Obsessed: The New Class of Youth Leaders
image by Genevieve Morrison
Our culture values leaders. From youth leadership conferences to student government, American society pushes young people to be at the top of their class. But why? Why has a population of self-proclaimed “leaders” when you could have a community of cooperative individuals? This obsession with leadership is only breeding a new populace with little regard for each other, instead always vying for the title of “leader.”
The biggest qualm I have with this phenomenon is its distance from reality. At my school, I am the executive board secretary for my class, captain of the softball team, opinion editor for my school newspaper, and have even attended a youth leadership conference. However, possessing these titles means very little about my actual skill at the given task. At the end of the day, I could be horrible at these jobs and you would never know. All because I have the title. There are people who are better at sports, writing, and fundraising than me who don't get the recognition that I do. Unfortunately, that's what all of these leadership initiatives are chasing: titles.
I would even go so far as to say that the most talented people don't lean towards leadership. This could be because they are introverted, or maybe simply because they don't want to. This should be a decision that every person makes for themselves. However, societal pressure often pushes these people into leading roles that they don't want and aren't necessarily good at.
I am not under any delusion that training young people to be leaders is a negative thing. However, it does reassign some values. Instead of promoting collaboration and interpersonal communication, it highlights skills that make reinforce authority. The keynote speech of the leadership conference that I attended was even on how to make it seem like you are paying attention when someone is talking to you. Throughout the conference that I attended, I saw my peers grow a sense of confidence I had not seen before. After a whole weekend of being told that we are special, different, the future leaders of society; a sense of entitlement was palpable among the attendees. At the end of the day, influence is a double-edged sword. Not only is it powerful on a college application, but also in day-to-day life. Especially in the hierarchical model of American society, the head of an initiative is given the utmost respect. It would be naive to assume that all of these emerging leaders are capable of not letting this power go to their heads. In small doses, youth leadership is empowering, but the phenomenon that I observe now is not exactly what the doctor ordered.
The only defining trait of leadership is influence. Its very definition implies hierarchy. For every leader, there are followers. The other attributes that go into it, like conflict resolution and empathy, are somewhat lost; overshadowed by the authority that the leader holds. At the core of it, leadership is not so much about uplifting those select few who are deserving of the title "leader" as it is establishing dominance over the others.
Like many things nowadays, this obsession with youth leadership is driven by the college application process. In such a competitive environment, students are desperate to find something that will differentiate them from the masses. Occupying a leadership role is a simple and impressive-looking fix to this problem. Another box to check on the ever-growing list of unrealistic expectations for students. I genuinely enjoy all of the leadership positions I hold. However, as an incoming high school junior, I would be lying if I said my pursuit of a laundry list of titles wasn't somewhat motivated by the impending college application process. After all, leadership is one of the few qualities that you can actually see on a resume. Qualities like resilience and empathy can be implied by success, but leadership can be tangibly confirmed by a fancy job title.
This focus on leadership is largely a capitalist one. Even in the smaller-scale environment of youth leadership, the influence of capitalism shines through. Not so much in the way that it encourages leaders, but in the way it dissuades community. The corporate world would rather maintain a restrictive social order than a team of collaborative individuals. Especially in recent years, The best workers are the ones that would rather lead than follow, are willing to take initiative, and can positively influence their subordinate coworkers. No matter the true motivations of these leadership initiatives for young people, every time I encounter them, I feel like I'm being prepped for an office job in corporate America.
In recent years, our society has stepped away from this pecking order, with offices and schools evolving to be more community-driven rather than led by an executive. However, when I look around my peers and see a new emerging class of self-proclaimed leaders, I know we are doomed to take these steps backward.