Intro
1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.
2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.
We hear about world leaders on the news every day. Before they led nations, they led companies or communities. There are leaders all around us. Maybe you’re a leader, too.
No matter what they are leading, leaders rarely have an easy job. They don’t just make decisions. They also have to convince people that their decisions are the right ones. Recently, the US elected President Joe Biden. This has Mason and Sara thinking about leaders. Listen to them discuss leaders in this leadership English lesson.
Dialog
1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.
2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.
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Mason: I’m trying to figure out really what are the traits that I define in a good leader.
Sara: What have you come up with?
Mason: The big thing is, do I trust them? Like, what I want to believe in my leader is that they’re not dogmatically just going after their vision, but that their vision is informed by multiple points of view. That everything has been considered, and then they have the point of view that they are trying to rally everyone around.
Sara: Right! Like, someone who is a good listener, but when the time comes can do what they need to do with everything they’ve listened to and take decisive action.
Mason: Yeah, definitely. Leaders decide stuff, and leaders are always going to get criticism because not everyone will agree with their decision. But moving forward is generally more important than making everyone happy.
Sara: Do you think the same qualities make a good leader of, say, a sports team or a theater group as the same qualities that make a good leader for a president?
Mason: Yeah, like who is someone that you can feel trust in and that is listening and considering all sides, but then ultimately stepping forward and saying “OK, here is what we’re going to do.” There’s also sort of a quality around building consensus, like, it’s really tough to get everybody rallied around, but if you can get as many people as possible, and help them feel included in what we’re all trying to do, that is very important as well.
Grammar Point
Go Super to learn "Simple Future Tense" from this lesson
Quizzes
Lesson MP3
The iTEP® test
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Discussion
Since Joe Biden was recently elected President of the US, Mason is thinking about what makes a good leader. He asks Sara to help him identify traits that all leaders have.
Sara and Mason agree that in addition to making decisions, leaders have to listen to many points of view, try to build a consensus, and rally everyone around something. One bad quality a leader can have is being dogmatic.
They agree that the same things that make world leaders great, also make leaders of smaller things like companies and theater groups great as well.
What do you think makes a good leader? Are you a leader? Who is the best leader you know?
Comments
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