Hagberg Consulting Group

Since 1984, Hagberg Consulting Group (HCG) has provided personal coaching to thousands of executives including hundreds of CEOs. Part of this coaching and leadership development process has involved assessing these executives utilizing both 360 degree or multi-rater feedback instruments as well as extensive personality assessments which take into account such factors as decisiveness, planning, relationship building, model of values, dependability, openness to input, forthrightness, emotional control and composure, visionary thinking, inspirational role model, self confidence, taking initiative, etc. The data we have collected has been a rich source of research and insight into the makeup of leaders and leadership styles. It has provided a unique opportunity to understand the behavior, style and capabilities of some of the world's best leaders. It has also showed us how leaders fail when certain critical ingredients of leadership are missing. Over the years, the business climate has changed dramatically. A global economy has emerged. Technology has become a driver of many businesses. The speed of change has increased. New generations of leaders have succeeded previous generations and brought different values and styles to their companies. Research on leadership has suggested the potential importance of new leadership skills. Given this changing picture, the competencies we have measured on our 360 and the dimensions of personality we have assessed have also changed and evolved with time. Despite all this change, we have continually observed in our statistical analysis three fundamental components of leadership that seem to have remained constant. These three components we have labeled The Three Pillars of Leadership.