Change Management: How to Avoid the Hero Trap

Within our exponentially volatile world, organizational growth is a constant challenge and, in turn, leading change is a critical leadership competency to answer this challenge. However, too many change efforts still fail.

Why is leading change so hard at times of growth? Many leaders bemoan employee resistance and hidden stakeholder agendas as key factors. While these can be significant factors, according to the author he doesn’t think blame can be pointed only at the employees and stakeholders. The truth is actually quite the opposite. In his experience working with companies trying to scale, the reason most change efforts fail is that leaders suffer from the hero complex – defined as a toxic mix of seeking overinflated credit (for the change) and experiencing extreme psychological ownership (of the change).

The complicating factor: Many aspects of leading change tend to bring out the hero complex — especially at times of company growth. Change puts leaders “onstage” to be lauded (or loathed) by those above (investors, senior management, partner organizations) as well as those below (employees, stakeholders). Being at the center of that stage also increases feelings of being the change’s star and, thus, owner. That can make leaders less likely to listen to others’ ideas for improvements to the change solution and/or more likely take any criticism of the change as a personal insult.

So how can you steer clear of these traps? Consider these three pieces of advice, based on real-world companies’ experiences, that will help you fight the hero complex as you scale change for growth.

1. Don’t go solo with a solution: Build a coalition of experts.  In his book Leading Change, organizational change expert John Kotter promotes the value of building a “powerful coalition” early on to lead a change initiative. However, many leaders wait to build a coalition until after they have decided on the change solution. This can feed into the hero complex because the leaders are likely to pick coalition members who understand — and/or already support — the solution rather than people who understand the actual problem that the change needs to solve.  The solution: Assemble a powerful coalition based on each person’s understanding and expertise regarding the problem the change will address — rather than their perspective on the proposed solution.  Four change coalition roles to be helpful: Technologists, Evangelists, Analysts, and Advocates or Sponsors.
2. Don’t just sell a change vision: Tell the problem’s origin story.  Many change leaders focus so much on selling a change vision (and solution) that they lose sight of the problem they are trying to solve.  Ask some basic questions as you write the problem’s origin story: What is the problem that we are trying to solve? How did we discover this problem? What pain points need to be resolved? What is the opportunity that we are trying to capitalize on? How did we come across this opportunity? More than likely, you have a plethora of internal or external customer stories that poignantly explain the problem’s pain points.
3. Don’t assume that the culture must change: Ask how the culture supports the change.  Many change leaders, again with aspirations of being the hero, assume that every change requires a transformation in organizational culture. However, this is more myth than reality.  Why do so many leaders see this as reality? These leaders focus too much on implementing a change solution rather than solving the change problem.  Once a minimally viable solution has been designed, instead of first asking “What about the organizational culture needs to transform to implement the solution successfully?” ask these three questions:  What about the solution supports the current organizational culture?  What about the current organizational culture supports the solution?  What about the solution may need to be revised to best align with the current organizational culture while still solving the problem?