NYTimes Opinion says Leadership Is Over-Valued In College Applications

Applying to College
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Interesting thoughts on leadership as a component of evaluation of prospective students - https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/03/24/opinion/sunday/not-leadership-material-good-the-world-needs-followers.html

Yet I disagree with an essential conclusion - that leadership “attracts those who are motivated by the spotlight rather than by the ideas or people they serve.” In my experience, the best leaders were those who did not seek attention, but rather were nominated, selected or elected without the “pursuit of leadership.” Presidents of clubs, captains of teams, lead performers in plays, student mentors, tutors, and the like often are more humble than “seeking to be in charge” as the author suggests. No one could argue that there isn’t a place for “soloists who follow their own path”, as the author suggests, but recognizing true leaders, in my opinion, is a quality worthy of admissions consideration.

2

I think the author would agree with you, actually. The full context of your quote is “Perhaps the biggest disservice done by the outsize glorification of “leadership skills” is to the practice of leadership itself — it hollows it out, it empties it of meaning. It attracts those who are motivated by the spotlight rather than by the ideas and people they serve.” and the article goes on to say that there are better definitions of leadership than the ones currently being presented.

Additionally, I would argue the problem is that leadership is becoming one of the /only/ qualities worthy of consideration; it would seem that in college admissions, there’s no place for truly great followers. This forces people who would rather be loners or followers to try to make themselves into leaders, which doesn’t help society in the least.