Less than 10% of employees believe their employers demonstrate moral leadership

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 attitudes and actions, not intentions. Dov Seidman, founder and chairman of LRN and the HOW Institute for Societyhave been studying the criteria around the characteristics of leaders for as long as I have been reporting on it. I got an exclusive look at the institute 2026 study of the state of moral leadership in businessthat asked more than 2,500 US workers to assess the presence of moral leadership behaviors in their organization, ranked managers and companies into five tiers, and correlated that with business results.

Some findings: 78% of employees in top-tier companies feel that they have satisfied customers, compared to 14% in the lower tier; while 83% of respondents said their company encourages new ideas, compared to 4% below. Your boss is also important, as 3% of those reporting top-tier managers in the least polarized workplaces want to leave their positions, compared to 18% reporting of lower-tier bosses. So I asked Seidman for tips on what leaders can do to break into that top tier. Some advice:

· Tell the truth, even if doing so creates personal risk.

· Make amends when you’re wrong—apologise, genuinely.

· Explaining 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 less than 10% of CEOs were judged to be leading effectively. “If you can get yourself to a high level, the benefits are enormous,” Seidman told me yesterday. “You build resilience, loyalty, and get better results.” You can read the full study here.

Contact CEO Daily by Diane Brady at [email protected]

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S&P 500 futures are flat this morning. The last session closed at 0.51%. STOXX Europe 600 flat in early trading. The UK’s FTSE 100 down 0.14% in early trading. Nikkei 225 in Japan fell 0.88%. CSI 300 in China fell by 0.6%. The South Korean KOSPI increased by 3.86%. NIFTY 50 in India fell to 0.57%. Bitcoin decreased to $71.2K.