Leadership Journal

Heroes are a force, from the original superhero Superman, to the Fantastic Four, to the current television hit titled, well, Heroes. Ordinary people discover they possess special powers: the ability to travel through time, to heal, to see into the future, and perhaps to save the world! And when they become our heroes, they change us, too.

In nearly a decade of coaching, I've slowly discovered the powerful role heroes play in the lives of everyday leaders.

Most leaders I talk with can name a few people they consider to be heroes. These heroes exert unique power in the lives of the leaders who admire them. In the real world, ordinary people have the power to inspire leaders toward their heroic example. In his research on authentic leadership, Boas Shamir of Hebrew University in Israel found that leaders who spend time reflecting on persons they admire "start to define or re-define themselves through their role models." Truly, what we consider we become.

Since 2000, I've asked hundreds of leaders from all over North America, "Who are your heroes?" In fact, I begin every coaching relationship with the question because the responses are so revealing. Heroes are found in likely and unlikely places: family trees and family Bibles, history books and summer novels, mythic stories and first-hand encounters.

Walking alongside the people I have coached, I've noticed the impact heroes have. In fact, I've made three observations about the role of heroes in the lives of leaders. Now that you have considered your own heroes, you might benefit from these observations.

The first observation is the ease or difficulty with which a leader can name his/her heroes. What about you? Were you able to quickly access your heroes? Maybe the first one came without much effort and the others took some pondering. Or perhaps you had to really think about it and even then had a hard time putting the hero label on someone. Or maybe, for whatever reason, you couldn't name anyone who serves as a hero in your life.

When it comes to naming one's heroes, I've noticed a distinct pattern: the progress a leader makes in moving toward his goals is directly correlated with the degree of speed and certainty with which he can name his heroes. The pattern is most obvious in the negative: I've never coached leader who is unable to name a hero and who also makes substantial progress toward real goals.

Jesse is a leader of a small enterprise on the coast of North Carolina. When I asked about his heroes, he was speechless. After a while, he pushed back on the question, saying he thought it improper to grant someone hero status.

I allowed that if he found the word hero problematic, he could simply share the names of persons he admired and modeled his life after. He still resisted. Finally, he shared that there was nobody he sought to emulate and that he led his life according to what seemed right at the time, not some set of admirable qualities or role models.

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