The Qualities of a Good Leader

In the novel Animal Farm, intelligence, identified in and by the pigs, is the primary qualification for leadership. However, leadership cannot be determined primarily be intelligence. Intelligence is a term for someone who is smart and has the ability to acquire knowledge and skills. Though an intelligent one can acquire knowledge and skills, applying them in terms of leadership is a different task at hand. Now, what are the tasks for a good leader? A leader is not only someone who is able to successfully lead a group of people to victory in a battle or even be the boss at all times. A leader is someone who is respectful to each individual and thinks not of each man for himself, but rather values the idea of community and strong views of others. Letting each and every person's voice be heard is a plus for the community, as the leader has a clear vision and picture on how their society should run and what aspects should be involved to make the community a strong, bound-together extended-family. For example, you can view leadership as a painting. The "intelligence" is the plan for the painting: acquiring the knowledge and skills is similar to gathering materials and creating a plan. The actual result of the painting is the masterpiece: a community created with a strong leadership. Each and every color on the painting represents a person's thoughts, views, and opinions. With the array of rainbow colors comes the strength, found in a leader.

For our Animal Farm Society group challenge, our leader was chosen on three main qualities: responsibility, understanding, and willing to take order and contribute to our society. With responsibility comes respect and intelligence. One who is responsible enough realizes how to treat others and form a harmonious union of people, while still bringing order to the community. The term "understanding" not only means to be comprehensive, but to actually apply that understanding knowledge and be able to mend any issues found in our society. Lastly, but certainly one of the most important, comes willing to be a LEADER. When someone has the intentions of being a leader, they must contribute their efforts to actually getting their job and role done. Our leader was willing to be a leader and wanted to help our society to be as successful as possible, caring about each and every member of our group. Being a leader is no easy task, but having the courage and motive to be a leader gets you halfway there.