On Leadership

Most of us have at least a couple of memories from the playground days. And most of us will remember that one girl who bossed all the other kids around. This girl was superbly annoying, like in-your-face-my-way-or-the-highway kind of annoying. She sought for order amongst her playground subjects and her high throne was the best swing on the set (her name having been etched on the bottom of the rubber seat. Ownership rights right there). This girl was me. At least five year old me, when I ran crying to my father that my neighborhood buddies "wouldn't do what I said!"

While I no longer expect people to do as I say, and my labeled swing is half a country away, I have become a bit of a leader in and out of school (I prefer the term 'instigator', as 'leader' sounds a bit pompous and 'instigator' has a bit of a fun factor to it.) As I have moved into this sort of role, I have learned a lot, and have plenty more to learn still. Leadership is so much more than directing groups of people or looking fabulous. What's more, leaders are nothing without the team of people that helped make things happen in the first place. When so many people are relying on you to have all the answers, the stress is enormous.

In my school, I have started an online magazine (the name? East Coast Instigator). My school focuses on students building an education around their passions, and real world learning. Unfortunately, most high schoolers seeking a writing internship are disappointed by futile searches for opportunity. What my magazine serves to do is provide a platform where students can exhibit their writing, opinions, and art work. Students get to have their work published and build a writing portfolio that can hopefully get them their dream internship, proving themselves as writers. Of course, keeping a team of students together, and everyone meeting their deadlines, and work going missing... It gets a bit hairy (welcome to the world of publishing.) I've had difficulty motivating students to get work in on time, but it has gotten better. Being in charge is stressful. There is the meticulous planning of meetings, things going awry. What I have learned here is that having the power to give others assignments means nothing until they are actually motivated to do it themselves; essentially, they do it because they want to.

Really, I think that is the key to good 'leadership'. If you can get someone to do what you want without having to make them do it, you've done something right. And often, like me, people get thrown into these roles. Maybe my background as Ruler of the Cul-de-sac and the Supreme Reign on the Playground remained just under the surface, causing me to be thrown into the hot seat. I guess things began to click when the bossy five year old girl was thrown right into her element. In the ever wise words of Dumbledore, "Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must...find to their own surprise that they wear it well."