And the Survey Says........

Recently the U.S. News & World Report, along with the Center for Public Leadership, conducted a survey of American's confidence in leaders from 11 different sectors. It is an absolutely fascinating read. I don't think that there is anything in the report that you will find shocking, but it does provide some great confirmation of the lack of trust in today's leadership. Here are some highlights:

• 73% believe that today's leaders are out of touch with the average person;
• 58% believe that leaders cannot be trusted;
• Honesty and Integrity are rated substantially higher than having the Knowledge and Skills to be a leader;
  
• 82% believe that Americans not keeping up on important issues are part of the leadership problem.

I think that there are sections of the survey that need to be read with a grain of salt. For example, one of the questions had to do with America's Emergency Response; the question was asked only 2 weeks after Katrina devastated Nola. And considering President Bush's job approval rating right now, I wonder what a similar survey would have found immediately following 9/11.

That said, it is well worth a look. Make sure you take a look at page 9 of the report, which looks at the respondents' ratings of leaders across various sectors.