Looking beyond the leadership title
The student leadership research project I've been working on with my father, Jeff Lucas, grew out of questions I had from my own experiences as a student leader. I had noticed that students could have very different levels of support depending on the organizations they were part of, and I wanted to understand whether other student leaders were having similar experiences.
As we worked through the research, we looked at whether students understood their roles, how their organizations kept track of work, what kinds of preparation they received, and where leadership became difficult. We compared those results with what advisors reported, then spent more time with the written responses to understand what the numbers couldn't explain on their own.
As I thought about what we were finding, I started thinking about what every student leader should be able to expect when they take on a role. Some preparation. Clear responsibilities. Useful ways to keep track of work. An adult they can turn to when they need help.
But as we began turning the research into recommendations, I realized there was another part of the experience I hadn't thought as much about: What are students actually getting the opportunity to do once they become leaders?
Today, we're releasing the final Teen Exec student leadership research report. That question became an important part of it.
Support is a starting point
One thing I learned from the research is that support doesn't have to look the same everywhere.
Students lead in very different settings. A student council may work differently from an athletic team, service organization, performing arts group, or career and technical student organization. Their schedules, responsibilities, traditions, and resources differ too.
I started thinking less about whether every organization should provide the same kind of training and more about what every student leader should be able to count on.
Students should understand what their roles involve. They should know where important information is kept and how their group keeps track of responsibilities. They should have some guidance when they begin and an adult they can go to when they need help.
The written responses also made me think more about situations that don't fit neatly into a job description. How do you delegate something to a friend? What do you do when another student doesn't follow through? How do you manage a project when everyone involved is busy?
I've encountered versions of those questions in my own leadership experiences too. Knowing that you're responsible for something doesn't necessarily tell you how to handle the people and decisions involved in getting it done.
That helped shape the first priority in the report: giving every student leader a foundation of support. The recommendations are practical because many of the challenges students described were practical too. In many cases, a school or organization may be able to improve the experience by strengthening things it already does.
Then I started thinking about the experience itself
As we worked on the recommendations about support, another question kept coming up for me: What are student leaders actually getting to do?
A leadership title can describe very different experiences. One student officer might help decide what an organization should do, organize a project, coordinate other students, or solve problems when plans change. Another student with a similar title might mainly attend meetings or carry out work that someone else has already planned.
Both students have leadership titles, but they're getting different opportunities to practice leadership.
That made me look at student leadership differently. I had spent a lot of time asking how we could better prepare and support students. I also needed to think about what we were preparing and supporting them to do.
Some of the difficult parts of leadership are also where students learn. Planning something that involves other people is harder than completing a task by yourself. Delegating can feel uncomfortable, especially when you're asking a friend or classmate to do something. Making a decision when you don't know exactly how it will turn out takes practice.
Students need opportunities to do those things themselves. The challenge is giving them enough support to learn without taking the responsibility away from them.
What schools can look for
This became the second major priority in the report: giving students meaningful leadership experiences.
One place a school could start is simply by looking across its student organizations. What leadership roles exist in student government, clubs, athletics, performing arts, student media, service organizations, and other activities? Then, for each one, what are students in those positions actually responsible for doing?
The answers might be quite different. A president in one organization might set priorities and coordinate the work of other students. A president somewhere else might mainly run meetings. A team captain might help make decisions and support younger teammates, while another captain may have a much more limited role.
Looking across those positions could help a school notice where students already have substantial responsibility and where there might be opportunities to give them more.
One question seems especially useful to me: What does this student get to practice because of this position?
For one student, the answer might be taking ownership of a project from beginning to end. Another might coordinate the work of several students. Someone else might help make decisions that affect an organization or school. A younger or less experienced leader might begin by taking responsibility for one part of a larger effort.
I don't think there needs to be one ideal leadership role. Different positions can give students different opportunities. What matters is whether students are getting chances to take responsibility, make decisions, work with other people, and become more capable over time.
This also changed how I thought about training. There are things students can learn before they begin a leadership role, but some parts of leadership only make sense once you've had to do them. It's difficult to understand delegation until you've had to depend on someone else to finish a task. It's difficult to understand decision-making until you've had to choose between imperfect options.
That's where an advisor can help without taking over. A conversation after an event, a question about why a plan worked, or some guidance before a difficult conversation can help a student think about an experience and decide what to try next.
Where I ended up
The questions that led to this project came from differences I had noticed in my own leadership experiences, especially the different levels of support available to student leaders. That question still matters to me, and working on the research gave me a much clearer idea of what a useful foundation of support could include.
What I hadn't thought about as much was the responsibility students receive after they get the title.
I now think those two things belong together. Students need enough support to take on difficult responsibilities, and they need enough responsibility to make that support meaningful.
The balance won't look exactly the same in every organization or for every student. Someone taking on a first leadership position may need more guidance than someone who has been leading for several years. Different organizations also give students different kinds of responsibility.
But looking across the leadership roles a school already has seems like a useful place to begin. What are students being asked to do? What are they getting to practice? Where are they getting support when they need it?
Those aren't questions I was asking when we started the research. They're some of the questions I'm leaving it with.