Don't be a hero, don't be a martyr

Heroes and martyrs can be dangerous to your company's health, here's how to identify it and what to do about it

Dec 08, 2024

Don’t be a hero. Don’t enable heroes. Heroes will kill your organization. This week, I’m sharing one of the least expected lessons I’ve learned as a founder. I wish I had read about it before I experienced it — so here we go.

Somewhere in the startup journey, we had a high-performer who left everybody in his wake starry-eyed. He stayed up to fix the project when everyone else didn’t have it together. He put in countless hours to create results when the project was disorganized. He swooped in with an agenda when there was no agenda. Somehow, he was always there to save things. A clear pattern emerged — he was always saving the day in the nick of time. And he made sure everyone heard about it.

Something unexpected eventually became evident. His work was exceptional, but his work style was undermining the team’s health.

What’s wrong with a hero?

Anybody whose M.O. is about swooping in to save the day is:

Undermining your team
Undermining your process

And it’s a subtle manipulation, insofar as the great sacrifice appears to be for the organization’s benefit. But the action’s long-term consequence is at the organization’s expense. Trust erodes, and trust is the make-or-break ingredient for any high-performing organization.

Trust is developed through accountability. Whether it is holding yourself accountable or holding others accountable, a clear issue must be identified and addressed. Perpetual heroes don’t make it past the first step (blame others) on the ladder of accountability because they jump to the solution without extracting wisdom and fostering long-term change from the failure (step 5: acknowledge reality). They don’t use their influence to prevent the issue from happening again.

There are undoubtedly things that go wrong, particularly in startups. Calls without agendas. Meetings that are unprepared for. Projects that are poorly managed. When these things occur, it is crucial that they are diagnosed and resolved.

Ironically, however, heroes thrive in the startup environment — because those who roll up their sleeves and get the job done are immensely valuable when the work is seemingly endless. Deep under the disorganized agenda, someone was not onboarded well. Or they missed a deadline. Or they lacked context. Or they were given unclear goals. It’s in the hero’s best interest to help analyze the issue and try to prevent it from happening again once they have solved it or before it occurs.

If not, heroes may fix issues, but heroes won’t scale solutions.

If you are a hero, consider spending time retroactively analyzing the issue with the team once you have solved it. Don’t let me, or anybody, temper your bias for action. It is wildly valuable. But your self-promotion suggests team dysfunction, and you will make enemies before you know it.

Not a hero, but a martyr

There is another iteration of the hero: the martyr. They see others’ inadequacies, roll up their sleeves, and get the work done silently. In stark contrast to the hero’s self-aggrandization, the martyr isn’t interested in praise and rejects celebration. Like the hero, their bias for action is very valuable to startups. So how do leaders reward such a high-performing team player? They promote them. What often becomes evident, though, is that the martyr can’t manage others.

The martyr’s lack of influence, combined with their bias for action, may have led them to roll up their sleeves in the first place. While the martyr was an exceptional individual contributor, they often become a below-average manager. Martyrs are phenomenal team members, but understanding and addressing their pitfalls will be crucial to their success. If you choose to promote a martyr to leadership, you must work with the martyr to scale their influence and impact.

Heroes and martyrs choose self-discipline over influence

Discipline is extremely valuable. So is influence. Having discipline without influence will not make you a leader. Not everybody aspires to manage people or lead, and a supercharged individual contributor is worth their weight in gold. But do not position your accomplishments as a response to other people’s ineptitude. It will slow your path to leadership. If you are good at solving problems, solve them — and work to scale the solution when possible.

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