Title:  COO, STAR Group LTD

Laureen Ong is Chief Operating Officer of STAR, a wholly owned subsidiary of News Corporation and Asia's leading media and entertainment company, serving more than 300 million viewers across 53 Asian countries with over 60 television services in ten languages.

So what are some of the important characteristics that were necessary for Ms. Ong to be successful?

Media / Entertainment / Sports Career

Energy and Drive:  Being action oriented by recognizing and seizing opportunities.  Of course that is not enough as you must have clear goals that allow your actions to drive strong results.  As you get further along in your career, your experience and intuitive skills should allow you to make decisions faster without fear of acting on minimal amount of planning.  Too often people get analysis paralysis because they lack confidence in their decisions.

Courage:  This is the single most important trait that will separate the weak from the strong.  Are you willing to be the only champion for an idea position?  Can you be counted upon when times get tough and are you comfortable working alone on difficult assignments?  What about managerial courage as it relates to tough people calls; confrontation and conflict management.  Being willing to take things head on is a skill that gets better over experience and time. 

Personal and Interpersonal Skills:  As a leader how do you inspire and motivate your team.  Do you have a moral compass and can you walk your talk?  Being approachable; having compassion; humor; integrity and good listening skills build loyalty and make you a talent magnet.  You have all the other skills, but if you don’t have this EQ quotient you will limit your own success as a leader.

Strategic skills: Core to this is understanding the business you are in.  Once you have that mastered your business acumen, you can make complex decisions.  In order to hone your strategic skills however, you must innovate and constantly learn how to re-invent yourself and your business.