Leadership: More Than Just a Position

Ready to Roar: LEadership

It’s generally believed and accepted that leadership can be taught and learned. But what exactly is being learned when it comes to leadership?

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Skills Acquisition

Learning and demonstrating the mastery of skills and proficiencies is one part of leadership development. In the Ready to Roar framework, leadership sits alongside nine other proficiencies, but when we look more closely, each of these separate skills is required in a strong leader. As we’ll see below, a leader is not just a position, but a combination of skills, qualities, and practices that help change and grow communities.

Heads up, though: 

Studies have shown a disconnect or gap between what employers expect in leadership skills and what students have or believe they have. What does this mean? Some ideas include:

• Students don’t have the leadership skills they think they do.
• Employers are expecting fully formed leaders, rather than someone who’s continuing to grow as a leader who has a strong foundation to build on.
• Employers and students are using different language, but they may be describing the same (or similar) thing.

This last idea has led to a lot of research into the ways that career proficiencies—not just leadership—are communicated. This is an important reason why there is such an emphasis on explaining experiences and not just listing soft skills on resumes. In descriptions of experiences and in interviews, the student is able to tell a story of how they learned skills, applied them, and continued to learn and grow. This isn’t the case if you list “leadership” in your skills section (find more information on building a resume).

Building those skills: 

• Awareness: the individual becomes aware of the skill and their level of competency in it
• Acquiring: establishes a baseline for competency in the skill
• Applying: puts the skill into practice
• Advancing: refines the skill, including teaching it to others
• Articulating: able to explain the full spectrum of skill development related to this skill, including how the skill was acquired and how it has been applied and mastered

(C3 Model developed by Peck & Preston)

Bridging the Gap and Telling a Story

Journals, articles, and surveys have indicated that there can be a gap between what students think they have as skills in terms of leadership and what employers actually identify as leadership.

Three types of leadership: 

1. Transactional- this type of leadership works within the existing procedures and norms of the system, with little change being made to the structure of the organization/community. Results and outcomes are often the focus.
2. Transformational- this type of leadership is marked by the change it makes—through an understanding of the culture of the group, new things are tried and creative thinking and community activation is encouraged.
3. Servant- this type of leadership is group-focused and marked by simplicity and altruism. Self-awareness is paramount, as the leader must put aside ego to work with the larger group’s best interests and motivations in mind. *Some consider servant leadership to be a type of transformational leadership.

How do you build leadership skills while at LSU?

• Courses and programs that teach leadership
• Classroom activities
• Group projects, studio work, mock trials, etc.
• Co-curricular activities (non-classroom activities)
• Academic student organizations like honor societies, special interests groups, LLCs, studios or ensembles, etc.
• Student organizations like affinity and interest groups, sororities, fraternities, sports, etc.
• Service & Volunteering

The Leaders You Never See

In the theatre and opera productions at LSU, stage managers lead the production from before first rehearsal till the last performance and striking the set. Their work involves coordinating director, designers, technicians, actors/performers, and even front of house through the entire rehearsal and performance process. They also must ensure the safety of every individual in the space, manage the different requirements of the productions, and do it all on time. At LSU, students learn to be stage managers partly by shadowing other stage managers as assistants, and eventually by leading their own team of assistants. The skills they learn in class are strengthened by their work on productions, from student-directed productions in the Studio Lab Season to professionally-directed productions in the Shaver and Swine Palace plays. Their work is seen, but they rarely are.

Hear from Stage Managers, both May 2024 graduates:

Isabelle Louis:

"Stage managing at LSU has provided me great leadership skills. From my work as a student with directors of adapted and devised work, designers, actors, intimacy directors, and arts administrators, I was able to gain a deeper understanding of the diverse roles and personalities essential to every production. In my training as a stage manager at LSU I have enforced my interpersonal and small group communication skills, allowing me to adapt to different communication styles under pressure as a leader. I have been able to practice these skills in a wide range of theatre contexts, adapting to unpredictable and challenging situations in a space and community that allowed me to safely learn from my mistakes."

Sarah Statham:

"Stage managing at LSU helped me understand how important it is to lead others by example. If feelings in the rehearsal room are becoming negative because of factors out of our control, it is essential that the stage manager is able to stay calm. I try to remember that as theatre artists we will always find a solution to any problem! As a leader people look at you for guidance and if you seem like you know what to do, it makes them feel reassured as well. Stage management is the quickest way to learn the importance of communication in leadership. You may have to navigate telling actors some difficult news or telling a director about an actor’s conflict. The way you present that information is important because it can affect how people respond."

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About the LSU Career Center

Our team is committed to ensuring every student has ample opportunities to gain experience, grow their network, and communicate their aptitude for a chosen career long before graduation. We believe LSU students are unparalleled in their potential to step into leadership, solve problems, and elevate the workforce for the benefit of all.