Excellence 100 Top Thought Leaders

Originally posted in Leadership Excellence on November 4, 2008.

For 25 years, Leadership Excellence magazine has published the best and latest thinking on leadership. Again this year, the magazine has ranked the top thought leaders in management and leadership.

“Those who make our Excellence 100 list possess a rare combination of traits and abilities,” says Ken Shelton, founding editor of Leadership Excellence. “They display both depth and breadth, local and global awareness, conceptual originality and practical experience with application, implementation and execution.”

The annual ranking is based on these eight criteria:
1. Preparation: academic and professional preparation.
2. Character: values, ethics, beliefs, purpose, mission, integrity, walk the talk.
3. Principles: big message, point of view, tenets, main points.
4. Personality: charisma, style, originality, authenticity, one of a kind.
5. Performance: inspiring action, real-world performance, work ethic.
6. Experience: beyond local and regional, more national and international.
7. Influence: difference, results, change, transformation.
8. Expression: substance and style in writing, speaking, coaching, consulting, mentoring, training, or teaching.

So here is the 2008 listing of the Top 100 thought leaders on leadership:
1. Gary Hamel
2. Warren Bennis
3. Dave Ulrich
4. Marshall Goldsmith
5. James Collins
6. Peter Block
7. Ram Charan
8. Noel Tichy
9. Kevin Cashman
10. Tom Peters
11. John P. Kotter
12. Bill George
13. Jack Zenger
14. James O’Toole
15. Barbara Kellerman
16. James Kouzes
17. Clayton Christensen
18. Marcus Buckingham
19. Peter Senge
20. Meg Wheatley
21. James Loehr
22. Norm Smallwood
23. Michael Porter
24. Max Bazerman
25. Jay Conger
26. Rosabeth Kanter
27. C. K. Prahalad
28. Ichak Adizes
29. Kevin/Jackie Freiberg
30. Chip Bell
31. Carly Fiorina
32. Gifford Pinchot
33. Bill Isaacs
34. James Champy
35. Morgan McCall, Jr.
36. Jack Welch
37. Nicholas Negraponte
38. Jay Conrad Levinson
39. Michael Treacy
40. Dan Goleman
41. Frances Hesselbein
42. Judith Glaser
43. Renee Mauborgne
44. Ken Blanchard
45. Jeff Snipes
46. Eileen McDargh
47. Beverly Kaye
48. Nathaniel Branden
49. Barry Conchie
50. Patrick Lencioni
51. David Allen
52. Phil Geldart
53. Josh Bersin
54. David Nadler
55. Libby Sartain
56. Nigel Nicholson
57. Bill Byham
58. Jon Katzenbach
59. Ed Lawler
60. Robert Whipple
61. Joe Grenny
62. Michael G. Winston
63. Christopher Rice
64. Richard Chang
65. Andre Martin
66. Joel Barker
67. Malcolm Gladwell
68. Ken Shelton
69. Gregg Thompson
70. Ira Chaleff
71. Lois Zachary
72. Edgar Schein
73. Barry Posner
74. Dianna Booher
75. Spencer Johnson
76. Michael Feiner
77. Larry Senn
78. Jeff Sonnenfeld
79. Larry Bossidy
80. Vijay Govindarajan
81. Stephen R. Covey
82. Lance Secretan
83. Dede Henley
84. Bill Adams
85. Maya Hu-Chan
86. James Cabrera
87. Rob Lebow
88. Ron Crossland
89. Steven Arneson
90. Terry Bacon
91. Robert Kaplan
92. Phil Harkins
93. Ian Mitroff
94. Joseph Jaworski
95. B. Kim Barnes
96. Howard Guttman
97. Richard Leider
98. Gary Harpst
99. Chris Majer
100. Daniel R. Tobin