Bosses Day: Who are America's Top 5 leaders?

His company's been in the top 30 of Fortune 100's top places to work for six straight years. It also headed an index of best places to work in tech from 2005 to 2007. And the year after he bought (and overhauled) the Cleveland Cavaliers, they were in the NBA Finals. Dan Gilbert, ladies and gentlemen, gets it done.

But he's also taking a stand in Detroit, one of America's most economically devastated cities. From moving corporate headquarters from the suburbs to downtown to funding Detroiters' entrepreneurial education, Mr. Gilbert is not only leading a company and a basketball squad, he's doing the heavy lifting for a city in dire need of revitalization.

2. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple

In a recently released ranking of the world's top 50 business thinkers, Mr. Jobs is the highest ranked executive at No. 4. What makes Jobs an ultimate boss is his ability to bring brilliant people together to make breathtaking products. The best contributors are those - whether software developers, poets, artists or math whizzes – who have "exposed themselves to the best things humans have done and then brought those things into their projects.”

And with some flashy new tech baubles en route to back up Apple mainstays, watch out.

1. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase

(A captain of the financial industry that almost brought the global economy to its knees? You're nominating him? you ask. Yes, we say. Yes indeed.)

In a time of runaway financial gambling, Mr. Dimon and team largely held back. When that rampant speculation turned toxic, JPMorgan stood tall enough to not only weather the storm but take on some financial flotsam. Oh, and they just beat analysts' predictions for third-quarter earnings with a robust $28.8 billion in revenue.

As he told Harvard's graduating class of MBA's in January, "If you want to be a leader, it can't be about money. And it can't be about you. It's about what you will eventually leave behind. What would you want on your tombstone. Think about that when you become a leader. For mine, I just hope they say 'We miss him, and the world is a better place for him having been here.' "

– David Grant is a Monitor contributor.

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