Often when working with campus leadership groups advisors ask me to help instill a sense of responsibility and pride in their students during the keynote, conference or retreat. I’m beginning to understand more and more why I’m getting this request as I witness disturbing new trends among college students today. Here are three recent examples from the news:

1. There’s the president of a Student Government Association who publicly supports the dry-campus policy yet gets caught one evening very, very drunk on campus. The school’s official policy states he should be expelled from SGA at the very least, yet he and half of the SGA believe he should be exempt and suffer no consequences since he is of legal drinking age.

2. There’s the student Residence Hall Senior Advisor who feels he shouldn’t be punished when he and his girlfriend get caught using the master key to go into other RA’s rooms and steal things.

3. Then there’s Michael Crabtree – the recent Texas Tech grad and NFL draftee who’s upset over his proposed NFL contract. Crabtree feels he shouldn’t be paid less than the person drafted before him because he SHOULD be rated higher based on the PREDICTED drafts – not the actual draft rankings! He hasn’t played a single down or attended a single practice but he’s holding out for $23.5 million! You have to read this story to believe it!

I agree with Yahoo! Sports national columnist Dan Wetzel when he says, “A sense of youthful entitlement combines with a flawed structure so that the unproven rookie often makes more than the veteran All-Pro.” And as shown by my first two, less publicized examples, it’s not just among the NFL rookies.

Real leaders, powerful leaders, leaders people actually want to follow, take responsibility and ownership for their choices – for ALL of their choices.

Leaders make mistakes. When they own up to their mistakes people can usually forgive them. But when they don’t take responsibility by coming up with excuses, blaming others or justifying, the respect disappears and people stop listening.

You may think you’re worth $23.5 million – and MAYBE you are – but that doesn’t mean you bypass the rules, or think you deserve what you haven’t yet earned. We have to train our future leaders to think and act like leaders, not like kings!

Troy