Jeremy to Speak at the 24th International Studying Leadership Conference

We’re pleased to share that Jeremy Sutton, Founder of 3 Minute Mile, will be speaking at the 24th International Studying Leadership Conference, hosted by Hult International Business School at the Hult Ashridge campus.

Taking place under the theme Evolving Leadership: Learning from the Past, Shaping the Future, the conference brings together scholars and leadership experts to explore how our understanding of leadership continues to develop, and what this means for the future of leadership research and practice.

Jeremy will be speaking alongside Anamitra Chatterjee, contributing to discussions on the evolving landscape of leadership and the insights that can help shape its future.

At 3 Minute Mile, we work with organisations to develop a deeper understanding of leadership, using evidence-based assessment and development approaches to help individuals and teams realise their potential. We’re delighted to see Jeremy contributing to this important conversation and engaging with fellow experts from across the leadership community.

Session Abstract

This paper aims to look at the attachment theory deepening leadership development programs. For decades, leadership development has focused on building competencies, honing skills, and cultivating strategic thinking. over among talented performers, and leaders who technically excel but yet not succeed. This paper explores what if organisations have been looking in the wrong direction? What if the key to unlocking leadership effectiveness and organisational performance lies not in what leaders know or do, but in how they – and their followers – fundamentally relate to one another?

Attachment theory, pioneered by John Bowlby and expanded by Mary Ainsworth, has revolutionised our understanding of human relationships. Originally developed to explain parent-child bonds, this framework reveals how early relationship patterns create ‘internal working models’ that shape our expectations and behaviours throughout life. These patterns don’t disappear when we enter the workplace – they profoundly influence how we interact with leaders, collaborate with peers, and respond to organisational challenges. Employees may have different attachment styles – secure, anxious, or avoidant. Studies indicate that roughly 50% of adults are securely attached, while the remaining 50% of the workforce are split between
anxious and avoidant attachment styles. A leader’s well-intentioned coaching may be perceived as supportive guidance by secure employees, as threatening criticism by anxious individuals, or
as unwelcome interference by avoidant team members. These perceptual differences directly impact the quality and ambivalence of leader-member exchange (LMX) relationships and, ultimately, job performance. Bringing attachment theory into leadership development is not only relevant for all employees, it gives leaders a fighting chance to adapt their approach and positively influence half of the people they encounter at work. Recent research applying attachment theory to workplace relationships has uncovered striking insights (Lee, Lyubovnikova, Thomas, Schwarz, and Cao, 2024).

Consider the case of anxiously attached employees – individuals who crave reassurance, seek proximity to their leaders, and worry intensely about acceptance and approval. Traditional leadership development might train managers to ’empower’ such employees by delegating more autonomy. This move will likely involve the leader ‘stepping back’ which will tend to be interpreted by the anxiously attached team member as abandonment. In response, the team member is likely to feel betrayed and engage in strategies that ‘hook’ the leader, demanding even more of their time and emotional resources. The leader is caught off guard and confused but to the anxiously attached employee their derailing behaviours are not only logical, but they are also ingrained and rigid. Cognitive distortions provide the defence the employee needs to believe that they are being completely reasonable. In their mind, the leader is the one who is causing any issues. Emerging research reveals that leader neuroticism – characterized by emotional volatility, elevated negative affect, and mood instability – acts as a critical moderator that amplifies attachment-based vulnerabilities. Neurotic leaders pose a particular challenge because their emotional instability serves as a persistent relational threat. For insecurely attached followers, a neurotic leader activates their attachment system with unusual frequency and intensity. Emotional stability isn’t just a ‘nice-to-have’ leadership trait – it’s a fundamental prerequisite for creating the psychological safety necessary for insecurely attached employees
to thrive. Organisations that fail to account for this interaction effect systematically undermine both relationship quality and performance outcomes.

Several approaches merit consideration: Organisations should prioritise emotional stability when selecting leaders, particularly for roles involving supervision of diverse teams. Technical competence and strategic thinking remain important. Leadership development programs should explicitly address emotional regulation, helping leaders recognise how their emotional volatility impacts followers differently based on attachment patterns. Organisations should train leaders to recognise attachment-related cues and adapt their approach accordingly. Anxiously attached employees benefit from consistent reassurance, predictable availability, and explicit recognition. Avoidantly attached individuals need respect for their autonomy, non intrusive support, and trust in their competence. Securely attached employees typically thrive
under a wide range of leadership styles. Insecurely attached individuals particularly benefit from ‘secure-base’ leadership characterised by availability, encouragement without interference, and non-judgmental support. Secure-base leaders can create developmental relationships that not only enhance performance but potentially help individuals develop more secure relational templates over time.

The evidence is compelling: attachment theory offers a powerful lens for understanding why identical leadership behaviours produce vastly different outcomes with different followers. The
future of leadership development lies not in adding more competencies to an already overcrowded curriculum, but in understanding the relational foundations that make all leadership possible. It’s time to bring attachment theory from the periphery to the centre of how we think about, develop, and practice leadership.