Leadership roles are changing in today's global environment, and while dedication, hard work and decisiveness are still critical qualities, aspiring leaders should also be flexible enough to meet new demands and assignments in order to navigate the business world.

It also helps to be provided with a bit of luck.

"I'll be dead-honest," said Jana R. Schreuder, executive vice president and head of Corporate Risk Management for Northern Trust Corporation. "I haven't said 'no' to anything that was put in front of me."

Some may think that Schreuder has been fairly lucky in her work experience. However, make no mistake; it takes serious dedication and dynamic leadership skills to make it all work.

"I have been fortunate in that nothing has been presented to me that I'd say 'I can't do that' or 'I won't do that,'" she said. "I don't mean it was luck that I was offered it; I'm lucky that what I have been offered has been enticing to me. Initially, I put my head down, worked hard and figured that the outcome would evidence my leadership ability." But, I learned along the way, leadership takes much more than hard work and good results.

Throughout the past 25 years Schreuder has taken on assignments and projects that would not have been for the feint of heart. Not many people would have run an e-commerce division after having been on the Internet only once.

While an appreciation for technology is important, Schreuder believes that a leader at any level should have an overall strategic view. One should be able to apply the proper instincts and provide direction that is needed to make a project or team or a business successful.

"I think the most successful leader has a bit of tactical understanding, some functional knowledge, and appreciation for technology," said Schreuder. "Otherwise they won't know the right questions to ask or the right direction to steer or how to listen to the people on the technical line that really do see things first, but don't always know what they are seeing or know why it's important."

This is illustrated in today's global market where it has become even more important for leaders to stay connected with their workforce. It is not uncommon today for co-workers to be in separate time zones, countries or even continents. Some employees have never actually met their boss face-to-face.

While this may provide new opportunities and open more markets for many companies, it also presents many new challenges for business leaders who have to motivate and monitor employees across the globe. Even if a manager may be many time zones away from his/her team, a good leader still must be able to hold a team together.

"The bigger the organization is, the more global it is," she said. "I think communication, setting a tone, establishing a mindset and clear goals is critical to have everybody---all your technical experts---rolling in the same direction. The more spread out, you require more connection, more consistency across great distances.

This means that leaders are also faced with the challenge of bridging into new cultures and engaging employees or partners that may not be familiar with American business practices. They must be able to recognize these differences and then assess and handle each situation with the same degree of efficiency.

"A leader has to work with lots of different people with lots of different positions, and lots of different cultural backgrounds," she said. "Somebody's got to take the bonus of assessing and pulling it all together regardless of differences, or maybe because of the differences and pull them out and leverage them. I think this is part of what a leader's got to do today."

As if dealing with the intricacies of global partnerships and inner-corporate relations is not difficult enough, competition has risen as well. As more opportunities have presented themselves across the globe, there are also more companies willing to take them away. Leaders must be ready to live up to the increasing stakes.

"The competitive situation has changed radically," she said. "Leadership decision-making prioritization has to come in, but it's got to be done in the context of a leader who is willing to make the hard decisions."

With her experience, Schreuder has developed a keen eye for what it takes to become a leader in today's market. Many of the basic principals for leadership will always remain, such as decisiveness or being able to communicate and articulate ideas to a group.

However, today's leader should also be willing to take different chances or ask for different challenges than those in past generations have. With the nature of a global economy, an employee should be ready to not only change positions at any given moment, but they should also be ready to work and live in a different geographical location.

"Don't stay in an assignment too long," said Schreuder. "There isn't a particular set of months or years around that; but always be looking for how you can continually add more and build more. Don't get too comfortable."

"The minute you are really comfortable and say, 'I've got it, I know what to do,' think about a change. And part of that change somewhere in that career should include geographical diversity."