With an ongoing crisis of leadership plaguing the current corporate workplace, authentic leadership from America’s next generation of managers and senior level leaders is critical. The source for a new generation of leaders with a refreshing sense of values, ethics and innovation will not surprisingly be chosen from America’s colleges and universities. But will this new collection of emerging leaders be cut from the same cloth of power, money and politics, or will they be groomed by integrity, service and accountability in order to effectively lead tomorrow’s workforce. It all depends on how they are learning, developing and practicing leadership in colleges and universities today.

Today’s higher education institutions must emphasize to students that leadership is a process, not a title or simply possessing authority. They must also understand the four stages of the student leadership development process and how they can cultivate an environment where students can become interested in campus leadership opportunities.

The Four Stages of Student Leadership Development:

Stage 1: The Limited Leader
Students in this stage are typically first year students and become briefly exposed to leadership during their first year experience. Campus life administrators must recognize that these students typically believe one of the two myths regarding leadership. Unfortunately, many first year students believe the myth that they do not have the qualities and skills to become leaders and are uncertain leadership can be learned. Therefore, their interest in leadership decreases and they mistakenly limit their leadership potential. It is not surprising that roughly 46% of student graduates never serve in a positional leadership role while in college, according to the MSL Study on Leadership.

Another myth for many students is that they can lead effectively based on their personality, popularity or charisma without learning various styles and principles of leadership. These type of students are eager to occupy leadership positions on campus to decorate their resume, but find their techniques and ideas for organizing other students, events and organizations ineffective and the results of low participation frustrating.

What can campus life administrators do to help?
Help students recognize that leadership can be learned and developed by making available numerous and diverse opportunities, including single event or long-term leadership awareness programs, seminars and workshops that will inspire students and attract them to the concept of leadership. We must make students aware that the most widely accepted leadership theory today on how people become leaders is that people choose to be leaders and that leadership can be learned.

Stage 2: The Learned Leader
In this stage, students are interested in leadership and attend short or long-term leadership programs, seminars and workshops that further cultivate their interest in leadership and equip them with ideas and techniques to help them become effective leaders.

What can campus life administrators do to help?
Help students by providing them access to more than one idea or concept of leadership (e.g. servant leadership). Students in this stage should become immersed in leadership principles, theories, ideas and global truths. Leadership programs and seminars should be careful to not overwhelm students in the beginning, but should be engaging, interactive, practical and entertaining so that students will become even more interested in learning leadership.

Stage 3: The Experienced Leader
Students in this stage occupy roles where they can make a deliberate effort to think about the leadership principles and ideas they have learned and then have an opportunity to apply what they have learned.

What can campus life administrators do to help?
Students should be in roles where they can practice a variety of leadership principles and ideas. If students’ only opportunities are organizing student and community events they are only learning how to be effective organizers and serving the community. Other opportunities should include allowing students to create a vision, develop strategy, display integrity, make ethical decisions, show empathy etc… Based on the theory of Transformational Leadership and research of Dr. Bernard Bass, one of the ways people become leaders is through a crisis or important event, which causes a person to rise to the occasion, and brings out extraordinary leadership qualities in an ordinary person.

Campus life administrators must provide forums for students to discuss different views and diverse perspectives on social, economic and cultural issues. Students who occupy leadership positions must also be challenged to go outside of their comfort zone, struggle, and stretch beyond their current reality to understand how people grow and learn to innovate. Campus life administrators must be careful to help students and not handicap them, which means they should act as a resource and support system to encourage student leaders through the struggle. Also, additional workshops and seminars should follow up and support student leadership struggles and problems throughout the academic year, so students can reflect and reevaluate themselves as leaders.

Stage 4: The Leaderfied Leader
The students who reach this stage during college are truly exceptional. However, most students will only reach this stage after graduation while working as professionals in the workplace. A student in this stage has practiced and applied leadership principles and techniques with such repetition that basic leadership principles and ideas have become instinctive habits. A Leaderfied Leader also understands the importance of life-long learning, application and reflection.