Ma’s radio used to blare Bowie’s “We can be heroes…just for one day.” Leaders aren’t so lucky; we have to do more than that. Being a hero for a day might cut it in your personal life but it won’t get you through a month in the business world. As leaders, even when it’s business as usual, there’s always another problem to slay or a project in distress to save–and don’t get me started on quests.
I admit I never considered my leadership as heroic until I attended Matthew Luhn‘s keynote on “Effective Leadership: How to Be the Movie Hero of Your Own Story” at the Entrata Summit in Park City. Luhn, a former 20-year Pixar story artist and current story consultant for Hollywood movie studios, plus corporate brands, learned the importance of heroes and storytelling while working on blockbuster movies like Toy Story, Ratatouille, and Up. In addition, he spent time with Steve Jobs while working at Pixar, he learned by witnessing impactful leadership up close.
According to Luhn, there are four hero traits every leader (or company) should emulate to lead successfully: likability, vision, storytelling, and perseverance.
Likability
Being likable is the key to having people trust and follow you. People don’t give their all for leaders or companies they don’t like. According to Luhn, there are three ways you can cultivate your likability: save the cat, share a story of your childhood, appear as the underdog, or be vulnerable.
Save the cat is all about kindness and generosity. In a movie, “save the cat” is when the main character does something nice for a lower status character. In business, it’s when big companies do something charitable or donate to a cause.
Showing yourself as a child creates likability because people generally sympathize with and protect the vulnerable–and who is more vulnerable than a child? As a leader, stories of your childhood lend you a human, relatable dimension. That’s why we love origin stories.
Likewise, most of us cheer for the underdog. We can all relate to someone who had to struggle. This is why we relate to companies that started in garages before they became big brand names.
Another great way to increase your likability is to show vulnerability. Many times companies make the mistake of only showing strengths. Who can relate to perfection? By showing how you (or your company) failed, survived, and grew, you become more relatable than someone who only displays good results.
Like the time I was at a leadership conference (and I can’t say the company’s name because we’re under NDA but it’s one of the 10 largest companies in the world), the CEO won his audience over by starting with this admission. “We blew it and I take accountability for taking us in the wrong direction…”
Vision
In any movie, a character must want something or we lose interest in watching their story. A girl may want to free her country from invaders (Joan of Arc) or a boy might just want to play on the Notre Dame football team (Rudy). We love people with a goal and a clear vision. Patagonia wants to lead through sustainability. Starbucks wants to give its customers a great experience in the stores. These visions are simple and clear; if you believe in them, you’re ready to follow a person or company wherever they go.
Storytelling
In addition to a clear vision, leaders need to communicate well. Storytelling is one of the best ways to inspire people. Steve Jobs was a master of storytelling. When he first introduced the iPhone, he didn’t list the features. Jobs took the audience on a rollercoaster story of ups and downs.
First, Jobs announced he had something revolutionary that was going to change the world–a smartphone. The audience cheered. But just as they were excited, he took the audience down by saying smartphones already existed and they were stupid. However, he didn’t leave them at the low. He took the audience twice as high by saying the new iPhone was smarter than your computer at home. And so on.
Perseverance
We don’t follow leaders who give up. We admire movie heroes like Ripley in Alien, who keeps on fighting, no matter what happens. Likewise, we admire business people who keep on going despite setbacks. Elon Musk is lauded, followed, and admired for how he overcomes challenges to make electric cars (Tesla), rockets (SpaceX), and mining equipment (Boring company).
As a leader, it’s not just what you do that’s important, but how you do it. Leaders and movie heroes share lots of traits. If you want to lead people on your quest (aka business plan), cultivate likability, show vision, use storytelling, and persevere.
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