The Hero Leads

Welcome, The Hero Leads readers. Thank you for following the link from the book to this page.
(If you don’t have a copy yet, you can find it on Amazon.)

Chapter 1: The Ordinary World

In this stage of the Hero’s Journey, you recognize the status quo – your Ordinary World – and begin to see its limitations.

In the Ordinary World, you and your surroundings mesh, but there is a sense that what is doesn’t quite match what should be. The hard work is looking at your own situation clearly enough to know what you’re actually dealing with.

Questions to ask yourself

• What conversation keeps coming up in your organization — recycled, unresolved, quietly exhausting?
• Where do you feel competent but under-challenged and under-utilized?
• If a trusted colleague described the culture around you honestly, what would they say that you haven’t said out loud?
• Where have you stopped pushing back because it stopped feeling worth it?
• What would you change tomorrow if you had the authority — and what’s really stopping you?
• Is the version of yourself that shows up at work the one you’d choose to be, or the one that fits the system?

Use that discomfort

When you think about your Ordinary World, the questions you resist are usually the most useful ones.

Discomfort is data. Anger, unease, and restlessness point toward something worth paying attention to. But what do you actually do with that signal?

Notice it without explaining it away. Most people move quickly from feeling something uncomfortable to rationalizing it. It’s not that bad. Everyone deals with this. At least I have a job. The rationalizations aren’t wrong. They’re just not useful. Before you explain it away, sit with it long enough to feel what it’s actually about.

Step One to improving the world is deciding there’s room for improvement.