What Makes a Leader?

Posted by Karen Chatterton on January 15, 2008

Leadership is vital to any successful venture be it school, office or professional sports team. Children are fairly astute at defining the essential capabilities of leaders. They have to choose leaders in their classes, p.e. teams, and even playground activities. When I asked them to tell me what the qualities of the Jazz team leader needed to be (official or unofficial), they came up the following responses rather quickly.

• “They have to be able to say that we should try doing something and see what happens. If it doesn’t work, we don’t cry about it, we change it until it does work. They have to be responsible and fair and listen to what others think and then talk it over. Everyone has different qualities, some people just aren’t leaders.” – Paige
• “To be a good leader, you have to be a good person. You don’t have to be the smartest man in the world, but they have to be wise and know how to get people to work together. You have to be clear about winning. A leader has to look after you.” – Allie
• “A good leader means that you can rely the other players and they rely on you. A good leader is not selfish and doesn’t ‘hog the attention’.” – Abi
• “A leader is a person who cares about others on his team and is not afraid to tell them what to do.” – Paris
• Ryan thought that the team’s leader had to be smart, take smart shots and not be selfish.

Taking responsibility, being fair, and having good listening skills seemed to be the themes echoed by the majority of the class members. They hear a lot about that in school because their jobs are to be good students. That is not a bad thought to end on. Or – maybe just one more thought, one student was passionate about having a team leader who puts the team before himself.

1 Comment

Linda McFarland on January 16, 2008 said:

Why can’t all the Jazz fans be as bright and knowlegable as these youngsters? Wouldn’t it be great if we didn’t have to grow up and form opinions such as thinking we know it all. Some blogs sound like if the Jazz organization would just hire them to make all the decisions we would be on the top all the time. We also have to remember that being on the top all the time can be very lonely. I would love to see the Jazz win every game but I don’t think they would learn much by doing that and then wins wouldn’t mean as much. I love the comments from your students. They are mature young people who make me feel better about the future.

Leave Your Comment

How do I get an avatar for my comments?
It is easy and completely free. Just go to Gravatar.com and sign-up with your email address. Gravatar is globally recognized, so your avatar will show on every Gravatar-enabled website or blog.