The Leader of the Future Fast Company Article, June 1999 By William C. Taylor pp. 130-138

Leadership is a word I hear daily as I work with young people. It is often assumed that leadership will come to most young people because they are involved in a youth program. I've come to realize that just because they are in a youth program, they won't "become" leaders. They might pickup a tip or two or develop a skill, but my belief is that there must be a desire for leadership and the opportunity to put it into practice.

When I mention the desire for leadership, I don't mean aspirations to be a club president or the local politician, I am talking about the opportunity to be active and participate. There are many people in this world who are very willing to sit back and let others be involved. There are also many people who want to make a difference and choose to become involved and support a cause. There are still others who can pull these people , their ideas and energy together and create a program, solution or plan that will bring about that difference or change. It takes all kinds!

Ronald Heifetz teaches a course at Harvard University on "Exercising Leadership." He tells people what real leadership demands and has caused people to evaluate themselves and make changes in their leadership. That's the new role of leadership: to help people face reality and to mobilize them to make change.

Leadership is difficult. A good leader must ask questions and then listen for the answers, not give them as a result of the question. Three valuable questions were posed in this article. What values do we stand for? What are the skills and talents of our company? What opportunities does the future hold?

Those three questions caused me to reflect on how the administration of the University of Minnesota Extension Service is providing leadership currently and has provided leadership in the past. In the past, I believe that the first two questions were addressed, but no thought, or at least not enough thought, was given to the third question referring to the future. Leadership was given to the here and now. The change in Extension leadership has begun to tackle the questions of the future , but has also left a door open to hear of possibilities and options from others. This is a positive sign of leadership from my standpoint and I feel better about heading into the future in this organization.

As I read the section of the article on "Why Leaders Fail," I was surprised by the number of people who have been struck down or challenged as leaders. As the article points out, many leaders are asked not to exercise their leadership and who does that benefit? We (those of us who aren't providing direct leadership) need to remember that we can help by using the skills we have developed to support or provide direction to a leader. Just because we aren't "the leader" doesn't mean we can't provide leadership.

I think there is a valuable lesson and learning opportunity presented to us in this article. We need to teach others. In today's society, there are more and more people who don't want to get involved or don't have the skills for leadership. Where will our country be in 10, 25 or 50 years if no one wants to lead or no one knows how?

Working with young people is important to me and I feel that an important part of my job is setting an example about leadership, as well as issuing the challenge for them to become leaders and use the skills they've developed. I completely agree with Heifetz's comment that "There are lots of things in life that are worth the pain. Leadership is one of them."

-- Anonymous, July 05, 1999