Strategy #39: Give your people worthy heroes

If you were to designate America’s most admired “hero” on the basis of how many offices and cubicles were festooned with this individual’s image, chances are the winner would be Dilbert. Dilbert! Don’t you think we deserve better heroes?

We all need heroes that we can look up to and emulate. When I was an MBA student at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, I worked one summer at Hewlett-Packard (the summer of 1984). Even though they were both retired from the company, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard still had an amazing spiritual presence, and what was widely known as “The HP Way” still guided philosophy, decision-making, and actions at the company. “Bill and Dave” were the heroes people looked up to, in much the same way that Mary Kay Ash is still a hero at Mary Kay Cosmetics or Ray Kroc is still a hero at McDonald’s.

In a previous strategy, I mentioned that leaders should become adept storytellers. One type of story they can tell is the story of their heroes. I know several CEOs who love Ben Franklin and his everyday common sense. One, in fact, has read so much about Old Ben that she relies on him for advice; in just about any situation, she knows what he would tell her to do, and she does it. She rarely regrets her actions later. It’s a natural for these leaders to tell “Ben” stories to reinforce their key message.

There have been hundreds of “so-and-so on leadership” books written that can help you identify (and tell stories about) great leaders of the past, from Jesus and Attila the Hun to Queen Elizabeth I and Winston Churchill to Abraham Lincoln and Colin Powell. This even includes fictional leaders such as Winnie the Pooh, the Simpsons, and Tony Soprano (and my own book Leadership Lessons from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, available as an e-book through our online bookstore at www.SparkStore.com). How can you “adopt” one or more of these heroes (well, Attila the Hun was a butcher, not a hero, but you get the point) to reinforce key themes in your desired organizational culture?

I recently developed a new training program for hospitals, entitled What Would Florence Do?  With all the problems in healthcare today, we need genuine heroes. And the more I learn about Florence Nightingale, the more I appreciate what a hero she was, and how much the answer to that question – What Would Florence Do? – is the solution to many (perhaps most) of the serious problems in healthcare today.

In my travels, I have the chance to speak with people from across the spectrum of the healthcare delivery system. One common theme in today’s healthcare world is that people say they are stressed and burned out.  I think I know what Florence Nightingale would say to that.  When she was working 20-hour days in those horrid hospitals of Scutari during the Crimean War, caring for the thousands of soldiers that she considered “her children,” and standing toe-to-toe with the British military doctors who wanted no part of her and her tiny corps of dedicated nurses, Florence Nightingale never asked about pay and benefits, never complained about the working conditions. And I’m pretty sure that if she were to come back to pay a visit to America’s hospitals today, she would tell us to remember why we chose the healing professions in the first place (hint: it was not to have an easy and comfortable lifestyle, or to get rich).

Who are the heroes in your organization, your industry, or your world whose example could help you spark a renaissance of commitment to the values, vision, mission for which you stand?  What can you do to help people internalize those heroes in their everyday thoughts, attitudes, and actions?

“One of the traits [great and famous people] have in common is a sense of expectation and destiny. They always believed that they were destined for greatness... Our society creates heroes in every endeavor of life. We all want people to look up to and emulate... In [these heroes], you’ll not see a different species of human being, but you will see the same doubts and fears that you face, and you will see their greatness and potential in yourself.”

Jim Stovall: Success Secrets of Super Achievers

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