Leadership lessons from your anti-heros

Batman wasn’t born Batman. He became Batman.

Batman was born Bruce Wayne, a kid from Gotham City. His story goes like this. Early in life he was exposed to Gotham’s dark side when he loses his parents to senseless crime. This inspires him to go on a journey for justice wherein he become the quintessential hero. The Dark Knight.

His hero’s journey was often fraught with challenge and was certainly more difficult than choosing to accept and adopt the behavior around him that he knew didn’t align with his values.

Bruce Wayne became Batman as a conscious reaction to the villians and antiheros around him. He saw what they were doing and actively chose to become the opposite for those who needed him.

A few things to note about this Batman analogy;

  1. Bruce Wayne was also the son of a multi-millionaire industrialist. He had every resource to his disposal on his quest to become the Dark Knight. Most of us reading this…don’t. That doesn’t matter!

  2. Antiheros are not the same as villains. Villains are baddies through and through who often have inherently evil intentions. Antiheros on the other hand tend to have many redeeming values and often have good intent. They may not even be aware of their impact on others or feel it’s in their control to change.

What’s the point?

When I’m working with leaders who want to become their best I often hear references to those who’s they feel did it wrong. Leaders who had a negetive impact on their careers, their teams, their business. Their lives. I can hear the hurt and it can lead to reluctance to step into their own leadership if it means becoming what they’ve seen from those leaders before them.

The process of familiarizing ourselves with our own antiheros, their behaviors, and being willing to discover what lessons they offer us to take forward can be juicy leadership work.

Let’s try something! Take a moment to think about the worst leader you’ve ever had.

As you do, certain behaviors might come to mind. What are they? Maybe that person acted in ways that feel low integrity. Maybe they never truly listened to others perspectives or they undermined their team for their own gain. Maybe they never trusted you to take risks and become great and so you in return never really trusted them.

What comes up for you?

For many of us, the leader that comes to mind likely isn’t a villian. They weren’t all bad all the time to everyone. That said, what they did as leaders in our lives left a lasting impact and a few scars.

The behaviors of an Antihero leader can hurt us but they also give us a gift. The gift of real life case studies of what not to do if we are open to watching for it and using it to fuel own growth.

  • Antiheros role mode behaviors we don’t love so we can see what not to do and why when it’s our turn to lead.

  • They highlight what great leadership isn’t for us and give us a chance to reflect on what exactly we’d do differently.

  • Often the behaviors that trigger us the most are linked to an underlying value that isn’t being honored. Things like trust, integrity, or safety. When our values are betrayed by us or others the impact can be great. Doing work to unpack what we’ve learned from our antiheros can help us get clear on our own leadership values and how to more fully live them with others.

The bottom line

Without the antiheros there is no Batman. It’s natural to feel hurt, upset, and simply write off the ‘bad leaders’ in our lives entirely without appreciating the lessons they have to teach us in our own hero’s journey.

On a hero’s journey? Curious to explore your real life antiheros? Drop me a note and let me know!

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