Studies

Leadership has no shortage of advice. It needs better questions.

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Generational patterns

Do Generational Family Patterns Shape How We Lead?

Are leaders making deliberate choices—or repeating patterns they learned long before receiving a title?

This study explores whether family roles, expectations and behaviors passed across generations may influence how leaders exercise authority, delegate responsibility, manage conflict, seek approval and respond to uncertainty.

Seeking: Approximately 10 leaders
Format: Confidential individual interview
Time commitment: 45 minutes
Status: Now recruiting

Leadership development usually begins in the workplace. This study asks whether it actually begins much earlier.
The study explores how family roles, expectations and behaviors passed across generations may influence how leaders use authority, delegate responsibility, manage conflict, seek approval, establish boundaries and respond to uncertainty. Through confidential interviews with leaders, the research will examine whether patterns learned within families later become leadership strengths, limitations—or both.
The purpose is not to suggest that childhood determines how someone leads. It is to understand whether leaders are consciously choosing their behaviors or unknowingly repeating, rejecting or overcorrecting the patterns they experienced before they ever held a leadership title.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Unasked Leadership Questions Project is an independent research initiative investigating questions traditional leadership research often overlooks. Each study explores an underexamined influence, assumption or experience that may shape how people lead.
No. This is an independent research initiative led by Dr. Cheryl Robinson, who holds a doctorate in organizational leadership and has covered leadership topics for nine years. Any future university or organizational partnership will be clearly disclosed.
Eligibility varies by study. Some studies may seek executives or managers, while others may include employees, founders, caregivers or people with particular personal or professional experiences. Each study page explains its specific requirements.
Not necessarily. Leadership can include supervising employees, managing projects, running a business, directing volunteers or holding responsibility without formal authority. Eligibility depends on the question being investigated.
Depending on the study, participation may involve a survey, a confidential individual interview or a follow-up conversation. You will receive the purpose, format and expected time commitment before agreeing to participate.
Yes. Your name, employer and identifying details will not be published without your separate, explicit permission. Anonymous quotations or summarized insights may be included in research reports and related articles.
Compensation, when offered, will be stated on the individual study page. Never leave this ambiguous on a study-specific page: if the interview is unpaid, say so directly.
Each study begins with a leadership question that appears underexamined, overly simplified or missing from conventional workplace discussions. Suggestions from participants and members of the UNASKED List may also inform future topics.

Some interviews may be recorded to support accurate transcription and analysis. You will be told in advance and asked for permission before any recording begins.
You may be invited separately to contribute an attributed perspective to a related article. That invitation is optional and requires your explicit consent.
Yes. Participation is voluntary. You may decline any question or end your participation at any time.
No. The research may ask participants to reflect on personal experiences, behaviors and patterns, but it does not provide a psychological diagnosis, counseling or mental-health treatment.
Findings may be shared through independent research reports, articles, presentations and future studies. The goal is to bring overlooked leadership questions into broader professional and public conversations.
Participants can join the UNASKED List to receive published reports, new findings and future research opportunities.
No. Screening forms help create a participant group with an appropriate range of experiences, industries and leadership backgrounds. Completing one does not guarantee selection or obligate you to participate.
Join the UNASKED List to receive study announcements, participant opportunities, research reports and related articles. Joining the list does not commit you to participating.

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