Sally Helgesen, author of " The Female Vision: Women’s Real Power at Work," has found over her 25 years of experience that the most successful women have four things in common.

In her keynote at the Women Of The Channel Winter Workshop in New York City, Helgesen said her research found that successful women are visionary, connected, intentional and present.

"The strongest things women can do right now is to try to think about how well they represent being visionary, connected, intentional and present," Helgesen said.

Take a look at why she said those traits are important and how women can nurture those traits in themselves.

1. Visionary

Being visionary is important, especially for women, Helgesen said. She said several studies have shown that male leaders value a woman's ability to build relationships, communicate and negotiate, but are skeptical of their ability to be a visionary.

"This is an impediment in women positioning themselves for a top position," Helgesen said.

Everyone needs a vision for what they stand for and what they believe is important in the organization, she said. Then, they need to figure out how to increase the visibility around that vision.

Having a vision starts with something you notice, Helgesen said. For example, she said a woman named Laura at a life insurance company noticed that the company marketed only to policy holders and not beneficiaries. By making herself as the voice of the beneficiary in the company, Laura was not only able to make change in her company but also in her industry, which helped catapult her career.

Helgesen said that once women have a vision established, they should build a brand around it, articulate it, back it up and present the view to people who will really notice.

2. Connected

While women are great at building relationships, Helgesen said they aren't necessarily the best at leveraging those relationships.

"I believe one thing women can get much better at is using a language of benefit to develop more intentional alliances broadly," Helgesen said.

To break that barrier, Helgesen suggested statements such as: here's what I'm trying to do, here's what I'm trying to achieve, here's why I think it's important, here is how you can help. Then, Helgesen said to follow up those statements with a question: what can I do for you in return? Those combinations will help transform from building a relationship into leveraging one, she said.

"We want to build the strongest, most useful alliances we can and really leverage them because it's going to give us strength going forward and it’s a way we position ourselves as players with something to do," Helgesen said.

NEXT: Be As Present As Possible