What Makes a Great Leader?

Leader: a person that guides or directs.

What makes a leader, a leader? I mean what are the exact qualities? My favorite leaders in history are St. Joan of Arc, Queen Elizabeth I, and George Washington. The reasno why I like these 3 so much, well... it would take forever to talk about each person listed here. I would rather dedicate a blog posting for each of them. So for now because I'm tired and don't feel like writing a lot I will briefly talk about each leader.

• St. Joan of Arc- She was about 14 years old when she was approached by God to go the kingdom and convince the King that she was going to lead an army of men, without any education, experience, or status. She goes there and is able to convince the King to let her lead the army. At first she didn't have the men's respect but she soon did and lead them to many victories. She was burned at the stake, but because the King feeling guilty and inspired continued the war, leading his country to victory against the British and he did it in honor of Joan.



• Queen Elizabeth I- She had gone through a great deal of ups and downs in her lifetime. She took a country that was a great deal in debt and switched it all around. She was hated by many, had many obstacles to overcome, and did it all with very little support. That's admirable.



• George Washington- Yes this sounds so typical but for a long time until just recently I honestly thought he was overated( and I am a huge American Revolutionary buff you could say, so for me to not know some things about this man surprised me). I mean he made so many mistakes, heck he basically started the French and Indian Revolution, he did end it to. He also lead an messed up army, with a nation that ws just starting and he learned from all of his mistakes.
  

There are other factors of course that make them awesome, but that would take up a whole blog past.

I really do want to figure out what it takes to be a great leader, not because I would like to be one, but I think people should learn. Yes there is a part of me that honestly believes that I will be a leader of some kind someday. I don't know how or when, but whenever that happens I want to be ready. I'm not saying that I'm going to be famous or will lead an army. I know that is not my path. What I'm saying is that if I am going to be a leader someday, I want to be ready.

So for know I honeslty have no idea what the qualities are, cause yes there are the obvious answers: honesty, dedication, dependence, etc. The thing is though, many people can have those qualities and aren't leaders or can't be for some reason.

So my question is, "What Makes a Great Leader?"