"Give an example of a time when you displayed leadership." It is a sentence that appears on most job or college applications. Sometimes it comes in other forms, such as, "Are you a natural leader?" or "Have you ever held a leadership position?"
Last weekend, a friend who has no interest in politics spent three full days moderating high school Model UN committees. When I asked her why, she said, "I need something leadership-y on my resume." I thought it was a terrible reason to throw away a weekend, but I couldn't argue with her - she was right. Employers and universities demand leadership experience whether it is relevant or not, and my friend will have an advantage over me in anything for which she applies.
But why is this? Why does this country put such a premium on something that by its very nature must be rare? While the phrase "all chiefs and no Indians" has fallen out of favor for obvious reasons, no saying more acceptable has come to replace it. That's a pity, because it expresses a truth that many seem to have forgotten: an organization can only work if most of its members are content not to take the lead.
There are two assumptions inherent in any routine question about leadership skills. The first is that it is always better to be a leader than a follower, no matter whom you are leading or where you are leading them. The second is that there are only two categories - leaders and followers - and that everyone falls into one or the other. The latter is the more harmful of the two assumptions because it completely ignores the possibility of independent action.
There are careers that do need leaders. Politics is an obvious example. But there are also plenty of good and important careers that do not. It is possible to be a good writer, a good actor, even a good journalist without ever having to boss around large groups of people. Meryl Streep may have leadership skills, but unless she gets into directing no one will ever see them, because they are not relevant. What all these careers do require, if people are to do well in them, is independent thought.
When a college interviewer asked me about leadership experience three years ago, I was caught off guard because I had never before realized that I had none. I came up with something so unconvincing that I don't even remember what it was. What I should have said was, "I don't have leadership experience because I don't want to be a leader. I can act independently, I can think for myself and I can give good advice. But I am not cut out to be a leader, and I know it."
If my interviewer had wanted proof, I could have told her about my one inadvertent brush with leadership: the time I found myself leading a group of Young French Communists down a boulevard of Paris. In my own defense, I was only trying to observe a French protest march, and I had no idea that they were Communists. At one moment I was shuffling along unobtrusively in the middle of a group of students. The next moment I had somehow reached the front of the crowd, a poster had been shoved into my hands and I was watching the cameras flash around me and reflecting that it was a good thing I had never planned to go into politics.
I am willing to bet that many of the "examples of leadership" that pad resumes and college applications are just as meaningless. For every two people on a club's executive committee who know what they are doing, there is probably one who is just as confused as I was when I led those Communists down the boulevard.
It all evens out, though, because most employers have no real need for leadership skills in their workers. Businesses that hire young college graduates are not looking for CEOs; they are looking for people who can take their place in a hierarchy, and who will happily boss around those beneath them while obeying every order of those above them. In such a hierarchy, "leadership" is a code-word for obedience, and independent thought is not only irrelevant but unwanted.
It is time that Brown, at least, stopped fostering this system of thought. Brown Outdoor Leadership Training does not teach leadership; it teaches you backpacking skills. If we stop tacking the word "leadership" where it does not belong, the people with real leadership skills will get more recognition. The rest of us can stick to what we do best - following, rebelling or just giving advice.
Katy Crane '07 does all three.
