What Makes a Good Leader?

 What is a leader?

“The person who leads or commands a group, organisation, or country.”

A leader to me is someone who is able to gain someone’s respect, and to lead them in any way or matter, politically, in the military, someone as simple as a mother or a father. If leaders would not be respected, who would follow them, so in theory, this “leader” is an icon to people, someone people look up to and willingly follow them. To be a leader you also need qualities in your own way, integrity, ability to delegate, communication, self-awareness, gratitude, learning agility, influence, empathy etc. Leaders also have the power to convince someone, to persuade into believing and seeing something from their own point of view. They also motivate people, bring energy into them to do something. 

Kate Sheppard is a great example of a leader. She was born on the 10 of March 1848 till 13 July 1934. Kate Sheppard was the most prominent member of the women's suffrage movement in New Zealand and the country's most famous suffragist. Kate was born in Liverpool, England, she emigrated to New Zealand with her family in 1868. In New Zealand she became an active member of various religious and social organisations, including the Women’s Christian Temperance Union New Zealand (WCTU NZ). In 1887 she was appointed WCTU NZ’s National Superintendent for Franchise and Legislation, a position she later used to advance the cause of women’s suffrage in New Zealand. Kate promoted women’s suffrage by organising petitions and public meetings, writing letters to the press, and contacting politicians. She was also the editor of the first-women operated newspaper in New Zealand. Through Kate’s skilful writing and persuasive public speaking, she advocated women’s suffrage. Her pamphlets contributed to this cause. This work turned into a petition with 30,000 signatures calling for women’s suffrage which was presented to the parliament. As a result, New Zealand became the first country to establish universal suffrage.

To sum it all up, Kate believed. She believed in something, and she carried that out, and found that lots of people believe it too, that women had the right to vote. So Kate took her beliefs and convinced people to take a stand with her and fight for what they thought was the right thing to do. That’s what leaders do.