All great leaders have a common quality, says Dean Thomas Cooley.

Question: What is the difference between leading a small business and a major corporation?

Thomas Cooley: You know, there-- it's a much bigger job leading a large corporation and there's some aspects of luck that determine who rises to the top in large corporations, but you know, they're all important skills.  And when you meet powerful business leaders, the one thing you do understand very clearly is that there is something about them that led them to rise to the top, that there are these definable characteristics of strong leaders.

Question: What are those characteristics?

Thomas Cooley: Well, they're, you know, a sense of assurance about what you're doing, a sense of vision about what your role in society is, and you know, the ability to articulate that vision, certainly self-confidence and a strong sense of values.

Recorded: 3/21/08