A leadership title isn’t a leadership experience

When we began researching student leadership this summer, I was mostly interested in what helps student leaders succeed. We surveyed 271 student leaders from 44 states and Washington, D.C., along with 37 advisors. We asked about the challenges students face, the support they receive, how leadership transitions work, and what students find most helpful.

But as we worked through the responses, I became interested in another question: What does a leadership title actually tell us about what a student has learned to do? Probably less than I had assumed.

The same title can mean very different things

Think about two students who are both presidents of school organizations. One helps set the organization's priorities, plans meetings, manages a budget, coordinates other students, makes decisions about projects, and works through problems when something doesn't go as planned.

The other attends meetings, passes along information, helps with events planned mostly by an advisor, and carries out decisions that have already been made. Both can accurately say they were president, but they haven't had the same leadership experience.

This distinction came up again when we looked at leadership programs from established student organizations. We found roles where students set goals, lead projects, manage activities, work with committees, make decisions, and take responsibility for work that affects other people. That led to one of the recommendations in our report: Give student leaders responsibilities that matter.

Look at the responsibility behind the title

As we worked on the report, we started thinking about different levels of responsibility. A student might carry out a task someone else has defined, or the student might plan and manage the work. The student might coordinate other people or make decisions that affect the organization.

Students will probably do all of these at different times. But a role made up mostly of tasks defined by someone else is different from one where the student has to plan, decide, coordinate, and be responsible for what happens.

We often start with titles: president, captain, editor, officer, committee chair. Maybe we should also ask what the student was actually responsible for doing.

Leadership doesn't have to start with the biggest title

There's another side to this. If a title doesn't guarantee the experience, students may also be able to practice leadership without holding the highest position.

A student could lead one part of an event, chair a committee, take responsibility for a project, mentor a younger member, or gather students' perspectives and represent them to school leaders. The programs we reviewed included many opportunities like these. Students could begin with smaller responsibilities and take on larger ones as they gained experience.

That seems important because it's easy to think leadership starts when you win an election or are selected for a particular position. Maybe it can start earlier.

So what should students actually get to do?

Our report ended up making twelve recommendations about how schools can better support student leaders and create stronger leadership experiences, but it left me with another question. If leadership develops through experience, and if a title doesn't tell us enough about the experience, what should students actually get opportunities to do?

I've become less interested in asking what qualities a leader should have or what positions a student should hold. I'm more interested in what a student should actually get to practice. That's the question I've been thinking about next.

This article is part of a series exploring what students actually get to practice through leadership—and how schools and advisors can create stronger leadership experiences. The series grew out of our 2026 research with 271 student leaders and 37 advisors.