This is a guest post by Austin Hong. He was raised in Los Angeles, California before attending Boston College, where he studies Finance. Currently he is working for a legal management consulting firm in the Beacon Hill area of Boston, MA.
According to Warren Bennis, widely considered the pioneer of Leadership Studies, “The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born-that there is a genetic factor to leadership. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.” This notion and thought that there exists a “leadership gene” is the cause of widespread stunted confidence and leadership potential of an already self-conscience, often, confused demographic of students and young adults.
Many students are afraid of taking the risk to become a leader, because they are afraid that they don’t have the right personality or skill set to be an effective leader. After serving on student governments at both the secondary and university levels of education, on an executive board that served and represented 15 non-profit student chapters, in a Naval Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps company, and a number of other organizations and roles ranging from sports teams to businesses, I have learned a few things about what it means to be a student leader. I personally believe that becoming an experienced student leader sets up the foundation to becoming a more diversified and qualified leader in the workplace, amongst peers, or in any other scenario, where one might be required to lead others. Student leadership is possible!
1. Leaders are not born
If you haven’t already picked up on the fact that I am a firm believer in the statement that leaders are not born with the inherent knack for leading others, then I am here to make clear that I am. With this in mind, it is critical, especially as students and young adults, to have a student leadership mentor or model, because it is from him or her that we learn to become leaders ourselves. This chain can act in one of two ways.
The first and more common way is looking up to a leader and sharing common values with him or her, so much so that you begin to emulate their style.
The second is by serving under a leader only to learn that you disagree with their style of leadership in major or minor ways, causing you to alter your perception of a proper leader and not repeating his or her faults. A person will not shape his entire values and thoughts on leadership based on one individual, one leader, rather it is the culmination of every mentor, model, and significant figure that he or she has ever encountered that will shape him or her.
2. You are a Student Leader
The differences between yourself and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is that you are a leader second and a student first, among other things like a substantial difference in wealth and possibly you having a higher yearly income. More often than not, your real power as a student leader is marginal. Aside from the title and several public appearances, you wield little to no menacing force. Your “employees” aren’t concerned with losing their salary if they underperform. If they don’t particularly agree with you on a subject, they can just as easily walk away from the position leaving you with extra work and a stress-induced headache.
Because of this reason, it is crucial to always keep in mind that you are a student first, and as a student leader, your power and influence comes from your relationships. Create an environment and relationships that will allow others to enjoy being and working with you, otherwise there is a high chance they will choose to underperform their tasks or leave your team entirely.
3. “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” —US General Dwight Eisenhower
General Eisenhower had it right in his description of leadership, and it just so happens to cater perfectly to a student leader. A leader is not meant to force those he is leading to follow him, rather a leader should work to persuade them to want to follow him. Someone will want to follow a leader if they learn to see the value in him, his decision-making, and for lack of a better word, his leadership. As a student leader, it is necessary to form an intimate relationship with those that you serve besides and on, as it is this relationship that will allow others to see the value in you, as a leader.
4. Be driven by passion
I stated earlier that many potential leaders are frozen in fear from taking the risk to actually stepping into a leadership role; however, do not confuse this statement as an encouragement to chase after a position of leadership, simply for the sake of leading. A true passion must exist for the organization in order for you to become a successful leader, as well as for you to have the stamina to last the term. For many, this leap of courage into a leadership role is the hardest step, but having the drive that pushed you to leap, throughout the length of your position is just as difficult.
The only way to best prepare for this leadership burn-out is by being impassioned for the organization that you serve. Passion is the fire beneath a student leader that helps them sit through hours of meeting and planning for a single event. Passion will be the only thing keeping a student leader going when he’s up until 4 AM for the third night in a row, due to problems with administration that are out of his control. Passion will condition you to becoming a great leader, without it, both your organization and you, as a leader, will flounder.
Student leadership is more about others than it is about yourself. Student leaders are not branded at birth, they are molded throughout their lives. As student leaders, your power and influence comes from others rather than your own title, and you must be driven by your own passion for the organization and desire to see it grow and flourish.
“Be driven by passion” very good and motivating idea)