Guiding Our Heroes: How Leaders Inspire During Crisis

2020 is turning out to be the Year of the Hero, but for reasons you might not expect.

Our current global crisis is demonstrating daily, in myriad ways, how we are all on a collective journey of support and sacrifice, not a quest for self-fulfillment and personal preservation.

Many of the stories being written right now are be driven by the leaders of heroes, as well as the heroes themselves. Each incredible tale becomes a testament to the successes and failures found in guiding our heroes forward.

George Bradt of Forbes Magazine recently pointed out that:

“Leadership is about inspiring and enabling others to do their absolute best together to realize a meaningful and rewarding shared purpose. Teams need heroes. They need role players. They need leaders in the arena and behind the arena… The hero’s journey and leader’s journeys are similar, but not the same. At some point, the hero has to accept the quest themselves and get into the arena. The leader inspires and enables others on their quests perhaps arranging forces for battle strategically from outside the arena and perhaps leading forces in the arena tactically.”

Initially, the quest is often thrust upon the hero. It’s not something they traditionally seek out for themselves and often it’s an unwelcome call. It’s the job of leadership to provide the pathway, the guidance, and the motivation necessary for the hero’s success.

In his book, Seven Lessons for Leading in Crisis, Bill George gives the following critical tasks every leader must face when clearing the path for their heroes:

· Face Reality, Starting with Yourself

· Get the World off Your Shoulders

· Dig Deep for the Root Cause

· Get Ready for the Long Haul

· Never Waste a Good Crisis

· You’re in the Spotlight: Follow True North

· Go on the Offense, Focus on Winning Now.

These tasks are very similar to the hero’s short list of things-to-do. The difference is that the leader must look at the challenges or crises in their totality versus a single quest. For leaders, there are many heroes to guide toward the ultimate goal, where the collective journey ends and everyone succeeds.

These interwoven journeys, battles, and struggles are playing out right before our eyes on a global scale. What remains to be seen in not whether the heroes will rise — they already have.

What still remains unwritten is the ability of our world leaders to lift themselves beyond their own borders, past politics, and above all the trappings that power affords in effort to clear the hero’s path.

The stakes are high and the world is watching…