.35 or more is moderate). It measures how closely the two move together across benchmark segments and does not prove that one causes the other.

What does the leadership driver measure in an employee engagement survey?

Confidence in the direction set by senior leaders, and how it's communicated. That is how CultureMonkey defines Leadership, one of 22 engagement drivers scored from 0 to 10.

How does the leadership score differ between regions?

Across all 5 regions, APAC scores highest on Leadership at 8.24 and Europe lowest at 7.57.

How does the leadership score differ by company size?

SMB companies (100 to 499 employees) score highest on Leadership at 8.09, and micro companies (under 100 employees) lowest at 7.91.

How does the leadership score compare with other engagement drivers?

Leadership ranks joint 13th of 22 engagement drivers on score at 8.04, level with Involvement (8.04) and above Inclusivity (8.00). On its link to eNPS it ranks 7th of 22.

What is the average leadership score?

Across CultureMonkey's 2026 benchmark, the average Leadership score is 8.04 out of 10, based on ~1.0M survey answers. It is the mean of company-level Leadership scores.

Get started

Test how much confidence your people place in leadership

Leadership scores 8.04 out of 10 across all companies, joint 13th of 22 on score. Compare your own Leadership score against the CultureMonkey Employee Engagement Benchmarks, built on Q3 2026 data, then turn the gaps into an action plan your managers can run.

Book a free, no-obligation product demo call with our experts.