Week 1:
To be honest, I don't really know how I would define a leader exactly. One question that I struggle with is: are people just naturally born leaders, or can you teach yourself to become a leader? As of right now, I believe that a leader is someone within a group of people who takes control of a situation and starts taking action. A lot of the time the necessary actions (or better yet, what the leader believes to be necessary actions) are motivating and influencing the people around them.
Week 2:
After reading about the strengths, I still have questions. I still think a leader may be as I described last week, but now I think a leader must also have the strengths of self-assurance, adaptability, and responsibility. At my work place (YMCA School-aged Childcare), one of my colleagues, Robert was promoted to assistant site director (like an assistant manager) after just 6 months! However, another colleague, James, has been working there for four years and has tried unsuccessfully to get promoted several times. Robert told me that he was almost thrown into a position of leadership when his assistant site director quit. I predict that he has those three strengths that I listed above, particularly self-assurance. Self-assurance is like self-confidence and competency, where people with these strengths are "able to take risks, able to meet new challenges, able to deliver" (p. 65).
Clifton, D. O., Anderson, E., & Schreiner, L. A. (2006). StrengthsQuest: Discover and Develop Your Strengths in Academics, Career, and Beyond. New York: Gallup Press.
