Counterpoint: There is Nothing Wrong with NOT Being a Leader
Adults put far too much emphasis on leadership and leading when influencing children and young adults. Nearly all parents, teachers, and coaches encourage youth to aspire to be leaders. As a result, nearly all kids grow up imagining themselves one day being a leader.
However, by definition everyone can’t be a leader. It’s only a select few leaders who get to lead other leaders. For all other leaders, they have people who believe in them and who are happy to follow them. Furthermore, there is nothing wrong with believing in someone and being a happy and willing follower.
Unfortunately, if you listen to popular culture followers are sheep preparing for slaughter. Perpetuating this idea to kids is a mistake. The truth is that learning how to find good mentors, coaches, and leaders to learn from and follow is a skill that will impact success far more than one’s ability to lead.
A young person is far more likely to sabotage their future because of a choice to follow a bad leader than by not becoming a leader. This is why I believe it’s better for adults who want to emphasize leadership to do this by:
- Teaching the youth how to identify good leaders
- Encouraging the youth to display the qualities that would make a good leader want to have them on their team.
Ironically, these two things are pre-requisites for leadership. All good leaders learn from good leaders. Therefore, I think it’s best to focus on this dynamic of being a follower first instead of over emphasizing the aspects of leadership that focus on the hubris of leading.