ACADEMIA DE STUDII ECONOMICE DIN BUCUREŞTI

Faculty of Excellence in Business and Services

How Leadership Experience Affects

Students

Scientific conductor:
Prof. univ. dr. Drăgușin Mariana

Authors :
Ene Ștefan-Alexandru
 București, 2018

Introduction
We chose to analyze this article “How Leadership Experience Affects Students” by Michael L.
Anderson and Fangwen Lu.

Studies have found that people with high school leadership experience are paid up to 33% more
than those without it (S. Barbara). This wage premium is similar to the one associated with a college
degree.

Leadership plays an important role in every aspect of a student’s life. Students go through many
stages in life for career development where they need leadership skills. In the modern world, students
are facing many career challenges. That’s why they need leadership skills to accept challenges, solve
problems and analyze their career direction.

In this article we found ideas about how leadership skills help students and why it is important
for their career development and happiness. The main question this article raises is how people become
leaders ? “Although adults who serve as leaders are observably different from nonleaders — leaders
tend to have higher cognitive ability, more self-confidence, and more motivation or drive — we don’t
know much about whether these differences arise because leadership service changes individuals or
because these individuals are selected for their preexisting skills” and to find out what type of skills
does, early leadership help to develop.

The article
It is not enough for a student to decide that they want to be a leader. The making of a
good leader is not something that is inherited. Students have to work compulsively on their
leadership skills.

A student should master the fundamental aspects, such as:

 Communication skills
 Decision-making skills
 Organizing skills
 Action planning
 Strategic thinking
  Risk management
The basics of these aspects can be learned to a certain extent by students of any age. They
just would need some relevant studying material in accordance with their needs. Once there is a
solid foundation, students should be taught something new. The latest tendencies inspire us to
search for something in various leadership styles that can make a difference. Among others,
Forbes researchers enumerate such modern leadership skills as:
 Resiliency
 Culture management
 Multi-generational management
 Collaboration
 Emotional intelligence

To answer the questions raised in the article, the authors conducted an investigation in
Chinese schools. They studied 378 seventh-grade students. Among the top 92 students, they randomly
assigned classroom leadership positions to 46 of them. They tracked the students for 22 weeks and
collected data on test scores, opinions, and social networks.