Leadership is the ability to guide, direct, or influence people. A good leader can do all of this while maintaining the approval of the people that he or she is leading. Some people want a leader to take control and others want a leader that is more flexible and will allow them to have a say in what the leader does. Due to this, leadership depends a lot on the people being lead.A good leader needs to know what kind of people they are leading because that should effect how they lead. People do not respond to the same things. For example, my little brother absolutely needs a strict authority figure in order to operate because he will try to take advantage of a more democratic leader. I on the other hand, respond better to the more friendly democratic type of leader because when some one is trying to strictly lead me I get into a rebellious attitude, which hinders my performance, and the ability of my leader to lead.A good leader should show strength and compassion. I cannot even imagine what would happen if an Army General showed even the slightest bit of fear during a battle. The leader needs to hold the group together and keep them strong.A leader needs to do what needs to be done for the welfare of his followers. This is where things get tricky because most of the time the people being lead dont know what is really the best thing for them. This makes the job of a leader very difficult because they need to decide whether to do what is best for the group as a whole or to do what his followers want him to do. By doing what the leader thinks is needed he may be jeopardizing his position as leader, however by doing what his followers want him to do he may be jeopardizing the group. Many people do not think in the long term, therefore, they Probably will not see that what there leader is doing is what is best for him to do for the group as a whole. A leader needs good subordinate leaders so that he can do what the people want ...
