myUface Blog

One of the criteria most universities will use to evaluate you is “leadership potential.”  A common problem people have – not just international students – is that they think of “leadership” in a very narrow way.  This can hurt you when you’re trying to think about how you might be a leader.  I want to talk today about what it means to be a leader, and hopefully show you how you do have leadership potential, even if you don’t match the “traditional” image of a leader.

And what is that traditional image?  In the popular imagination, leaders generally come up with great ideas and convince other people (followers) to help them implement the idea.  The generally command others.  This image of leadership has led more than one international student to write things like this on their application essays:  “I’m good at being a leader, because I like telling other people what to do and making them understand the right thing.”

That is not what universities see as “leadership potential.” So what can you do to show you are a leader?

The modern study of leadership is a very broad and popular topic.  There are a zillion books published on the subject.  These books have all come to different conclusions, but they all agree that the popular image of a leader – someone in a position of authority who comes up with a great idea and makes others follow – is not, in fact, a good one.

Instead, the trend today is towards a different version of leadership, in which a leader doesn’t come up with a good idea, so much as he or she listens to others and helps them harness their own potential.  The verbs associated with this are not verbs like “command,” “tell,” or “motivate;” they’re more like “collaborate,” “empower,” and “enlist.”   It’s less about imposing your own vision, and more about recognizing the vision of others.

If you’re interested in reading about the evolving theory of leadership, one of the best ways is to visit The Leadership Challenge, a website based on the best-selling book of the same name.

The main thing I want you to take away from this post, however, is this:  if you are asked in an essay or interview to talk about a time when you showed leadership potential,  do not think of a time when you made a group of people do what you want.  Instead, think of a time when you helped a group of people do what they want.  If you do that, you’ll be much closer to the idea of leadership most Americans hold today.