In the world of superheroes, every hero has their Achilles heel that can bring them down. Superman had his kryptonite. Iron Man had his vanity. If someone chained together Wonder Woman’s “Bracelets of Submission,” she would lose her Amazonian super strength. From a literary point of view, it makes sense. If there were no obstacles for superheroes, there would be no drama in what they had to do.
In the world of business and entrepreneurship, aim to be a hero. We want to be outstanding in our fields. Most people look at being a hero in the real sense of the word — namely, to positively affect and help more people. After all, isn’t that what true heroes do?
The problem is that, like superheroes, we all have obstacles that get into our way. These can have the same negative power over our efforts, much as when Superman comes into contact with a particular green rock and wants to pass out. However, Superman knows what to look for and avoid. He sees kryptonite; he flies the other way. We have to do the same thing in our quest to be heroes. We must identify those traits that can cause us to backslide and take us out of the realm of superheroes and back to the category of mediocrity. I am going to highlight three prevalent issues that many people face as they try to become heroes to their industries or communities of followers.
1. Fear. While this might seem like a broad category, the intent is to cover it in its entirety. Fears come in many guises; you have to identify what worries, concerns or doubts hold you back.
I’ll give you an example. There was a woman who was very successful in the pharmaceutical industry. She was intelligent, personable, organized and everything else you would see in a person who has their act together. However, she was terrified of public speaking. She froze despite having a script in front of her. The audience would start looking at their watches or playing on their phones until the presentation was over. Her fear held her back from significant promotions.
She recognized her fear and came to terms with it. She went out and took public speaking courses. She still hates doing it, but at least she does a pretty good job when on stage. She discovered procrastinating or avoiding the chance to be in front of an audience hurt her career. She did what you need to do when something you are afraid of is holding you back: You need to identify your fear, figure out how you can overcome it and then implement the steps to do so. Yes, it does take courage, but remember that one definition of courage is to be afraid of something, but then still go out and do it anyway.
2. The Need To Be Right. Have you ever worked with someone in any aspect of your life, not even career-related, where the individual felt like they were the smartest person in the room? If so, you probably also realize that the person wasn’t! The ego is a dangerous part of our personalities if we do not have a healthy relationship with it.
When people feel that they have all the answers or are always right, they can usually only go so far in life, and they are never going to reach hero status, except in their mind. It is impossible to have all the answers for every curveball thrown at us in our personal lives or careers. A hero seeks out more information and solicits counsel from other people. A hero knows they don’t have all the answers, but they look to surround themselves with others who can complement them on where they might have a deficit in knowledge or experience. A good writer composes excellent books, but they look for a sharp marketing mind to bring those books to the public.
Humility knows what we are good at and where we need help. Not exercising this trait leads more people down the path to mediocrity and even ruin because they don’t take the time to know themselves. When you don’t have an objective knowledge or your strengths and weaknesses, you will make mistakes. As Clint Eastwood says in one of the Dirty Harry movies, “A [person] has got to know [their] limitations.”
3. Your Crutches. We all have crutches. There is nothing wrong with that, but like our fears and our ability to know our strengths and weaknesses, we need to understand what those crutches are so we can overcome them.
For example, the president of a large charitable organization knew his agency and its mission thoroughly. He could talk about it to anyone and was a great fundraiser. However, when it came to his staff, he bogged them down with so much paperwork and reports that they felt paralyzed in doing the duties of their jobs. Then he would get irritated at them.
As he talked it out, he realized that he was doing the same thing a supervisor did to him early in his career. He came to accept paperwork as an accurate measure of someone’s performance and went overboard on it when he became a boss. As with this gentleman, some crutches become part of us because a leader tells us something, and we don’t know any better, so it becomes ingrained in us. When this president overhauled how he managed the staff and went from maximum paperwork to minimum, the charity thrived even more, and he did attain superstar hero status in the nonprofit world.
If you want to be a hero with what you do, it isn’t a matter of putting on a red cape or having a Lasso of Truth. It is taking an honest self-evaluation and looking at your fears or the traits that are holding you back. Only then can you take the steps needed to overcome them and become that hero.
Divya Parekh
Originally published on Forbes.com