Not everyone needs to be a leader

Our obsession with leadership is undermining the cultivation of good citizens

I teach a course on psychoeducational assessment for psychology doctoral students, and last week, we reviewed the evaluation of a ninth grader. We were discussing the results of the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC), a questionnaire commonly used to assess kids' social and emotional functioning, and one of the scores jumped out at me – the kid had scored below average on the 'Leadership' subscale, and the low score was flagged as a concern.

I paused. When did we start measuring leadership in children as a marker of healthy development? And more importantly, when did a lack of leadership qualities become something to worry about?

It occurred to me that the BASC score reflects a broader cultural obsession with leadership, which manifests in myriad ways. There has been a recent proliferation of leadership programs, leadership summer camps, and leadership service projects, which let twelfth graders pad their resumes with a litany of leadership positions.

But the glorification of leadership has rendered the concept meaningless. The word 'leadership' has been stretched so thin it's become transparent. Every activity, every role, every contribution must somehow be reframed as leadership. Started a club? Leadership. Joined student council? Leadership. Helped a younger student with homework? You guessed it – leadership. Even teachers encourage students to act like "classroom leaders,” but what does that actually entail? Helping to pass out papers? Being the first to raise their hand? Following directions well? The word “leadership” has become education jargon's equivalent of a rubber band, stretched around any positive behavior until it's lost all shape.

But the thing about leadership that nobody seems to want to acknowledge is that there is a logical fallacy baked right in. If everyone is meant to be a leader, who exactly is left to follow? It's like trying to build a pyramid where every block is at the top.

Worse still, the obsession with leadership actively corrodes the social fabric of our schools. It transforms every classroom, every club, every activity into another arena for competition. Students are constantly jockeying for positions that will demonstrate their leadership capabilities. It’s an absurd arms race in which every student must somehow be in charge and be ahead of their peers. It's exhausting, it's stressful, and most importantly, it doesn't bring out the best in kids.

What if, instead of this relentless push for leadership, we made room to celebrate other equally valuable qualities? What if we recognized the power of being a reliable team member, a good collaborator, and an empathetic friend? What if we acknowledged that some of the most important contributions come from people who aren't interested in leading, but rather in making sure everything runs smoothly?

Here's the kicker: when you look at how the BASC actually defines leadership – 'the ability to accomplish goals in academic, social, or community settings, and to work well with others' – it's not really describing leadership at all. It's describing citizenship.

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Still trying to avoid spoilers but the Wicked movie is 85% of what I think about in any given day.