I recently dropped by the Kennedy School at Harvard to sit in on a study group led by Alan Khazei, co-founder of City Year. His guest speaker was former Senator Gary Hart for whom both Alan and I once worked. Gary and Alan and I had coffee and then walked over together. On the way, we bumped into Peter Hart, the pollster, who told us that his latest research for the NBC Wall Street Journal poll would show the Democrats likely to take back control of the Congress for the first time since 1994. The three of them stopped to chat, a striking tableau: the pollster, the politician, and the social entrepreneur.

Each in a way each represented a different facet of leadership. Gary Hart was promoting his new book called The Courage of Our Convictions, a manifesto for Democrats reminding them what strong leaders do, which is take the risks of thinking hard about what they really believe and then saying so without regard to polls or political consequence. He had been a fiercely idealistic and independent Senator and presidential candidate, attributes that sometimes win more admiration than votes. His style of leadership was focused on ideas and the power they have to move people to action.

Peter Hart, not related to Gary, had built a business, brand, and career by using polling data to find out what voters think and then selling that information to political candidates who all too often took the shortcut of thinking the same things. Used one way, such information could make leaders more effective by helping them connect their views to the values of those they sought to represent. But instead it often helped the weak among them to be followers more than leaders.

After Hart’s presidential campaigns, Alan Khazei sought to lead outside the political system, co-founding City Year, and empowering young people to create social change through direct community service. He came to identify with and ultimately epitomize the social entrepreneur.

Hart’s session began with students seated around the packed room introducing themselves. A few were political junkies. Some were there because of their passion for national service which both Hart and Khazei had championed. But most interesting was that the majority said they came because they were interested in social entrepreneurship. That’s a term Hart’s probably never used in his entire life, although it is frequently associated with those like Alan Khazei who were inspired and mentored by him.

It’s remarkable to see how social entrepreneurs have taken their place in the ranks of public leadership. The October 30, 2006 U.S. News and World Report published its second annual list of America’s Best Leaders and alongside American icons like Warren Buffet, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, and Wynton Marsalis, it included social entrepreneurs like Khazei and Michael Brown, who co-founded City Year with him, and Wendy Kopp from Teach for America, just as last year’s issue showcased Ashoka’s Bill Drayton and Geoffrey Canada from the Harlem Children’s Zone.

Just ten years ago the odds of such social entrepreneurs being included in any such ranking would have been exceedingly slim. But as Gary Hart told the students assembled that afternoon as he described the need for what he called “civic virtue”: “When not challenged, noble minds will find other ways to contribute. We must earn our rights by the performance of our duties.”

In a tribute dinner hosted by US News at New York’s St. Regis Hotel both Alan Khazei and Michael Brown indicated that imagination - the courage to dream - is the first act of leadership. That is one of the critical ingredients in accomplishing the ultimate measure of leadership: getting people to a place they would not get to on their own. It is what entrepreneurial organizations like Community Wealth Ventures client Discovering Justice have done in pioneering a fee-for-service curriculum about democracy and justice for Boston Public Schools or like Share Our Strength is about to do in opening a retail wine shop in Washington, DC, as part of the WineStyles franchise system.

The elections of 2006 could portend historic change in the long-term control of Congress. But whichever political party dominates, politicians will increasingly be sharing leadership alongside today’s emerging social entrepreneurs.