Gen Y’s perceptions of “leadership”

Here’s a headline that completely misses the point: “Many Potential Leaders of Tomorrow Reject the Role.” Yesterday's Washington Post article reported the findings of a nationwide survey (a random sample of more than 4,000 young people ages 8 to 17) and determined that the key take-away was “a majority of children and youths in the United States have little or no interest with achieving leadership roles when they become adults, ranking ‘being a leader’ behind other goals such as ‘fitting in,’ ‘making a lot of money’ and ‘helping animals or the environment.’ ” But read on, and you’ll see that what’s really going on is not necessarily that members of Gen Y don’t want to become leaders, but that when young people hear an adult refer to “leadership,” they assume the adult is referring to top-down management—whereas in their own minds, young people define leaders as “people who prize collaboration, stand up for their beliefs and values, and try to improve society.” So to me, the key take-away is more what Peter Levine, director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, is quoted as saying: “They prefer horizontal leadership in which everyone’s a leader.” This is definitely something to keep in mind as colleges tout their leadership development programs.

h/t Ypulse