Are you a hero or a hero-maker?

I had an interesting meeting with a group of Perth based business advisers last week. We were talking about personal and company branding – and the potential ‘hero syndrome’, where the personal brand of a leader and the company brand are synonymous.

There are certainly some successful companies where the two intertwine, but the question was raised as to how  well those companies will do over time, once the leader is gone? The challenge is one of succession planning, but that is really hard to do if the leader sees his or her role as the hero, rather than the hero-maker.

To illustrate the point further, for every successful advisory firm, there are numerous micro or one-man-band consultants around where the ‘business’ is entirely dependent on the principal and a couple of key client relationships. And in nearly every case, these consultants eventually disappear or give up the consulting life to (reluctantly) work for someone else.

A leader who understands how to be a hero-maker and focus on raising the knowledge, ability and profile of the rest of his or her team is going to be a mile in front when it comes to:

• Growing his/her business
• Reducing risks and personal workload
• Employee engagement and productivity
• Taking more time out of the business
• Increasing exit options, and
• Exiting the business at a higher price!

And the concept should not stop with your own people. Too many consultants try to make their clients completely dependent on the delivery of their services – another example of making themselves the hero, rather than the client.

What they don’t seem to realise is that the client is then less likely to refer them to others, because they don’t want to ‘share’ the individual they rely on (particularly in the one-man band scenario). They are going to be far more comfortable referring a brand where there is a team of people who have the time and capacity to help their friends.

And ultimately most clients would prefer to have more than one person thinking about their business. That can either come from a team, or they will probably seek the input of other advisers.