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If you look at schools, especially elite ones, there's a strange desire for all the kids to become leaders. Nobody questions it, I don't know why. I guess the s
by lordnacho 6y ago
If you look at schools, especially elite ones, there's a strange desire for all the kids to become leaders. Nobody questions it, I don't know why. I guess the school thinks it's useful to be associated with some future leaders?
The thing is leadership ought to be like you say. Some kind of competence that allows you to help a group of people complete some kind of task.
But let's be honest. The kids want to be student council president because it's prestigious. They grow up and then they want to be CEO because it's prestigious and well paying. They pay lip service to the idea of helping a team, but really, we know they don't care all that much. It's ass backwards, people want to be leaders because {prize} and then they think about how to get there. Sometimes we get lucky and they conclude that they need to climb the ladder by being competent (this fails a lot due to pyramid structures and politics), but often they just figure out that to seem competent, you have to shout a lot about how competent you are.
- dpeck 6y agoSchools, especially elite ones, often see their purpose as creating/fostering leaders out of the pool of potential that they’ve curated.
- poulsbohemian 6y ago> If you look at schools, especially elite ones, there's a strange desire for all the kids to become leaders. Those schools maintain their status and position by ensuring their alumni become leaders. Thus it is to their advantage. Which brings us to the bigger picture... we live in a Darwinian word of evolve-or-die, strongest-will-survive. Thus passing on to our children the skills of leadership are part of this same desire for our children to thrive.
- technothrasher 6y agoThat sounds more like a Lamarckian metaphor than Darwinian one.
- hrktb 6y ago> Nobody questions it, I don't know why. Money. In our society it pays more in average to be a leader. On the why it pays more, I’d posit leaders are closer to the money source so get more negotiating power as they have more information.
- indigochill 6y ago> ...so get more negotiating power as they have more information. Information is certainly part of it (thus why we have NDAs), but so are relationships/connections, particularly in B2B or the startup world where CEOs have to sell the company to investors.
- scsilver 6y agoLeaders leverage their network. A network of leaders is a massive and capable network.