With what appears to be the start of an economic recovery, many of us are faced with the possibility that our key talent will bolt for greener pastures or that budget cuts and stress have prevented them from being fully engaged with their jobs. Either scenario does not bode well for our companies to thrive and innovate.

There are several world class leadership traits we've found over the years in interviewing world class successful business leaders like Jack Welch, Richard Branson, Anita Roddick, to name a few.

1. Choice: Choose who you want to be to reach your goals. This is a great time to reflect and choose who you want to be or need to be to achieve the results you want. Discern between what you can and cannot change. You can’t change the bad weather; you can change your reaction to it.

2. Courage: We all need this to face the present and what could be happening in the future. But, don’t assume the future will be bad by what’s going on today. Stay strong in your convictions and commitments. Be honest with yourself. Be willing to confront your judgments and yourself. Know what you can and cannot change. You can’t change the stock market. Focus on what you can change. Above all, be gentle and compassionate with yourself.

3. Perspective: Listen to others and hear what they have to say. Try to silence your inner dialogue and really listen to them. They may be offering you joy, friendship or a different approach that could be the very answer to your problems.

4. Passion: What gets you fired up even when it’s zero degrees outside or sales are down? What’s that driving force that keeps you going in bad times? You want to know this and show it to your team. It’s the driver that will move you and your team forward.

5. Risk: Whether we like it or not, risk is all around us. We can’t avoid it. The key is to learn from it. Sir Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin, says you won’t always win but leaders dust themselves off, learn, get smarter and try something new.
All of these traits are covered in Success Television's corporate training video,The Wisdom of Caring Leaders. Instead of giving you more details on the lives of five well known leaders, our interviewer and former CNN anchor, Donald Van de Mark, digs deeply into their philosophies and applies what he has learned from them to live a more productive and satisfying life. The video shows how we can tap into our own leadership skills through choice, courage, perspective, passion and risk. We all can possess these skills or ways of being to succeed in any facet of our lives.

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*American Management Seminar on Leadership skills featuring The Wisdom of Caring Leaders Video. Read more>>