[M.K. Thompson]Taking turns leading, following

In his editorial for the KAIST Herald, Yurim Park worries that without an understanding of true leadership and the altruism required, "today`s education (may be) manufacturing dictators that will manipulate thousands." He fears that once a leader "has accepted the position as his natural place, he or she will lose recognition of that ... responsibility" and may begin to abuse his or her position and "followers."

This is not a totally unfounded concern. History is full of examples of brutal autocrats who put their well being above the welfare of their people. But those examples are also extreme cases.

Most student leadership positions are not filled by power hungry monsters. They are filled by overwhelmed, overloaded, well-intentioned individuals who are desperately trying to keep their projects afloat. Their "followers" are not spineless, soulless and directionless. They are classmates, friends and family who do what they can to help a person and a cause that they care about. They must be treated well, respected for their efforts, and thanked for their support. Their shortcoming must be forgiven and constraints must be accommodated. Their ideas and input must be considered. Their critiques must be accepted with as much grace as you can muster.

Ultimately all organizations are composed of volunteers and the quality of the work that they do is strongly dependent on how happy and motivated they are. If you are a poor leader, your constituency has no reason to work hard for you. If you annoy them, they may actively try to undermine your efforts in retribution for poor treatment. If you treat them terribly, eventually they will quit -- or have you replaced.

In this entire discussion, there has been an implication that leadership is binary: there are leaders and there are followers, both different and distinct. But this is not always true. In many fields, there is no permanent leader and no way to become "too comfortable" with the position. Instead, individuals take turns leading the group. You may be the supervisor for one project and a team member in another.

In some academic departments, the faculty members take turns serving as department head for two years at a time. Their actions while in office will earn them the respect of their peers ... or a reputation that will haunt them for years. It can be a tricky situation to be in.

In the end, almost every leader is also a follower (helper, supporter, team member, and team mate). In large organizations, everyone is a supervisor and is supervised. I supervise my graduate students. I am supervised by my department head. I am leader and follower at the same time.

Sometimes you have to trade between leader and follower. During my time at MIT, I organized a number of activities. I was lucky to be supported by my friends. But I also worked for friends who were running activities of their own.

Being a good leader clearly means being able to stand up for what you believe. Sometimes this means expressing your doubts about the direction of your project. But being a good leader also means being a good follower. It is important to know when to silence your inner doubts for the good of the group and accept the leadership of people you respect.

Yurim Park says, "Students should learn when and when not to take the place of a leader, (and) when and when not to stand as a leader."

Ultimately it comes down to: lead, follow, or get out of the way. In life you will find that occasionally you have to do all three. Learning when each is the most appropriate can be very difficult. But teaching it may be impossible.

Finally, sustainability is another big issue in student leadership and service. Starting a new initiative is more glamorous than maintaining one. But the four-year turnover of high school and college students can make sustainability much more challenging. How do we teach our students to take responsibility for the future of the programs they create?

There are no easy answers here. Leadership comes with experience. Our educational systems try to provide opportunities and motivation to gain that experience. But it is not clear that students are really learning what we had hoped from those activities. It may be that leadership can only be learned in authentic environments with genuinely difficult and important problems, real potential for success, and real consequences for failure.

In the meantime, we need to focus less on what students are doing and more on why the students are doing it. If they can focus on the larger context of their work and the greater value of it -- outside of the college admissions process -- then they may begin to develop a greater appreciation of what leadership really is.