The Insignificance of Leadership by Benjamin

The Insignificance of Leadership by Benjamin - March 2015 Scholarship Essay

From the beginning of a student’s quest to go to college, (s)he is bombarded with requirements of leadership qualities and experience. While they have been proposed as an essential component to each college applicant, leadership skills are not such an integral aspect to the success of a student in his or her college experience. This is due to the ambiguities of a student’s definition of college success, success in life, and their life plans in general.

The largest piece of evidence suggesting that leadership skills are not important when referencing the college success of a student is that many students will have separate definitions of college success. Some may hope to begin a business out of their college experience, which would require leadership skills; however, this serves to only a small niche. The large proportion entering college for medical degrees, for example, would have no use for leadership experience. Authors, artists, and other creatives, seeking to develop a better understanding for their fields and media, would not require leadership skills to succeed in their respective quests. Even those that only attend college because of the societal pressures toward joining would not need to exhibit leadership potential. Leadership skills would likely make no impact on the successfulness of these groups of people, and they make up a large portion of the college atmosphere.

A large portion of students, while also exhibiting the above characteristics, personally define success in college as leading a successful life. Once again, leadership skills are not an integral aspect toward the general population in this sense. A strong awareness of leadership will not help a programmer write a ground-breaking code, nor will it aid a philosophy student in understanding the human condition. Many people actually do not have a life plan after they graduate from college. Possessing leadership within them will not alter their progression through life. It is ridiculous to think that every student must possess leadership skills, as the majority will not need any within their life.

However, this is not to say that there must be no screening for leadership skills. Many fields require a degree of leadership from students and people in order for them to be successful. Business executives, managers, bureaucrats, etc. need to be successful leaders to guide their projects to prosperity. Even in this scenario though, if all of those that follow this leader were screened to have the highest amounts of leadership skills, then there will likely be conflicts of interest and general stagnation within the business or project that is being attempted, leading to the idea that not every student and person needs leadership skills or needs to refine them.

With these possibilities and scenarios considered, it is easy to see that leadership skills are not specifically necessary for college success. One reason is that a student may not define his or her success in college as his or her ability to capitalize on leadership potential. Another reason is that many people do not need leadership skills in their professional lives, which would be indicative of their successful college lives. Finally, over-abundance in leadership may actually be counter-beneficial to systems because of the lack of a clear leader. Therefore, leadership skills are not a necessary element in college success.