While all Jamaicans are proud of Usain Bolt's achievements on the track, there are those who wonder whether the honour of Order of Jamaica and his appointment as an ambassador were conferred on him a little too soon. However, there is little doubt among a small group of opinion leaders and highly placed individuals that Usain Bolt is Jamaica's top personality today.

Who are opinion leaders and highly placed individuals?

An opinion leader is an individual whose views are respected and sought by others.

Customarily, an opinion leader will relate to a primary group whose members will look for signals from him or her that will influence their own attitudes and behaviour.

Their influence can also go outside the primary group, and they are news makers in their own right. Their opinions are frequently sought by the media in the areas of their acknowledged expertise.

Opinion leaders are also popular candidates for public appearances and speaking engagements.

Modern marketing approaches have found it both economical and useful to survey opinion leaders in order to get their views as a likely indication of the views of larger populations on a variety of policy or communication issues.

open-ended question

The highly-placed individuals among the respondents in this survey included physicians, lawyers, heads of public and private agencies, business owners, a senior rank military officer and private-sector senior management personnel.

Eighty persons classified by the writer as opinion leaders and highly placed persons were asked to name their choices for the top five personalities in Jamaica.

Sent by email, the question was completely open-ended. Respondents were not given a prepared list from which to select and no guidance was given on what criteria should be employed. We would accept whatever standards each respondent relied upon to arrive at their decisions.

Forty-one persons (51.2 per cent) comprising opinion leaders, highly placed individuals, media personnel and persons within the United States and United Kingdom diaspora responded between October 3 and 19.

They named 70 persons, with some making fewer than five choices. Following are the results:

(See Table 1)

We did not ask persons to state the reasons for their selections. However, I would like to suggest what some of those reasons could have been.

Bruce Golding, as prime minister, is constantly in the news, will be seen to have power and influence and his decisions to have the capacity to affect the course of events in Jamaica as well as the country's relationships with the rest of the world.

Gordon 'Butch' Stewart is known for his entrepreneurial achievements; for his role in advancing the development of Jamaica's tourism industry; for his contribution to strengthening the country's communication media; and for his philanthropic activities.

healing the wounds

Portia Simpson Miller is known for her ability to overcome the opposition to her of factions within her own party and for healing the wounds within the party; for the deep bond she has forged with her followers; and for her pioneering role as the country's first female prime minister.

Edward Seaga is known for his ideas, the breadth and depth of his contribution to building Jamaica during 43 years of public service, and for his resilience. Since his retirement from active politics in 2005, Seaga has remained relevant and in the public eye through his work at the University of the West Indies as a Distinguished Fellow, focusing on Jamaica's cultural heritage; his many speaking engagements; his active leadership in sports; his current tenure as Pro-Chancellor of the University of Technology; and more recently, as a published author.

The respondents accorded at least two votes each to twenty-seven other persons and the remaining 38 received one vote each.

(See Table 2)

Following are those who received at least two votes each, with multiple ties, as will be seen.

(See Table 3)

Why Bolt is number one

Several respondents volunteered why they had selected Usain Bolt. Here is some of what they said.

Bolt exudes self-confidence. He appears comfortable being himself no matter who is looking on. He is accessible to his fans. He is a showman. He is unique, defying earlier views on the ideal physical stature of a sprinter. He is captivating. He has made every Jamaican feel proud - he has made us all feel like winners just when we needed to.

It is not only Jamaicans who are fascinated by Usain Bolt and his achievements.

AskMen.Com, an online men's magazine headquartered in Bris-bane, California, and boasting seven million readers per month, conducted its 2009 survey of the world's 49 most influential men earlier this year. This was their fourth annual survey.

AskMen.com defines an influential man as one who is thoroughly masculine and whose personal and professional achievements will inspire and motivate everyday guys to go out and achieve their goals. They are, in effect, role models.

Bolt came second to Don Draper, a fictional character in the AMC television series Mad Men played by an actor named Jon Hamm.

Draper, they say, won because he personifies most of the conflicts, contradictions, aspirations and heroics that today's men can identify with.

Bolt was voted second in 2009, moving up from 21st last year, which was his first year in the AskMen.Com survey.

He squeezed past President Barack Obama, who was last year's winner, by one tenth of a point. Over 500 thousand of AskMen's readers voted. The balloting was two-tiered, with the magazine's editors also voting for each candidate, arriving at a final score that is a composite of the readers' and the magazine's vote.

In fact, the readers had Usain Bolt in first place with a score of 89.4, followed by Don Draper with 87.6 and President Obama at 85.8. After applying AskMen.Com's scores, the final tally was: Don Draper 91.1; Usain Bolt, 89.9 and President Barack Obama, 89.8.

amazing outcome

An even more amazing outcome is that other established athletes were well below Bolt. These include: Roger Federer (8); Tiger Woods (30); Kobe Bryant (33); LeBron James (42); and Lance Armstrong (49).

These ratings instigated similar discussions online about Bolt as his honours did here in Jamaica - whether they were not prematurely high, and whether he would be able to live up to them.

One AskMen.Com reader answered the doubters best.

"What is inspiring about Usain Bolt," he wrote, "is not just that he went out there and ran fast and won those races. It is that he broke his own records. He went out there and outdid himself. He brings home a lesson to all of us that we should always strive to do better than our best. So, go out there and be a 'Bolt' today," he concluded.

This is truly heady stuff to be attributed to any established individual, let alone to the fledgling brand of Usain Bolt.

It brings to fore the quality of the personal, professional, spiritual, financial and business management guidance he will require in order to come out on the winning side of life in another 12 years or so, when he may not be able to run quite as fast.

We should all hope that nothing will interfere with his continuing personal and professional development. In the meanwhile, we will all be following his progress while cheering him on to greater heights.

Dr Lloyd Hunter is a management and communications consultant. Email: lbhpro@flowja.com.

Gordon 'Butch' Stewart

Usain Bolt

Golding