Leadership Leasons From Teens

Written by: Misty Smalley

Published: May 2013

What was I doing when I was 15? Complaining about homework and eating cold pizza? Probably. Hanging on the phone for hours, talking with friends about high school drama and flipping through fashion magazines? Likely. Those years were a blur of growth and activity and sometimes angst... so it's hard to say for sure. Similar story for many of us, I suspect.

I can tell you what I was NOT doing, however... and that is gathering signatures on a petition requesting Seventeen magazine to stop photo-shopping their models. Blogging about it to draw awareness to the way photo-shopped images set unrealistic expectations for women and girls. Posting videos with real life teen boys and girls candidly critiquing those images to YouTube and getting 12,000 views. Meeting with the editor of an iconic young women’s magazine – asking her to stop the photo-shop madness because it is making society sick.

Today I was fortunate enough to meet three young women from right here in Maine who DID do all of those things at 15... as they accepted the prestigious Samantha Smith Award from the Maine Women's Fund at their annual Leadership Luncheon. Julia, Maya and Izzy accepted the honor with humility, maturity and humor - representing the organization that supported their work, Hardy Girls Healthy Women, very well indeed. Frankly, I am in awe of them... as humans, as women and as leaders.

Yes, of course - it is true that my corded phone was no match for the tiny supercomputer versions we carry around today. Landline telephones and snail mail were the ways to move information, and sit-ins or boycotts were activism. Kids did not have computers... and few parents did, either. TV and newspapers kept you informed of world events and magazines set cultural norms.

Those differences aside, the way that young people use the tools available to them is nothing short of amazing. They are quick, they are resourceful, and they are connected. They are strikingly aware of their feelings and beliefs. If actions are aligned with their ideals, they just DO IT.

For years, I have been cultivating my leadership skills… getting to know myself better, amassing experiences, coaching others, being innovative, being bold… and I thought, leading courageously.  But all of my years and accomplishments seem a little light when placed on a scale opposite the work these girls have done already at the age of 15.

I thought about it all day, feeling a little inadequate, to tell you truth. But as the hours passed, it started to look more like hope. Hope for me - hope that it is not too late to be a more courageous leader. That I can find a way to enable these strong principles and the attack on old paradigms with an open mind. Hope for technology - these girls, and all the other 15-year olds out there using their beliefs and social media for activism... and bringing about real change are the "tipping point" as Malcolm Gladwell calls it, to new cultural norms. And finally, hope for the future - they are the future leaders. Heck, they are the current leaders, and they are brave.

Sure, there are areas where we (the collective of us older folks) know more... and we should, having had more life experiences. But we have a real opportunity to learn a different kind of leadership from the next generation. We have a responsibility to figure out their formula for connecting so efficiently and successfully on a global scale and replicate it. Hopefully, we have the patience and flexibility to unravel the wiring of their very different brains and learn new things, new approaches, new norms.

We are strong, seasoned and knowledgeable leaders, but are we humble enough to learn new leadership lessons from teens? We better be.