But not all great leaders work their way into 1 percent-like incomes. Historically, one could argue that many of the best leaders have eschewed wealth.Fortunemagazine identified the world’s 50 greatest leaders in a recent issue, and many of them are of modest means. It includes the professor who led the team that uncovered the Flint, Michigan, water crisis, a New Delhi government official risking his career to fight pollution, and Pope Francis.
“It turns out the world is full of people you’ve never heard of who are rallying followers to make life better in ways you never imagined,” the Fortunearticle states. At the same time, Fortune’sroll call of leaders includes the usual suspects among business billionaires — Tim Cook of Apple, Marc Benioff of Salesforce and Jeff Bezos of Amazon, who was named the world’s #1 leader.
(If you read the 2015 New York Timesexposé on the corrosive work environment at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters or Jim Hightower’s 2014 story on how atrociously Amazon treats its warehouse workers, you may quibble with Bezos’ inclusion on the 50 Greatest Leaders list. And Fortuneitself left Amazon off its “100 Best Companies to Work For” cover story, which was published a few weeks before the 50 Greatest Leaders issue. It begs the question, how can you be one of the world’s 50 greatest leaders and your company is not one of the best companies to work for?)
“It isn’t enough to be accomplished, brilliant or admirable,” Fortunestates. “We recognize those who are inspiring others to act, to follow them on a worthy quest, and who have shown staying power.
It occurs to us that great leaders don’t have all of the answers. In fact, they also ask great questions — tough questions that lead to significant decisions. Whether you are asking yourself questions or quizzing others around you, the leadership is in having the courage to ask. And the toughest questions often have the biggest return.
So we went in search of some tough questions that business leaders are asking.The ones answered here are just a start. We would love to hear about some tough questions that you or your company have tackled recently and what the answers led to.
· Despite a volatile market for many industries in 2015, the average salary for CEOs at the largest 100 U.S. companies by revenue was $15.5 million, according to Equilar, a provider of executive data.
