This month, I’m participating in a Quadrant 3 Leadership Coach certification from Concorde Leadership. It’s been a great course so far – and I’m learning more ways to be of service to my clients and to be a more effective leadership coach.
One of our recent reflections called us to think about the types of characters we keep returning to. Reading Marc Pitman’s book The Surprising Gift of Doubt we’ve learned that the stories we tell, and the fictional characters return to again and again, are ways to show us more about our identity. And identity, along with our hardwiring and goals, is a key element to our leadership style. From the book:
“We each have characters we gravitate toward. And those characters contain surprising, powerful clues into how we are made.”
I first approached this prompt thinking about TV and movies. What do I re-watch?
There’s a lot there: Lord of the Rings (Theoden King!), Justified, Mad Men (a show with a surprising number of parallels to fundraising work), The Office (up until Michael Scott leaves), and various incarnations of Star Trek (Picard > Kirk).
But over my shoulder in my home office is a bookcase filled with comics. And the character that appears more than anyone else (even with all the volumes of Hellboy, Fables, and Swamp Thing) is Green Lantern (specifically, Hal Jordan).
Green Lantern is (essentially) a space cop with a magic ring. The ring can create anything he can imagine – from large boxing gloves to jet planes. It also allows him to fly in space and understand nearly any other language. He’s a character from the 40s with multiple reinventions, a deep bench of villains and friends, and has been a favorite of mine for years.
Green Lantern’s core is a belief in the power of imagination and willpower over fear. In the stories, Green Lantern is part of a Green Lantern Corps – heroes across the universe with a common goal to fight evil and protect others. Despite his occasional problems with authority, he’s part of something bigger. He’s also unafraid of jumping into a situation and has no patience for bullies or cruelty.
Plus, he’s got a vow!
In brightest day / in blackest night / no evil shall escape my sight / Let all who worship evil’s might / beware my power / Green Lantern’s light
Other characters in GL stories are often comrades – other Green Lanterns that serve as partners, rivals, or sometimes foils. Get deep enough in the comics, and you’ll find other color lanterns like the Blue Lanterns (who represent hope), Yellow Lanterns (fear), and Red Lanterns (rage).
In larger team books, he takes a backseat to the big characters (Batman and Superman, for example) – but in GL-centric books he’s part of a vast cosmology of larger-than-life characters, both good and evil.
In classic team ups, Green Lantern is usually the first to jump into a fight. He doesn’t always win – and he sometimes makes mistakes – but fear never holds him back.
I like to think that this is not a coincidence. That my work in the nonprofit space has been one of standing up for and standing alongside others. And that my leadership work has been characterized by bringing a team together around a vision.
Bonus fact: I named my company Resolute because that’s a synonym for willpower. That’s also why my corporate color palate is green.
What stories make up your identity? And how have those stories made you a more effective leader? Let’s talk and see what we can learn together!
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