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Why Our Heroes Will Always Be More and Less Than the Pedestal We Put Them On

March 28, 2011 by Liz Leave a Comment

All the Stories Are True and Un-True too.

I was 13 when my grandmother died. I never got to know her well. My experience of her was a tall, loving woman who smiled often and spoke only Italian. So you can see the gap.

However, I grew up with a wealth of stories about her to add to my small set of interactions. And because she was and is a hero of mine I was a always curious to know more to fill in the picture of this person I wished I knew better and more deeply as a person.

Now as each day brings closer to the age she was when I knew her, I realize she was more complicated and had more experiences and feelings than I’ll ever know. She will always be more and less of the hero she’s come to be defined in my mind.

It’s important to realize that stories and small sets of meaningful interactions can’t reveal a person to us.

Why Our Heroes Will Always Be More and Less Than the Pedestal We Put Them On

Stories and meaningful interactions are powerful things. But the very essence of what makes a good story or a meaningful interaction is that it highlights one quality, one action that reveals something about the person in question. But no person is only one quality.

Ask my son what he knows about me.

What I’ve learned is that, like great characters in movies, we’ve all got our great strengths and weaknesses. We’ve all got our stellar qualities and our deep flaws. And any one of us that gets put on a pedestal is destined to fall. Here’s why and why I never want to be on a pedestal myself.

  • The heroes we put on a pedestal don’t really know what qualities or traits got them there. They can guess, but they didn’t define the “character” who was raised up and so they’re destined not to live up to the definition.
  • The people who put the heroes on the pedestal can only see the heroes from far away. The closer we get to people the more we see their complexity, the more likely we are to change that hero-worship into friendship. True friends see a whole person and accept the humanity — what’s great and what still needs growing about them.
  • Sooner or later every hero will be human and step outside of pedestal definition. Suddenly the hero-worshipers will feel a betrayal that the hero was less than they thought, but really he or she is also more … the more that they couldn’t see.

So let’s give up the Pedestal mentality. Heroes are only infallible from faraway. It’s unfair to make them one-dimensional and expect them to live up to a definition that no human could possibly be.

I love the stories of my grandmother. I’ll always keep her high in my heart, but I also know that she had to work for what she got and that she faced real decisions and couldn’t have possibly always chosen right. No human ever does.

If we truly want community, it’s our job to remember and protect our heroes as the humans they are so that they can keep growing and showing us what they’ve got. What kinds of fans would we be if we made all of the protection go one way and left all of the heroism to them? Where would Harry Potter be without his band of friends who have his back? No pedestal takes the place of a community of friends.

I think I like her better knowing that. It makes it easier to imagine she’d also be proud of me.

How do you protect your heroes and see them people not characters on pedestals?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Filed Under: Community, Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, heroes, humanity, LinkedIn, relationships

How Do You Recognize and Attract Heroes and Champions for Your Brand?

October 19, 2010 by Liz Leave a Comment

(Updated in 2020)

Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

10-Point Plan: Enlisting Heroes and Champions

Those Who Are Waiting to Lead

Finding the heroes and champions who already love what you do. It seems every time I give a presentation about growing business and social business a few CEOs and business owners find me to talk. They want to know to get started raising a barn — a vibrant internal community of fans focused on growing their business — rather than building a coliseum — a huge endeavor that employees work on for them. They want to use social tools to connect all of the people — employees, vendors, partners, and customers — who might have ideas and insights that will help their business thrive.

The first question is how to find and attract those heroes and champions.

How Does a Business Identify Heroes and Champions?

Last week, I wrote about assessing and benchmarking the community with two informal tools that allow people to offer their opinions on the state of things. The second tool, a sociogram, is often used in education settings to determine social networks and influencer hierarchies. It’s a gem of a tool for finding out who already has influence within a group.

To find the heroes and champions of the change toward a stronger community look to the sociogram to find the people who were chosen most often as

  • people others would ask to teach them something new. (training stars)
  • people others would invite to attend or a gathering of your friends. (social stars)
  • people others would ask to offer you a recommendation on the quality of their work. (leadership stars)
  • people others would ask to to do all three. (influence stars)
  • Identify and enlist a core team of champions to lead the quest.

It easy to see how these four groups, particularly the last would be the people that your team and your community look to for answers, advice, and how to evaluate and navigate change.

So it follows naturally that the people who scored highest in these groups might be the first team of heroes and champions that we bring together to talk about the brand values they believe in and those that are the new mission.

Look for the Leaders You Already Know

Attracting and enlisting these heroes can be natural and easy if we really are set on raising on barn, not building a coliseum. We lay out the vision clearly, explaining the goal and the rewards of getting to it.

We’re going to build a business that will make work easier, faster, and more meaningful for us and the people who work with us. AND We’ll do it by aligning our goals and building something that none of us could ever build alone.

Are you in? What skills do each of you bring? What are the minimum processes and rules we need to keep honest, respectful communication? What problems do you see? How might we solve them before they begin? How can we best bring this message back to the rest of the team?

Yet people can respond to a clear vision for many reasons. Some are drawn to the work. Some come for personal reasons. Some come to build something they can’t build alone. Some may come because they seek approval and attention.

Look for those who show leadership qualities of their own.

  • Competence and core values – champions who love your business understand what moves the business you’re in. They add insight into how to bring the vision to life. They have integrity, are trustworthy, and respect others. They are examples of intelligence and heart.
  • Positive energy – heroes and champions bring out the best in others. They have the energy to invest in big ideas with a spirit of inclusion, gratitude, and generosity. Curiosity fuels their solutions, inviting ideas from all sources.
  • Strength of character– leaders who can carry a vision have a strength of conviction, no matter the power of their role or position.

Before you try to create brand evangelists why not reach out the ones you already know? As you look for the people you would call heroes and champions, you’ll find they’re connected to others who are much like themselves. Invite just a few to a meeting and begin planning a barn together.

How do you recognize the brand evangelists you already know?

Related
To follow the entire series: Liz Strauss – Inside-Out Thinking to Building a Solid Business, see the Successful Series Page.

Be Irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Filed Under: Business Life, Community, Successful Blog Tagged With: branding, champions, Community, heroes, leadership, LinkedIn, strategy 10-Point Plan

Heroes, Humans, and a Request About this Life I Own

December 18, 2007 by Liz Leave a Comment

Lauren Marie, and I had a conversation yesterday. In respect for what LaurenMarie said, and because I have felt the same way, I’ve decided to tell you what I’m thinking, even though I’ve not fully worked it out. It’s my hope you’ll find it useful.

 

I've been thinking . . .

about heroes and humans . . . and the life that I own.

I live to be a hero, but I’m altogether too human.
I could line up in a long, long row the people who would agree with that.

Pendulum learner that I am, I’ve swung from human to hero and back again. No Greek tragic hero has more fatal flaws than I do. — It’s comes with being human to have flaws and imperfections. It’s part of being a hero to admit that you do. If I admit knowing that heroes do that, am I being all too human by saying so?

Thinking too much is one of those imperfect things I do.

The hero in me wants to give myself away, wants to show up and save the world, but like all heroes sometimes I try to live on hope. I give away things of value. Does that teach folks not value them? Is it generous, foolish, or my ego running wild? (Every hero is all too human.) I forget to eat. I don’t sleep. In a strange and sad way, it could be that having my head in the clouds protects me and keeps me safely solitary. No one can hurt me, if I ask nothing in return.

As the stories go, heroes are altruistic folks. Are they all independently wealthy?
I haven’t figured that part out yet.

The human in me needs to care for my friends and family. They so support who I am, and I love them so. Like every human, I have bills and responsibilities. I work to keep my home. It takes human influence to power the hero’s dream. This human has to walk with her feet on the ground. The hero needs the human things to change the world

Heroes think they don’t need things. Humans have trouble asking.

Heroes and humans.
I’m pretty sure that each of us is both.
Still, I can only speak to being me.

Last week, Mike DeWitt said he sees a change coming. He’s genuinely perceptive. I rely on his feedback. I spoke of his comment and other recent experiences to Allan Cox, a gifted author, and he answered with one word, “owning.”

I’ve been thinking of that ever since.
Owning, that’s what the wise man said.

Owning is where the human and the hero meet and become one.

I own my life.
I own who I am and the person I wish to be.
The more of myself I own, the more I can give freely.

I own this request . . . it’s from the human I am to the hero in each of you.
Will send you a relaxed and happy thought to the universe for me and would you pass it on?

I think I could be coming into my own.

Always grateful. Always home.

Liz's Signature

Filed Under: Motivation, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, heroes, humans, Ive-been-thinking, owed, owing, owning

Would You Rather Be Martha Stewart or David Armano?

October 3, 2007 by Liz 16 Comments

Before You Choose . . .

“GET” STICKY!

Did you read David Armano’s post on corporate stumbling this week? He cites an article in GlobeandMail about how Martha Stewart made a beautiful website that no one wanted to visit. He points to simlar mistakes made by Coke and Bud, and then explains “what really motivates users.”

  • There are literally millions of enthusiasts out there producing quality content in highly search engine friendly formats.
  • Not only is much of their content easier to find on the Web—it’s engaging, relevant,
  • and the people who produce it actually talk back to us.

David “gets” what’s “sticky,”

. . . it’s the content that will keep us engaged, and coming back for more. It’s the special sauce that can take a consumer and make them an active participant.

So will you be Martha Stewart or David Armano? The choice is yours.
How will you make yourself sticky to the customers already want to love you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
I make business sticky. Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar. Call me.

Related:
See the Customer Think Series on the Successful Series page.

Filed Under: Customer Think, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, Customer Think, David-Armano, Get-Sticky, heroes, logic-+-emotion

The Effect of Heroes

September 9, 2007 by Liz 9 Comments

It Wasn’t a Movie

This morning I woke early as I often do. My mind was working on a problem. I found my way to a news story, called Heroes, by David Armano.

HEROES

The problem that woke me up so early fell away from my mind. My eyes got wide. My heart got open. I looked out the window at the thinnest crescent moon for the longest time. It blurred as I tried to find the word for what I was feeling at a cellular level.

The word was hope. I was proud to be human.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Click the title “Heroes” to read David Armano’s eyewitness account of a horrible train wreck and two young heroes.

Filed Under: Motivation, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, David-Armano, heroes, logic-+-emotion

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