Heroes and Legends Pt 1

Perhaps we already share a professional experience.  The best question I have ever been asked in any job interview was “Are you a sprinter or a marathoner?” The question caught me off guard at the time, but my knee-jerk response to it has left me on a path of increasing obsession with systematic process ever since.  In observing myself and others in professional settings I have found that those regarded as most successful are often the most consistently successful.  And those people almost invariably have a process that allows them to respond to all of their goals and challenges.  They are unflappable in the face of ambiguity, and they graciously accept praise for the meeting goals they always knew they would meet. My answer?

“Taking that question into professional context, I would say that it’s about effort. And in that way I feel that ‘Sprinter’ and ‘Marathoner’ are interchangeable with ‘Hero’ and ‘Legend’. The Hero provides awe-inspiring effort, they are the benefactors of epic victories and the recipients of crushing defeats.  They give a task everything they have in hopes of that victory.  The Legend is systematic.  They use foresight to prepare and plan to overcome obstacles.  The most accomplished Legends begin to seek obstacles just to diminish them.  I think there’s a little bit of both Hero in Legend in all of us, but the Legends have the better track records.”

Now I have nothing against sprinters or heroes.  I feel that Heroes display the 100% emotional, physical, even spiritual efforts that humans are naturally drawn to. That's the definition of a hero to me... and when presented with the opportunity, don't we all aspire to be the hero? And truly, heroic actions are often the defining moments for careers even the histories of entire corporations.

My observations in the business world, however, are that the Hero is often inconsistent. Their ability to overwhelm a challenge with pure effort can be parried by stress, peer pressure, misunderstanding of the challenge, or even just a greater, opposing effort.

This is where Legends prevail. The Legend is not susceptible to variance in the way that the hero is, because the Legend has already accounted for secondary obstacles. The Legend, conversely to the Hero is nearly emotionless, they are all system. My observations of Legends are that they are significantly more consistent because they maintain a steady approach to challenges as they happen.

In subsequent parts of this post I will be delving a little deeper into Heroes and Legends to begin to develop a framework for strategic planning.