SELF- CONFIDENCE

"There are three words a skipper never says,' I don't know'. Those three words will kill a crew as fast as a torpedo. You are the skipper because you do know, the skipper always knows." Said to Mathew McConaughey by Harvey Kietel in the film U-571. Self-confidence is the most important trait of a good leader. Self-confidence is what others look to when they look to a leader. A self-confident leader is a powerful leader that always has an answer to the follower's questions and always knows which direction to go. In the following paragraphs I will: define and describe self-confidence, explain why I picked it, describe how it works in action, describe an individual that embodies this quality and illustrate how
In the film Cliffhanger, John Lithgow's character says, "You kill one person and you are a murderer, you kill one hundred thousand, and you are a conqueror, go figure." To me this illustrates that there is a line that can be crossed in everything in life. Self-confidence to arrogance, murder to conquest. It's about finding that line and operating just above or below it. The skipper always knows. The leader that has inspired me since I knew who he was is a man that needs no introduction. I have developed my leadership style based upon this individual (and the faults of many terrible leaders I have had in the past) his name is Captain Jean-Luc Picard, played by Patrick Stewart. The day self-confidence became the trait in which I considered to be the most important was a Saturday in November of 1993. A new episode of Star Trek The Next Generation aired entitled "Attached." In this episode Captain Picard and Dr. Crusher are stranded on a planet and they are trying to figure out a way to get off. The catch is that their minds are linked together and they are able to hear each other's thoughts. Dr. Crusher is leading the way when she hits a fork in the road; she asks her Captain which way to go. Captain Picard