Article summary
Let’s talk about why you should not strive to be the hero at work. I’ve been exposed to a lot of teams and environments since I started consulting three years ago. Working at product companies was still an excellent experience. Still, it’s difficult to match the sheer number of situations you experience in consulting, when contracts are sometimes as short as only a few months.
One really notable benefit was how easy it was to identify common patterns across companies. In consulting, you end up working with different companies in entirely different fields with different situations. When you start to see similar problems across such different situations, it tends to stick in your mind. There’s one particular pattern I started noticing that really bothered me with how pervasive and how dysfunctional it was. I didn’t even have a name for this pattern at first, I was just confused. Then one day, a friend of mine used a phrase I’ll never forget, and I suddenly realized what to call it: Hero Syndrome.
What is it?
At the base level, humans want to be helpful. This is not a bad thing. In fact, it’s a good thing! It leads to us helping the company, helping fellow coworkers, and even helping people outside of work in our personal lives. We often get personal satisfaction out of doing it as well. It feels good to help! Truthfully, an employee that doesn’t want to be helpful at all ends up not being that valuable. But just as lack of desire to be helpful can be a problem, an obsession with stepping in to be a hero can be just as problematic.
I’ll define the difference between being helpful and being a hero as not just helping, but stepping in to save the day. Now that doesn’t necessarily mean avoiding a giant high-visibility catastrophe. It can be a small thing, or several small things. The defining characteristic I identified was the way it happened. A problem arises, someone appears as if out of thin air and resolves it, and then disappears just as quickly: heroically saving the day.
Why is it a problem?
At the surface, this doesn’t sound like such a bad deal. Having people that you can rely on to show up to fix problems seems great, and it can be! It’s never a good situation if you run into problems and no one can solve them after all. The real problem, however, is when this is pervasive. That’s what turns heroic employees into hero syndrome.
If you’re noticing a pattern of consistent situations that someone needs to swoop in to resolve, take a second to think… why is that happening so often? Are there really such frequent problems occurring completely outside of anyone’s control that it’s warranted? Or… are there systemic problems that are not being solved? Sometimes, having heroes to save the day can explicitly hide these problems. This can make it difficult to identify problems or how bad they are, and train people or fix processes to resolve them.
Part of what makes this difficult to address is that the pain this situation creates is very subtle. The company is often happy because problems are being solved, and they don’t care how. The person being the hero is often happy because they enjoy stepping in to save the day. Sometimes the people being saved are even happy since they can’t envision a situation without a hero saving them, since it seems it would be worse.
The truth is, however, that this situation hides a lot of inefficiencies and tons of unmitigated risks. What happens if the hero goes on vacation, or quits, or stops being able to keep up with the number of situations that need saving? Not to mention how much faster work can get done with a smooth process that doesn’t have interruptions or temporary blockages for saving.
What should we do about it?
You can’t solve a problem if you don’t know it’s happening. If you’re the hero, try taking an honest look at how you’re solving problems. It’s easy to fall into the trap of fixing and moving on. Sure, it feels great to fix things, and you become indispensable to the team. It can even create a positive feedback loop where your saves make it look and feel like the team needs constant saving, and you have no choice but to continue.
But have you really tried other options? Implement new processes. Spend more time mentoring/training other team members. Maybe even escalate issues to bring in additional support or ideas. You might be surprised at the effect you can have if you put in the effort, even for systemic issues.
If you’re the one being saved (or observing someone else being saved), it’s a bit trickier. It can feel great that you’re not alone and someone is helping you out, but try to pay attention to the patterns. Are you noticing needing less help over time, or is it the same? Do you understand what went wrong after it was fixed, or are you still confused? Is your work obstructed if this person is missing for even a short time?
Depending on your position on the team, it can be difficult to solve on your own. Try asking a lot of clarifying questions. Try to get time on a calendar to learn things or pair with someone. You may need to bring in other people into the problem though. Loop in another team member and ask if they’re noticing the same things. Escalate your concerns to your manager. Two heads are better than one to solve a problem!
Get to the root.
If you’re a company, it’s even trickier to spot. Without clear routes of communication to individual contributors, it’s hard to get concerns escalated. Try to observe patterns in work, if there’s blockages or people are getting stuck. Ask lots of questions about how people are stuck, or why. Keep digging until you get to the root of the problem so you can identify if it’s systemic. If you meet with individual contributors or have skip levels, ask questions about the state of the process and how supported people are feeling. Once you’ve identified it, you’re in the strongest spot to fix the problem though. Instituting new processes and practices around teaching, knowledge transfer, and productivity can make a world of difference.