Red Solo Cup Leadership: A new mindset for when you notice divide in your organization

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Have you ever been the victim of hierarchy of a leader, perhaps not treating you as well because they're in a place of power? So have I. I have been involved with leadership since I was about 13 years old, so for about 9 years. I've worked for a variety of different leaders throughout my life, and I have definitely seen a difference between those who are there for power and those who create a real environment that I actually want to work in, that I can build and grow in. And as I was thinking about this throughout my years, I came up with the solo cup leadership method. Now, I know it probably sounds a little crazy, but I feel like and as I've seen, leadership can be seen as a hierarchy, one that's like a pyramid, right? Everybody's trying to get on top of the pyramid. Everybody's trying to be the best and build their way up and see everyone else below, which I believe is not the way true leaders should treat those they lead. So I thought of the solo-cup leadership method. What is that you might ask?

Imagine a tower made out of red solo cups. Imagine each row of cups is a level of leadership. In this example, it is structured after higher education. At the bottom we have the need for  education. In the row above we have  students, then  student leaders and then administrators. The  administrator's purpose is there to assist the student leaders and also assist the students to have the best experience that they can while gaining their education. Student leaders responsibility is to  give a voice to the students, to serve them and to help them have the best college experience that they can. And then the students are there for education.So how imagine if you were to remove one of the cups along the bottom row. What would the pyramid do? It would fall.  Let’s think about this from a leadership standpoint. 

in this example, if there was no need for education, then there would be no need for students. If there is no need for students, there would be no need for student leaders. And if there was no need for student leaders or for students, then there would be no need for administration. So with that in mind, it can really change the mindset of leadership to one of, “I’m here  to serve, because without them, I wouldn’t be here”.. This mindset helps us to see that we need the people that we serve.  We need them quite frankly, more than they need us. We're there to serve them and to help them to grow and to learn and to progress. So why is it so important? It's important so that you can create that environment for those that you're serving. It's important because it helps those be inspired to build and to grow and to create just your quality of work just a little bit more. So now I ask you, how can you apply the Solo Cup leadership method into your own life, into your own work environment?