Table 1 Recommendations and specific avenues for physical activity leadership research

1. Conduct research in novel and varied contexts

– Focus on underexplored contexts where leaders are present (e.g. video-guided workouts)

– Examine context-specific differences in the optimal behaviours and strategies for leaders to adopt

– Compare individual versus group settings; groups with consistent versus interchangeable members; settings with face-to-face versus virtual leaders

2. Focus on insufficiently active populations

– Screen for, and recruit, samples who are insufficiently active or who have recently begun engaging in structured exercise

– Examine the effectiveness of different leadership styles and strategies for sustaining new exercisers’ participation

– Aim to inform the development of materials that are specifically tailored for insufficiently active populations

3. Utilise qualitative methods

– Explore what people believe it is important for physical activity leaders to do, what makes them effective, and what this looks like in practice

– Map findings against leadership theories to identify those with the greatest potential in the physical activity domain

– Use qualitative methods to identify specific considerations for leaders working with insufficiently active populations

4. Focus on translation and implementation

– Identify concrete ways for leaders to engage in effective forms of leadership in practice

– Develop interventions that aim to increase leaders’ capacity to facilitate people’s more frequent attendance of leader-led sessions, improved behaviours and experiences within sessions, and greater overall physical activity

– Explore the feasibility and acceptability of such interventions for leaders, and barriers to their systematic uptake by those who would deliver them, with a view to maximising the potential for interventions to be widely and cost-effectively distributed