2 Leadership Superpowers That Schools Try To Eliminate

Many organizations are struggling to create new Leaders.

It has been a long-time practice to look for employees with the best education.

Higher education should help prepare people to become better Leaders... right?

Perhaps not.

The reality is that our educational systems are not designed to create better Leaders.

There are good teachers, and the problem isn't necessarily with them.

Rather, it is a problem with how the system has been designed.

See, there are some key Human Superpowers that the educational system works to eliminate from people.

What are they, and why are they important in Leadership?

Imagination

The first Superpower that is often eliminated in school is Imagination.

The system is designed in a way that focuses on the past and only on what is explicitly given.

History is focused on what happened in the past, and why it was important at that time.

It doesn't care about how it could be applied in the future or utilized in today's world.

English teaches us to read books and talk about their importance in history.

It rarely asks us to write anything novel or challenge the status quo with our writing.

Math asks us to solve the problems that are laid out for us.

It doesn't challenge people to understand how Math could be applied to solve our current problems.

Science wants us to obey the "laws" that are presented to us.

It doesn't ask us to verify these supposed "laws" or to look at the sources of these "laws" to determine if they make ANY sense.

I'm not saying there aren't individual teachers within the system that do these things, but the system itself tends to box us into specific takeaways and ways of thinking.

The problem is that this creates followers but not Leaders.

If you are told your entire life that what you think is less than what you are told you are supposed to take away, or that you are only supposed to work on the specific things given to you, what happens?

You expect others to tell you what to do and what to take away.

You stop thinking, and you lose your Imagination.

However, the current "solutions" we see in the world aren't working.

If we only wait to be told what to do and take away only ideas that we are given, we will end up with the same results.

The world is demanding new ideas, innovation, and creativity.

You only get these things with Imagination.

You must look past what already exists and Imagine what could be.

If we want new Leaders in the world, we need to reignite Imagination in our organizations.

Failing

From a young age, we are taught that Failing in school is bad.

If you Fail, you'll amount to nothing.

Failing will prevent you from getting into college.

If you Fail to get into college, you won't be able to have a good career.

If you Fail, you'll be unable to provide for yourself or your family.

It teaches children to fear Failure.

Many people are more afraid to Fail than they are to Die.

They only seek what is sure to work.

We Fear anything where success is unknown.

This creates a huge problem in Leadership.

The organizations that make the biggest dents are the ones that create what was previously unknown.

Those who only do what is "known" to work live in Mediocrity, and usually for only a short time as they quickly collapse.

To get to the answers that are currently unknown, there is a long list of Failures that are required to obtain Success.

Plus, with all of the unforeseeable variables that exist, Failure is inevitable.

The higher you go into Leadership, the more Failures you will have and the better friends you have to become with those Failures.

If you are afraid of Failing though, you will never make it as a Leader.

In reality, Failure is just a stepping stone on the Path to Success.

We must move through and past Failure.

If you also Learn and Adapt from Failure, it will become a useful tool in Business and Leadership.

The Good News

Even though school systems attempt to eliminate Imagination and the ability to continue past Failure, there is Hope.

These are like muscles - if you work on them, they will improve.

We can improve our Imagination, which leads to better Creativity and Innovation.

It is also possible to move through Failure faster and faster until we find success more often, despite any Failures we have.

Despite the Failures of our educational system, we can move past it and become the Leaders that the world needs.

Organizations that can figure out how to teach this to employees will be on a fast track to creating the Leaders they are desperate to have.