I used to think I was a bit of a hero—I was even proud of it. Beating the odds, I shifted my life story from high school dropout, teen mum, and no-hope foster kid to university graduate and business owner. Unlike many of my family members and friends, I stayed off welfare and out of prison. I limited my addictions to caffeine and nicotine. My kids have a safe, happy, and healthy home. It was a bumpy road, but I got there.
I knew my future, and that of my kids wasn’t guaranteed. If I wanted something different, I was the only one who could make it happen. So, for most of the last fifteen years, I worked every hour under the sun to make that future a reality. Now, I’m putting most of my energy into unravelling that heroism to be a better parent, boss and leader.
If you want something done right, you do it yourself… right? Wrong. You can’t be trusted. The hero model is a risky strategy, cleverly disguised as a safe option – and I always see this in my work with leaders. They’ve reached the top through sheer grit, and not only are they exhausted… they’ve reached the ceiling of their effort.
When we’re heroes, we don’t trust others to deliver, and we stunt our potential to go any further. But we get stuck if we can’t stop thinking of ourselves as irreplaceable.
When we operate a people leadership model, we reduce some risk by spreading it among others. We delegate tasks and functions to others and concentrate on supporting them to make it happen.
Systems leadership takes an entirely different approach. It’s no longer just about what you can do or what your teams can achieve. It’s about shifting the default so that our rules, processes, and relationships make it work.
Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets. If your system depends on heroes, it’s broken.
Heroes overcome the odds. Systems leaders change the odds.
