Good teams need good leaders, of course.

Leadership qualities are sometimes hard to define, but in athletics, it usually comes down to winning. While good leaders usually do their best with the help of a strong supporting cast, there’s no question who those teams turn to in a pinch. Every leader has weaknesses, but he or she usually finds a way to overcome them.

Here are three who have — or have had — their teams rolling.

Ron Gardenhire

Strength: Ron Gardenhire, now in his ninth year as the Minnesota Twins manager, will square off against Joe Girardi and the New York Yankees in an American League Division Series starting today. Gardenhire has led the Twins to an American League Central title six of the past nine years and has only had one losing season in his Twins tenure.

Weakness: While the Yankees have proven to be the thorn in Gardenhire’s side (the Yankees have ousted the Twins from the playoffs three times since 2002), the Twins have two games in Target Field before traveling to Yankee Stadium.

Verdict: Gardenhire and the Twins use home-field advantage to beat the Yankees in Game 5.

Ricky Stanzi

Strength: The Iowa Hawkeye football team is 21-4 in its last 25 games, which is about the time Ricky Stanzi won the starting job halfway through the 2008 season. The senior signal caller has a career record of 23-6 and deserves a lot of the credit for Iowa’s recent success. He possesses the hard-to-define intangibles that make up a good leader, and he has the Hawkeyes sitting at 4-1 this season.

Weakness: Yeah, he was interception-prone in 2009, but the Hawks also finished 11-2 that year thanks in part to fourth-quarter comebacks led by Stanzi. In 2010, he has just two interceptions in five games.

Verdict: Stanzi will lead the 2010 Hawkeyes to at least a share of their first Big 10 title since 2004.

Brett Favre

Strength: It was apparent in 2009 that the Minnesota Vikings were a different team. The big difference? Brett Favre. Favre led the Vikings to a 12-4 regular season record and an NCF Championship game appearance. He finished the year with his best quarterback rating of his career (107.2).

Weakness: A 1-2 start this year has a lot of Vikings fans groaning and pointing to Favre’s ever-increasing age, but the soon-to-be 41-year-old (his birthday is Oct. 10) has improved each week and should hit full stride after a much-needed bye week. Favre is the all-time winningest NFL quarterback for a reason and should have one more good season in the tank.

Verdict: At some point Favre will probably need to retire, but he will bounce back and help the Vikes reach the NFC Championship game again.