~ with Michelle Etchart, Director of Leadership Development at Seattle University

Q. You spend a lot of time with university students. What does being a leader mean to them, in relation to who they might feel called to be in life?

A. Students come to us with many ideas about leadership and how it relates to them. As a part of our mission, we try to help support them in discerning their own leadership path as an expression of their unique passion and purpose. One student might find a vocation in the business world, while another may discover a love of education. The world needs justice-minded, ethical leaders in many places. I find that as students embrace this more expansive notion of leadership than what they might have grown up with, they become more comfortable and even freed by the belief that they can lead in a way that is authentic to them.

Q. Certainly there are skills and competencies to gain or develop with regard to leadership. But what’s this building on? Are there gifts or God-given talents that have to already be there for real leadership to happen? What are some of these talents?

A. Some people argue that leaders are born, others that they are made. I believe it’s both. We all have talents that are given to us from which we can build such as organization, motivating others, or communication. Experience also tells me that we can cultivate the skills that complement our natural gifts in order to pursue a vocation. That’s not to say that we all should expect to master every skill needed. A colleague once told me (and I paraphrase) that if God wanted me to be good at everything, he wouldn’t have created the rest of the world. Leadership often requires us to include others with complementary gifts to achieve a goal. It is primarily a relational process.

Q. It seems like there are some real roles to play with regard to mentoring leadership. How much of the intersection of vocation and leadership is about those mentoring relationships?

A. Mentorship is key! Students often point to critical moments in their formation that revolve around relationship. It might be another person encouraging them to think about an opportunity, pointing out a gift they’d never acknowledged in themselves or asking a challenging question. Mentors can take the shape of peers, staff or faculty, family, employers and community members. In a study we fielded last year among Seattle University undergraduates, mentorship emerged as one of the three most important factors in leadership formation.