- In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady on the state of moral leadership in business.
- The big story: Alphabet could double capex spending; investors aren’t enthused.
- The markets: Mostly down.
- Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.
Good morning. Good morning. As someone who has covered CEOs for decades, I think a lot about what makes a good leader, especially in this environment. It comes down to behaviors and practices, not intent. Dov Seidman, founder and chairman of LRN and the HOW Institute for Society, has studied the metrics around behaviors in leaders for as long as I’ve been reporting on them. I got an exclusive look at the institute’s 2026 study of the state of moral leadership in business, which asked more than 2,500 U.S. workers to assess the presence of moral leadership practices in their organization, ranked managers and companies into five tiers, and correlated that with business outcomes.
Some findings: 78% of employees in top-tier companies felt they had satisfied customers, compared to 14% in the bottom tier; while 83% of those respondents said their company encouraged new ideas, compared with 4% at the bottom. Your boss matters, too, as 3% of those reporting to top-tier managers in the least-polarized workplaces want to leave their positions, compared to 18% reporting to bottom-tier bosses. So I asked Seidman for tips on what leaders can actually do to get into that top tier. Some advice:
· State the truth, even if doing so creates some personal risk.
· Make amends when you get things wrong—apologize, authentically.
· Explain decisions in the context of how they relate to the organization’s purpose.
· Help others develop the wisdom to make the right call.
· Enlist your team on a journey of moral leadership.
About 94% of employees in the study said the need for moral leadership is more urgent than ever but fewer than 10% of CEOs were judged to be leading effectively. “If you can get yourself into the top tier, the benefits are massive,” Seidman told me yesterday. “You build resilience, loyalty, and get better results.” You can read the full study here. Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at [email protected]
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