The Korn/Ferry Institute's Confidence in Leadership Index reveals significant momentum in the direction of corporate leadership globally in Q1 2011, reaching an all-time high since the survey was first conducted in 2009. Led by a large gain inEurope, executives in all but one region responded that corporate leadership was not only headed in the right direction, but trending more favorably now than any time since the survey's inception.

The Korn/Ferry Institute Confidence in Leadership Index, now in its third year, measures four key factors of leadership:

• Credibility of Leadership
• Trust in Leadership
• Direction of Leadership
• Characteristics of Leadership

The data was collected by Korn/Ferry during Q1 2011 via an online survey of more than 500 global executives.

The relationship between leadership confidence and economic measures continues to hold inNorth America. North American exchanges ticked upward in the quarter andNorth Americagained ground in all Index measures.

Europeand Central/South American results were not as correlated with economic data.Europe's Confidence Index results were mixed, however Direction of Leadership shot upwards, following improvement in most European markets. Central and South American markets were down a small percentage, though Direction of Leadership continued to climb and lead the global study.

Results fromAsia Pacificwere much more volatile than financial markets. The study was conducted prior to the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, but re-fielded following theMarch 11disaster to determine its impact on confidence in leadership. The comparative data revealed virtually no change in pre- and post-disaster attitudes. TheAsiaresults reported in this study show all-time lows in Credibility, Trust, and Direction of leadership though regional financial markets were either flat or up slightly.

"We continue to track confidence in leadership against economic factors, but this wave of data suggests otherenvironmental influencesmay override the impact of economic data," saidAna Dutra, CEO, Korn/Ferry Leadership and Talent Consulting. "The results fromAsia Pacificclearly warrant further study. With many different types of economies,the most importantquestion is howand whyfactors such as financial,geo-political, andethicalvolatilityare destabilizing confidence in corporate leadershipwith varying intensity in different parts of the world."

Confidence in Leadership Major Findings

• Globally,Credibility of Leadershipdeclined one point, tallying 75 on a 100-point scale.
  • Credibility of Leadership data fromAsia Pacificshows declining sentiment towards leadership at all levels. Overall Credibility of Leadership sunk from 76 in 2010, to 71 in Q1 2011. All major categories follow a similar trend inAsia Pacific. For example, credibility of CEOs fell from 77 to 72 and credibility of Boards of Directors fell from 73 to 66.
  • Central/South Americaalso showed weakness in Credibility of Leadership, declining in categories such as CEO Leadership and Company Management Leadership by five points each.
  • North Americagained ground in most categories; notably CEO Leadership climbed three points to 77.
  • Credibility of Leadership fell by one point overall inEurope; the largest mover in the study was a three-point dip in CEO credibility.

• Trust in Leadershipfell a point from 78 to 77 on the 100-point scale globally.
  • Asia Pacific's Trust in Leadership score fell five points to an all-time low of 74.
  • Europe's Trust score similarly fell four points to an all-time low of 70.
  • Central/South Americaalso lost four points, falling from 83 to 79.
  • North Americacountered the trend, increasing by two points from 79 to 81.

• Direction of Leadershipgained momentum in the first quarter of 2011 after relatively little movement from 2009 to 2010, gaining seven points from +20 to +27 on a scale ranging from -100 (getting worse) to +100 (getting better).
  • North America, traditionally the least optimistic about direction of leadership, tallied a nine-point gain from +9 to +18, though it still trails all over geographies.
  • Europeshot up a surprising 13 points from 2010 from +16 to +29.
  • Central/South America, historically the most positive about direction of leadership, remained the most optimistic and gained even more ground moving from +50 to +57.
  • OnlyAsia Pacificslipped in the Direction of Leadership category, falling from +34 in 2010 to +24 in Q1 2011, a 10-point decline.

• The ranking ofLeadership Characteristicsremained unchanged year over year
  • Strategic Skill still ranks atop a list of seven critical competencies.
  • Personal and Interpersonal Skill continue to gain ground, increasing by one point annually to solidify the number two position in the rankings.