What Makes a Leader? Michael Korda

What do you think makes a good leader? A great leader? Name some great leaders in the world you admire and tell why.

American Presidents http://wenku.baidu.com/view/11628f4233687e21af45a936.html Pick out those presidents who are mentioned in the text.

Great leaders discussed (James Buchanan 15th) Abraham Lincoln (16th) Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR, 32nd) Harry S. Truman (33rd) Dwright Eisenhower (Ike, 34th) Adlai Stevenson II (defeated twice by Eisenhower)

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK, 35) Lyndon G. Johnson (LGJ, 36th) Hubert Horatio Humphrey (vice president under Johnson) Richard Nixon (37th) Gerald Ford (38th) Nelson Rockfeller (41th vice president under Ford) Jimmy Carter (39th) Ronald Reagan (40th)

Winston Churchill Vladímir Ilich Lenin Chairman Mao

The Depression of 1929 or the Great Depression is the longest and most severe economic depression ever experienced by the Western world. It began in the U.S. with the New York Stock Exchange Crash of 1929 and lasted until about 1939. By late 1932 stock values had dropped to about 20% of their previous value, and by 1933 11,000 of the U.S.'s 25,000 banks had failed. It led to the election of Franklin Roosevelt in the U.S. and major changes in the structure of the U.S. economy brought about by his New Deal.

The evacuation of Dunkirk refers to the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force and other Allied troops in WWII, cut off by the Germans, from the French seaport of Dunkirk to England. Naval vessels and hundreds of civilian boats were used in the evacuation, which began on May 26, 1940. When it ended on June 4, about 198,000 British and 140,000 French and Belgian troops had been saved. The success of the operation was due to fighter cover by RAF and (unintentionally) to Hitler's order of May 24 halting the advance of German armored forces into Dunkirk.

Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961. He resigned in 1974 because of his role in the political scandal known as the Watergate scandal. He resigned in 1974 because of his role in the political scandal known as the Watergate scandal.

F.D. Roosevelt overcame polio in his middle ages

Organization and development para 1.: lead-in para 2: timing of the staging of a leader paras 3-8: qualities of a great leader that distinguish him/(her) from the ordinary people paras 9-14: the difficulty of “finding” and “making” a leader lies in the very truth about “leadership”, a dialectical relationship between a leader and his people.

Illustration with Examples .     An obvious feature of the text is the abundant use of examples to illustrate the topic sentence or central idea of a paragraph. Evidence from Text Para. 2     Central idea: Leadership is as much a question of timing as anything else.     Illustrations: Three great statesmen Churchill, Roosevelt and Lenin at the time when their role was called for. Para. 3     Topic sentence: Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers.     Illustrations: The terse but forceful messages the three statesmen sent to their people respectively.

Para. 4     Central idea: Leaders … must have bigger-than-life, commanding features … A trademark also comes in handy.     Illustrations: LGJ's nose and ear lobes; Ike's broad grin; Lincoln's stovepipe hat, JFK's rocker. Para. 5     Topic sentence: It also helps for a leader to be able to do something most of us can't.     Illustration: FDR overcame polio; Mao swam the Yangtze River at the age of 72.

Para. 6     Topic sentence: Even television … doesn't altogether obscure the qualities of leadership we recognize, or their absence.     Illustrations: Television exposed Nixon's insecurity and Humphrey's fatal infatuation with his own voice. Para. 8     Topic sentence: … a leader must have the grace of a good dancer     Illustrations: He should be able, like Lincoln, FDR, Truman, Ike and JFK, to give a good, hearty, belly laugh, instead of the sickly grin that passes for good humor in Nixon or Carter. Ronald Reagan's training as an actor showed to good effect in the debate with Carter, when by his easy manner and apparent affability …

Para. 9    Central idea: People can only be led where they want to go. The leader follows, though a step ahead.     Illustrations: Americans wanted to climb out of the Depression and needed someone to tell them they could do it, and FDR did. The British believed that they could still win the war after the defeats of 1940, and Churchill told them they were right.    

From para. 9 on, the focus shifts to the very truth about “leadership”, a dialectic relationship between a leader and his people.

Para.10 (elaboration and illustration) A leader rides the waves, moves with the tides. (顺应时势) He (must) understand the deepest yearning of his people. His purpose must match the national mood. His task is to focus the people’ energies…,to define…, to inspire, to make what people already want seem…

Para.11 “Above all, he must dignify our desires,…” Collations of the word “dignify” in the context Exemplification: Churchill’s sheer rhetoric; FDR’s words A leader must stir our blood, not appeal to our reason.

Para.12 A great leader must have a certain irrational quality, a stubborn refusal to face facts, infectious optimism, the ability to convince us that there is still hope even when we believe there isn’t. “While the advisors of a great leader should be as cold as ice, the leader himself should have fire, a spark or divine madness” . How is this sentence related to the previous para.?

Para.13 He （A great leader ）won’t come until we are ready. The leader is like a mirror: to reflect back to us our sense of purpose; to put our own dreams and hopes into words (to express our dreams and hopes); to transform our needs and fears into policies and programs.

Para.14: what makes a leader? To sum up: We, the people make a leader. He is merely the sum of us.