Leaders are risk takers...

Through the different books and assignments that we have done for class, I have realized another attribute of leadership is taking risks and having challenges. Leaders have to be willing to take risks in order to make changes. They accept the possibility of failure and this not only helps their followers realize that failures are acceptable but that failures are a learning experience. Also, leaders have to accept challenges and make challenges for themselves and their followers. If leaders never made challenges then they would not make changes and reach impressive goals.

In class, the individuals that stood up to become a team leader took a risk and accepted the challenge to lead a group. They did not know what their challenges and tasks would include throughout the semester but they took the chance. This is a very valuable quality of a leader. This allows leaders to constantly make changes and rise to a challenge. Leaders do not just avoid difficult situations but face them and try to improve them. I realized that taking risks and accepting very difficult challenges are not something that I do often, which is an extremely bad quality. Knowing this made me recognize that I need to change this in order to make myself a better leader. By learning the different characteristics that leaders have, I gain a better understanding on what areas I need to improve on to become a more effective leader and what qualities I already posess.