Subscribe to the Three Star Leadership Blog

The Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training.

For weekly tips and resources pointers, check Wally's Three Star Leadership Letter

Find out more about having Wally speak to your company or convention.

Find out more about Wally's coaching services.

The Wall Street Journal just ran an interesting piece titled: "New Breed of Business Gurus Rises." Here's the lead.

"The guru game is changing. Psychologists, journalists and celebrity chief executives crowd the top of a ranking of influential business thinkers compiled for The Wall Street Journal. The results, based on Google hits, media mentions and academic citations, ranked author and consultant Gary Hamel No. 1. But Dr. Hamel is the only traditional business guru in the top five, which includes two journalists, Thomas Friedman and Malcolm Gladwell, and a former CEO, Bill Gates. Mr. Gladwell is among three thinkers in the top eight who focus on psychology. His 2005 book 'Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking' examined the role of snap judgments in decision-making. Howard Gardner, a professor of education at Harvard best known for the theory of 'multiple intelligences,' is No. 5, while Daniel Goleman, a psychologist who has written about 'emotional intelligence,' ranks eighth."

This is fascinating, but it's mostly a measure of popularity since Tom Friedman gets credit for his byline on every column he writes and Bill Gates gets credit for every story about Microsoft that mentions his name. Such is the world of rankings based on Google and Lexis/Nexis name searches.

That could mean that the stars of some very good business thinkers are sinking slowly. Not on the list are Charles Handy, Warren Bennis, C. K. Prahalad and John Kotter among other influential thinkers.

There are two interesting comparisons for this list. One is with the list compiled by Tom Davenport in 2002, when he was with Accenture. Accenture called this the "Top 50 Business Intellectuals." Davenport prepared that list for his book, What's the Big Idea? using the same methodology as the Journal, but slightly different databases.

The top six in that ranking, in order, were Michael Porter, Tom Peters, Robert Reich, Peter Drucker, Peter Senge, and Gary S. Becker. None are in the top five of the new list. Drucker has died, but the others are all still active. And only two of the top five in this year's ranking, Gary Hamel and Bill Gates appeared at all in the 2002 ranking.

Another interesting comparison is with "The Thinkers Fifty" which is billed as a list of "the world's most important and influential business thinkers." The most recent of these is from 2007.

The top five here are C. K. Prahalad, Bill Gates, Alan Greenspan, Michael Porter, and Gary Hamel. One thing I like about this list is that Scott Adams is at number 21, right after Donald Trump.

The Thinker's Fifty uses a different methodology than Davenport and the Journal. After seeking nominations and getting over 1200 names, this project narrows the list to 80. Then they use subjective rankings on several dimensions. One of those is "rigor of research" which makes you wonder how The Donald made the list.

At the end of the day, lists like these are fun. The best possible outcome for you and me is that we discover a thinker we've never heard of who's got a great idea or two we can use.

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.

Request your free copy of "Meeting the Challenges of the Boomer Brain Drain: An integrated approach."

Wally Bock has helped people learn to be great bosses for more than a quarter century. His latest book, Performance Talk: The One-on-One Part of Leadership, makes learning key leadership principles almost effortless by teaching through a story and providing lists of resources for further growth.

Click here to find out more about Wally's coaching services.

For weekly tips and resources pointers, check our Wally Bock's Three Star Leadership Letter.

Click here to find out more about having Wally speak to your company or convention.