A Different Way of Looking at the Leadership Environment

Going to the Horse Races for the Top Three Leadership Characteristics

Bob Molenda, Likes to go from nothing to something

8 min readJun 21, 2024

Article 11 in a Series

By Two Guys From Stillwater, Minnesota

John Buettner and Bob Molenda

Going to the Horse Races for the Top Three Leadership Characteristics

We are not going to have a horse race. We are taking the old truck to some horse races that were conducted over the past eight years or so. Oh yeah, there won’t be any horses, either. We are looking for the top finishers in the various survey races about Leadership characteristics, habits, virtues and traits. Who knows what will come of it? We’re going to look at the ‘horses’ in the various races, which ‘horses’ were the top finishers and is there any pattern starting to arise. If there is, we will next make a ‘Racing Form’ and try to place a good bet on some winners in the next race.

This is the big race where all the ‘horses’ are named with the Leadership Characteristics and Colors. The track is a five mile track, so it must be paced for endurance for the longer term, unlike the one mile race tracks used for normal horses. There can be between ten and one hundred horses in this race, all named with different Leadership Characteristics.

Many are the characteristics to be considered. There are surveys that use different words to describe some of the same leadership traits. Others pick from a list given to the respondents. One survey picks four from a list of sixteen, another picks from a list of twenty-five, a third picks from a list of thirty and still another has a list of seventy-four characteristics. Some report the top five or top ten, others summarize and combine various traits. You might think this sounds like a horse race with a win, a place and a show. How do we pick the top three? What would we do with them if we knew what they were? Sometimes the various surveys use characteristics, traits, competencies, virtues interchangeably. Add in some very valid survey information about Servant Leadership and it complicates everything.

This is a little like being a bookie in South Chicago. How well does the horse run in the rain or when the track is dry? Who is the jockey? Most of all, you need to take a look at the history of the horses in the race. Research, you say! Go get me the Racing Form! Some of us pick the ‘horse’ by the colors that the jockey wears.

What kind of ‘racing form’ do we all use for such a race, you ask? In this case, the ‘horses’ have been around for a long time. They have aged well and even the young are sourced from good, ancient genetics. There are a lot of changes around the stables near the track, but from what we can see, the characteristics of a good racing horse are fairly similar to what they were in the past. The differences may be just incremental, but enough to provide an advantage to certain breeders.

The weather In more recent times, climate change, track surface, horse diet, horse health, AI picking winners, off-track betting, genetic and DNA research, training practices and yes, even drugs have changed things. In many ways, the winners depend upon the circumstances at the time. This is why all the various horses in the race are important.

Who else is in the race, track conditions, jockey, training, starting gate location, attitude and travel time are important factors that can determine the winner of any given race.

We know that you are all thinking, “ These guys are trying to make some darn surveys sound like a horse race.” No survey is as exciting as a horse race, but Leadership surveys are a lot more important.

Race (Survey) History.

In the case of Leadership Competencies, our racing form includes results of surveys conducted during the past eight years.

Survey 1

This first survey came from the Harvard Business Review. It started with a list of 74 Leadership Characteristics and the recipients were asked to select their top fifteen. The survey was conducted on 195 leaders and experts. Here is the Top Ten list:

1. High Ethical and Moral Standards (67)

2. Provides Goals and Objectives, with loose guidelines (59)

3. Clearly Communicates Expectations (56)

4. Has Flexibility to Change Opinions (52)

5. Is Committed to Ongoing Training

6. Communicates Often and Openly

7. Is Open to New Ideas and Approaches

8. Creates a Feeling of Succeeding and Failing Together

9. Helps Me Grow Into a Next-Generation Leader

10. Provides Safety for Trail and Error

The number in brackets represents the percentage of respondents that put that competency in the top four. The source of this data is The Harvard Business Review, Sunnie Giles, March 16, 2016.

The #1 Conclusion was that successful Leaders needed to have High Ethical and Moral Standards.

Survey 2

In another survey, (Zengert and Folkman, 2018 ) Vision, Integrity and Honesty were #1 and #2 of the top ten and Communication was #5 . This study had 300,000 participants and each was asked to pick four from a list of 16 characteristics for the survey.

Inspires and Motivates Others (Vision)
Displays High Integrity and Honesty
Solves Problems and Analyzes Issues
Drives for Results
Communicates Powerfully and Prolifically
Builds Relationships and Trust
Displays Technical or Professional Expertise
Displays Strategic Perspective
Develops Others
Innovates

Survey 3

A third list of 25 Leadership Characteristics placed Integrity and Honesty in the #1 and #2 position on the list of 15 Criteria. Strong Communication Characteristics were #12 on this list. This was not a survey, but the list is very good. The source is Vantage Circle, Anjan Pathak.

Jim Kouzes of Leadership Challenge.com placed Honesty, Competency, Inspiring, Forward Looking, Dependable and Supportive at the top of his list of Characteristics of Admired Leaders.

Survey 4

Trustworthiness, Honesty, Hard Working, Ethics and Loyalty come to the top of the list from the Harris/U.S.News and World Report survey taken in December, 2023. Christopher Wolf wrote this article. This survey was taken in 2023 by 4,151 respondents. An array of 30 traits were used for this survey that provided these results.

Ten Most Important Leadership Traits of This Survey

Trustworthy
Honest
Hard Working
Ethical
Loyal
Authentic
Strategic
Passionate
Decisive
Driven

Survey 5

This survey involved Development of Leaders with Character Virtues from 99 programs. It featured data from 137 LMIC’s (Low, Medium Income Countries) derived from 1071 Academic papers from 1990–2022.

The most valued Leadership Virtues are: Empathy, Honesty, Courage, Transparency, Care and Fairness. The source of this survey is The Templeton World Charity Foundation 2023 Character and Global Leadership Survey. This is also a good peek at Servant Leadership.

Any of us would think that, here in America, the idea of a Trustworthy Leader would be highly sought-after. Add to it the Ethical, Honesty,Integrity and Communication aspects and it becomes a Three Race Exacta win for a very profitable day at the race track. You might even let your children learn from an example set by such a leader. Aristotle wrote that when a follower or leader repeatedly set the example for honest, ethical behavior, it became a habit. It sounded like a good idea then and a great idea today!

Some of these surveys are recent and others are within the last eight years. Wow, you might say, “There are quite a few common attributes in all of these surveys. In our constant battle for the truth, those with the data rule the roost.

If we include recent data from a survey on Servant Leadership, the words used are different, but seem to represent a few competencies that we already have included. There are others that are new. Servant Leadership is what the world wants at this time in 2024.

Remember Aristotle? The guy with the toga from 2574 years ago? Well, the old sage did pretty well with his thinking on Leadership. Some of this has not changed much in these many years. His ‘horses’ are still winning the Leadership Characteristics races. He did this without the internet or AI.

The summary here is that the past history of horse races on the Leadership Characteristics shows similar horses, different horses, young horses, different conditions and even a few who might be colts and mares sourced from older animals in the same race. The conditions, the environment and the length of the races are different.

So, when we look at all these references, the common denominator seems to be Trustworthiness, Honesty, Ethics, and Integrity. Aren’t these terms used interchangeably by many of us?

Integrity means honesty, with strong moral and ethical principles.

Trustworthy means worthy of confidence, dependable, reliable, telling the truth.

Also, when Integrity is mentioned, isn’t there something about consistency and reliability implied? When you are consistent about honesty, it seems that trustworthiness should arise from such a habit. Something like this makes us wonder if these three aren’t the same horse with a similar name in different races. In any case, the Attribute that wins the race is “Integrity” (which includes Honesty and Strong Ethical Principles, by definition).

So, we know that Integrity is the fastest horse with the most Endurance in any race that is most appreciated by the people who were surveyed. Ethics, Loyalty and Communication Characteristics were pretty much place, show and fourth in the same races. Integrity is the winner of the “Triple Crown” world-wide and by a large margin. The field is large, but the best place to place a bet is on Integrity for a win. That automatically brings with it Honesty and Trustworthiness.

If you had to “Fish or Cut Bait” about a Leader choice and had only one Characteristic to use, Integrity is what rises to the top.

Next time you go to the racetrack, look for the horses with Integrity, Ethical Principles, Loyalty and Communication Attributes. If you are a leader, you cannot meet the expectations of more than 300,000 people world-wide who took these different surveys unless you ‘feed’ these four horses.

By the way. All of this is consistent with our Triangle Model of Leadership, The Two Buckets of Leadership Characteristics, Traits, Habits, Values and the Stillwater survey that we shared with you in past Articles.

Next: Article 12

The difference between Leadership and Followship — Not as much as you think!