Contemporary business leadership calls for generous portions of decisiveness, coolness under fire, and results-oriented thinking. It also calls for courage in the face of conflicting demands. The ability to make trade-offs between people, resources, money, and deadlines — often causing short-term pain for the sake of long-term benefit — remains a vital element of effective leadership.

Likewise, leaders must be future-focused; they must know how their group or unit fits into the bigger organizational picture. They must be able to efficiently organize short-term tasks according to long-term priorities.

Perhaps one of the most important responsibilities of today's leaders is creating the conditions that enable employees to excel. To achieve this aim, the most successful leaders are also the most flexible: they have learned to adapt their leadership style to the situation.