Leadership Skills

To be successful in business, you need outstanding leadership skills. You should be able to command a
room and inspire a team of associates to perform at their best.

Unafraid to Take Risks

A great business leader has an entrepreneurial spirit and is not afraid to take risks to advance the
business and improve revenues.

Competitive Spirit

A sense of competition helps to propel the best business men and women to the forefront of the
industry. The desire to do better than similar organizations can prove vital to your success.

A Good Intellect

Thorough knowledge of the business world, as well as of technology, economics, politics, history, and
other matters, is important for business leaders. Intellect helps to cultivate a global perspective and
sparks creativity.

Ability to Take the Initiative

Initiative is important in business as it continually pushes people to work harder, learn more, and
perform better.

Solid Communication Skills

Great communication skills are essential, as no business transaction is a solitary endeavor. Business
leaders must be able to communicate effectively in writing and orally to ensure the highest levels of
efficiency.

Ambition

The most successful business leaders have unrelenting ambition. They have lofty goals and do whatever
it takes (within legal limits, naturally) to achieve those goals.

A Reliable Nature

Great business men and women are unfailingly reliable. They can be counted on to get the job done and
always make a positive contribution.

Personal and Professional Integrity

A keen sense of integrity is important to ensure that business transactions are conducted with ethics in
mind. A successful business person conducts him or herself in a respectable manner and always acts
fairly and responsibly.
Likeability

Great business leaders have great personalities. Their colleagues, superiors, and subordinates respect
them and enjoy working with, or for, them. They are able to make networking contacts and use them to
help fuel the business along.

Find your inner coach.

What you think about yourself, your abilities, financial gains (or losses) and your assessment of your
ability to succeed becomes what you might actively live out. Actions follow thoughts.

To be successful, choose your thoughts wisely and deliberately.

When your attitude is unproductive and you need to shift from a negative thought pattern, draw upon
your inner coach: Reprogram fearful, defeatist thinking toward thoughts charged with power, conviction
and faith. Focus on your ability to meet your goals.

Learn to coach yourself into a productive state of mind. This coaching can lead to forward movement
and can be reignited anytime you face a setback.

Think of your attitude with this equation: Energy = Motion. From this paradigm, attitude determines
movement forward or back.

2. Determine incentives.

Discover what motivates you to take action. Think back to what has inspired you to make changes in
your life and pursue your goals. Knowing why you do what you do is vital to your current motivation and
passion.
Is your incentive financial gain? Is it self-preservation, stability, anger or fear? Having clear incentives can
instantly shift your attitude to a positive one.

When you can motivate yourself toward a goal, your attitude becomes infused with your inner power,
enthusiasm and passion. Your outlook on business is elevated. You walk faster, smile more and carry a
posture of self-assuredness, all of which draws even more success your way.

Related: Want to Ace Your New Year's Resolutions? Remember, Attitude Is Everything.

3. Set benchmarks.

Select benchmarks to help you visualize goals so they seem to be right before you as you strive to
develop your skills. To maintain an attitude of enthusiasm, create benchmarks of success and think
about them intentionally and consistently.

The more deeply you believe a goal will come to pass, the more likely it will be. This type of mental
practice keeps your attitude positive and directed toward attainment of success. I believe you naturally
strive toward what you visualize.

4. Manage anxiety.

When challenges surface in business, you might experience a loss of control over emotions and
thoughts. To remain optimistic, discipline your mind to stay clear of catastrophic thoughts and the "what
if" slippery slope of anxiety.

Anxiety is simply fear projected forward. Remind yourself that a "what if" is not happening now: It is just
a story. Focus on what you can control right now. Each thought is a seed you plant that programs your
attitude and your subsequent behavior. To keep a great attitude, learn to focus your mind on solutions,
not problems.
Related: Become More Positive With These 5 Tips

5. Create a positive impression.

To reach your peak potential on the climb to success, be driven and shrewd but also happy and
enjoyable to work for and with. The heights of success attained grow the more infectious your energy
appears to other people.

Your personal vibe can either repel people or draw them in.

When you carry an attitude of excitement and vigor, this transfers to those around you and increases
business morale. If your attitude is gregarious, infectious and all about living life to its fullest, you seem
to have unlimited potential: You positively motivate others to support your attempt to achieve even
higher levels of success.

6. Show your hunger.

Be hungry for success. That way a natural eagerness will permeate your attitude. It will seem that you
cannot wait to get to work and put that hunger into motion.

This hunger becomes the emotional "speaker of the house." This energy serves as the driving force
behind your attaining your goals when you have 100 percent commitment to what you are doing.

Total commitment cuts through doubt.

Related: Deepak Chopra on the Entrepreneurial Soul

7. Find the deeper meaning.

Connecting with your spiritual empowerment system will nuture your soul -- and your business. The
deeper the connection you feel to the purpose of your business the more you will experience your
higher life purpose as being expressed through your work.

Your business is a place where you have the ability to impact others positively on a grand scale. This type
of empowerment gives meaning to what you're working for. You are able to see that your purpose is
powerful and helpful in the lives of others, which further strengthens you to do what you do.

8. Carry some lightheartedness.

Find the humor and lighter side of life as you climb the ladder of success. This will decrease your stress.
The less stress you feel, the more positive energy you will have available to support your hard work.

To be lighthearted is a great skill that lightens up the business environment around you. It adds charisma
(a highly attractive quality) to your persona and breeds trust and the desire of others to want to work
with you and for you.

Related: 10 Ways to Make This the Year You Sleep Better

9. Engage in physical activity.

One of quickest ways to shift from a negative attitude is to change your physiology. If you are stressed,
physical activity provides a quick release. This can help you cleanse a negative thought pattern and
redirect your energy to seeing the positive.
Exercise (or movement of any sort) propels you into an altered state of mind, letting you increase your
optimism. Movement provides a natural stress release, ideal for continued motivation and mental
clarity. If you can't hit the gym on a stressful day, escape the office for a 15-minute walk to shift your
outlook.

10. Aim for self-mastery.

To be successful, understand two things you have control over: your thoughts and feelings. If you are
naturally more pessimistic, take responsibility for consciously selecting your attitude.

Exude positivity in your work ethic and in your interactions with others. When you master your inner
world, you can dominate your outer world.

In the business world where every person has the same access to strive to build their resources, talent,
finances, technology and the like, a person is often successful because of determination, resilience and
attitude.

In business, attitude is everything. If you believe you can succeed, you very well might. Your attitude
about success can become your self-fulfilling prophesy. Choose to be a victor.