A Nobel Prize For Leadership?

If there were a Nobel Prize for Leadership, what would the criteria be and whom would you nominate?

Alan Webber, a founding editor of Fast Company magazine, is an award-winning editor, author and columnist. His most recent book is "Rules of Thumb: 52 Truths for Winning at Business Without Losing Your Self."

My Nobel Prize for Leadership would recognize individuals who have unquestionable moral authority. That's the litmus test: moral authority. Not achievement broadly defined, or abstract qualities that can be attributed to leaders, but clear and undeniable moral authority. It may be the quality least in supply these days.

A few years ago, I gave a talk to a CEO and his group of top managers. At the end of my talk, which focused on leadership and change in business, the CEO asked his team, "Who in America today do you think has moral authority? In business, in government, or in the nonprofit world?" There was a five-minute silence. No one offered a single name.

Today, when I talk in front of a group and try to describe the dramatic changes the world is undergoing and the challenges that face America and the rest of the globe, I ask them to suggest a leader with moral authority from any sector in America. The silence still lasts at least five minutes.

We need to cultivate leaders who can stand that test, leaders whose commitment to doing the right thing and standing for the right principles shines so brightly and so clearly that they deserve our support and recognition. We need to establish the idea that moral authority is not an abstract good, but an actual and practical way to lead -- that individuals who exude moral authority are the people we not only respect, but ultimately revere.

Now that I've suggested the criterion, rather than having me suggest a nominee, let me ask the question the CEO asked his team: Who do you think has moral authority in America today? Who would you nominate for the Noble Prize in Leadership?

Howard Gardner is the Hobbs professor of cognition and education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and senior director of Harvard Project Zero.

Nominee: Social entrepreneurs.

I define a leader as an individual who is able, without the use of force, to change the thoughts, feelings, beliefs and behaviors of other persons. When I wrote a book about 20th century leaders in the middle 1990s, the only living person I profiled was Margaret Thatcher. While I disliked many of her policies, Thatcher clearly changed how many people -- within and outside of Britain -- viewed the country, and her influence continues to this day. Of other individuals who are alive, I would single out Nelson Mandela, who was able to bring together warring factions and reestablish South Africa within the family of nations.

That said, if I were to define a Nobel Prize for Leadership, I would focus on individuals who have brought about changes for the wider good of humanity. In our current era, such changes are less likely to be brought about by political leaders than by social entrepreneurs: individuals who can marshal human and material resources to tackle large and seemingly intractable problems.

In our era, the father of social entrepreneurship is Bill Drayton, who began Ashoka 30 years ago. Drayton merits the new Nobel leadership award. Within the United States, I would honor Wendy Kopp who, as a college graduate, launched Teach for America. And because social entrepreneurs must rely on the generosity of philanthropists, I would single out Bill Gates, George Soros and Ted Turner -- leaders who enable other leaders.