What I learned about leadership and government from State Representative Alice Peisch

When I prepared to interview Massachusetts State Representative Alice Peisch for the Teen Exec podcast, I was curious about what her work actually looks like. Students hear about elected officials through elections, speeches, debates, and votes, but most of us don't see much of what happens between those moments.

I expected to learn more about the responsibilities of a state representative. I came away thinking differently about how government works and, especially, about the kind of leadership it requires.

Much of the work happens before a decision

One of the first things that surprised me was how much of Representative Peisch's work involves learning.

When she described her 12 years leading the legislature's education committee, she talked about regularly meeting with teachers, parents, superintendents, school committees, organizations, and other people affected by education policy. Formal hearings were only one part of that process. Much of the work happened earlier, as she learned about an issue and heard from people who experienced it from different perspectives.

I hadn't thought as much about that part of lawmaking. A vote is easy to see. The process that helps someone decide how to vote is much less visible.

That became even clearer when we talked about difficult decisions. Representative Peisch said she tries to understand the different views surrounding an issue and look for areas of agreement. She pointed out that people may share the same goal while disagreeing about the best way to reach it. Listening, in her view, is part of figuring out what can move forward.

That made me reconsider something about leadership more generally. When people disagree with an idea, my first instinct can be to think about how to explain the idea better. Sometimes that may be useful. But there is another question worth asking first: What are they seeing that I haven't considered?

Listening doesn't guarantee agreement. It can help you understand the decision you're actually making.

Getting something done may require compromise

I was also interested in Representative Peisch's description of compromise.

Political disagreement often looks very divided from the outside. She explained that many legislative decisions are actually not controversial and that many recorded votes are unanimous. The difficult issues receive much more attention because those are the ones where agreement is harder to find.

On those issues, she said she generally looks for where people can agree and believes that some progress can be better than no progress. She also acknowledged that there are a few issues on which she personally isn't willing to compromise.

Leadership sometimes requires flexibility. Some principles still aren’t negotiable. The harder judgment seems to be knowing the difference.

I can see a smaller version of that challenge in student leadership. A group may agree that something at school should improve but have very different ideas about what the solution should be. It can be tempting to think that someone who disagrees is just standing in the way. Representative Peisch's approach made me think more about whether the better first step is understanding what people agree on, where their concerns differ, and whether there is a solution that can realistically work.

Organization includes deciding what matters most

Because Teen Exec focuses partly on practical skills, I also wanted to know how Representative Peisch manages a job with so many competing responsibilities.

Her answer was simpler than I expected. She talked about prioritizing the issues that matter most, relying on staff members who follow different areas, and making decisions about what requires her direct attention. She described that prioritization itself as one of the hardest parts of the job.

Her staff also meets weekly to review what has happened and what needs attention next. When I suggested that the meeting sounded a little like a weekly review of priorities, she agreed.

I usually think about organization in terms of keeping track of things: calendars, deadlines, lists, messages, and plans. This conversation added another part. Being organized also means deciding what deserves your attention.

You can keep track of twenty things and still spend your time on the wrong one.

As students take on more responsibility, they also have to decide which responsibility matters most right now, what someone else can handle, and what can wait.

Students don't have to wait to participate

The part of our conversation I may keep thinking about the longest was Representative Peisch's advice about young people and government.

She encouraged students to begin with student government and local government. Student government gives students a smaller setting in which to see how decisions are made and how they can influence them. She also said that local government deserves more attention because decisions about schools, roads, public safety, and other services affect people's daily lives directly.

I found that especially interesting because national politics is often much more visible to students. It's easy to know something about a presidential election while knowing very little about what a school committee, select board, or state representative is deciding nearby.

Representative Peisch also made participation sound much more accessible than I expected. She said elected officials want to hear from the people they represent and that the communications she receives can affect the issues she pays attention to and the decisions she makes.

She made an important distinction, though. A personal message explaining someone's experience or concern can mean more than a form email that hundreds of people send by clicking the same button. She wants to understand what someone actually thinks and why.

That gives students a pretty practical place to start. If something in your school, town, or state matters to you, learn enough about it to understand the issue. Find out who is responsible for the decision. Then ask a question or explain your perspective in your own words.

You may not change the decision. You may even learn something that changes your own view. Participating can begin long before you turn 18.

A different picture of leadership

Before this interview, I probably pictured government mostly through its visible moments: campaigns, debates, hearings, laws, and votes.

I now notice more of what happens before those moments. Someone has to learn about the issue, hear from people who will be affected, sort through competing arguments, decide what deserves attention, and determine what can realistically work.

Her own path into government made me think about this differently too. She became involved locally before eventually serving in the State House. She didn't describe that path as something she had planned from the beginning. One experience led to another as she learned more about her community and took on greater responsibility.

For students interested in leadership or public service, that may be one of the most useful things to understand. You don't need to know where your involvement will eventually lead. You can start by paying attention to what is happening around you, learning how decisions are made, and finding a place where you can contribute.