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The October 30 edition of U.S. News and World Report contains a special report on America’s leaders, and indicates that the public believes America is in a leadership crisis. The report focuses on all leaders, but there are some interesting findings about corporate leaders. According to the report, 8 out of 10 people (or 83% of the people surveyed) believe that corporate leaders are “more concerned with making money than with running their companies well.” I found this an interesting assessment. On the one hand, business leaders should be concerned with generating a profit. On the other hand, this assessment suggests that the public believes that in order to be a good leader, business leaders must do more than focus on the bottom line. And that perhaps such a focus could lead to wrong-doing.

The report included a poll asking Americans to indicate their confidence in leaders by occupation. While there appeared to be a basic disenchantment with leaders across the board, Americans have the highest opinion of military leaders and the lowest opinion of the press. Unfortunately, business leaders do not fare very well. Instead, after the press, there are only two other groups of people with a lower ranking than business leaders—members of Congress and members of the executive branch. Moreover, the public’s faith in business leaders has declined since last year. As another indicator of the basic lack of trust for business leaders, the report refers to survey indicating that only 18% of Americans find CEOs or CFOs the most credible source of information about their companies. These findings suggest that reforms have had no impact on people’s confidence in business leaders. Instead, corporate scandals have led the public to distrust business leaders and the information they produce.

Interesting, in connection with the report, a committee of government, community and private sector leaders selected twenty leaders from a group of more than 200 to be identified as “America’s Best Leaders.” Leaders were selected based on their ability to (1) set direction, (2) achieve results and (3) cultivate a culture of growth. Based on those criteria, four business leaders made the cut: Marilyn Carlson Nelson, CEO of Carlson Companies, Warren Buffett, A.G. Lafley, CEO of Procter and Gamble, and Nancy Barry, former president of Women’s World Banking. Hmm—an interesting selection, to say the least. I admit I am not sure who I expected to see in the top 20, just that these four names came as a surprise. From what I can tell, the committee appeared to place an emphasis on leaders who not only created value, but also had some social commitment. The committee acknowledged that the general lack of confidence in all leaders made it challenging to select corporate leaders from the mainstream.

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The October 30 edition of U.S. News and World Report contains a special report on America’s leaders, and indicates that the public believes America is in a leadership crisis. The report focuses on all leaders, but there are some interesting findings about corporate leaders. According to the report, 8 out of 10 people (or 83% of the people surveyed) believe that corporate leaders are “more concerned with making money than with running their companies well.” I found this an interesting assessment. On the one hand, business leaders should be concerned with generating a profit. On the other hand, this assessment suggests that the public believes that in order to be a good leader, business leaders must do more than focus on the bottom line. And that perhaps such a focus could lead to wrong-doing.

The report included a poll asking Americans to indicate their confidence in leaders by occupation. While there appeared to be a basic disenchantment with leaders across the board, Americans have the highest opinion of military leaders and the lowest opinion of the press. Unfortunately, business leaders do not fare very well. Instead, after the press, there are only two other groups of people with a lower ranking than business leaders—members of Congress and members of the executive branch. Moreover, the public’s faith in business leaders has declined since last year. As another indicator of the basic lack of trust for business leaders, the report refers to survey indicating that only 18% of Americans find CEOs or CFOs the most credible source of information about their companies. These findings suggest that reforms have had no impact on people’s confidence in business leaders. Instead, corporate scandals have led the public to distrust business leaders and the information they produce.

Interesting, in connection with the report, a committee of government, community and private sector leaders selected twenty leaders from a group of more than 200 to be identified as “America’s Best Leaders.” Leaders were selected based on their ability to (1) set direction, (2) achieve results and (3) cultivate a culture of growth. Based on those criteria, four business leaders made the cut: Marilyn Carlson Nelson, CEO of Carlson Companies, Warren Buffett, A.G. Lafley, CEO of Procter and Gamble, and Nancy Barry, former president of Women’s World Banking. Hmm—an interesting selection, to say the least. I admit I am not sure who I expected to see in the top 20, just that these four names came as a surprise. From what I can tell, the committee appeared to place an emphasis on leaders who not only created value, but also had some social commitment. The committee acknowledged that the general lack of confidence in all leaders made it challenging to select corporate leaders from the mainstream.

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