Leadership
and being a hero
- Everyone
wants to be a hero.
- Even if
in a small way - to be admired, respected, accepted.
- Those
who deny it are fooling themselves.
- If you
admire sporting heroes, you want to be one yourself.
- The true
leader is essentially a hero - someone who does something outstanding.
- The appointed
manager cannot compel hero worship.
How you can be both
a leader and a hero
- To be
a hero, you must demonstrate some form of excellence.
- The drive
to be a hero = the drive to differentiate yourself, to be yourself.
- Those
who genuinely do not have this drive are content with their own
status quo.
- Unlike
their sporting heroes, they don't push themselves to improve in
any way.
- Otherwise
they have low self esteem and feel they cannot do any better.
- To be
a hero, you do not need to stand out by doing something extraordinary.
- All managers
looked up to in any way are still heroes to those to look up to
them.
- Being
such a hero will enable you to lead those who admire you.
- Being
too much of a hero can be counterproductive if it disempowers
others.
- Small,
occasional acts of heroism help others to feel they can emulate
you.
- Referring
to heroes may sound over the top, but can you not think of a few
people you admire even if you would not call them your heroes?
- Younger
people are more prone to full blown hero worship than older people.
- That's
because they're still looking for role models on which to base
their own identity.
- If you
overly admire heroes at a more mature age, you might be avoiding
some aspect of reality you find unpleasant.
- Even if
you don't go so far as to put photos of your manager in a scrapbook,
you may be deferring too blindly to his or her authority, too
reliant on your manager to look after you and, hence, too let
down when your expectations are disappointed.
- For your
own development, it might be of some benefit to explore for yourself
why you defer to readily or rely so completely on your manager
for leadership.
|
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you ready for a complete shake up of leadership theory? Then, you
should buy this book! |
