Your ‘Hero’s Journey’ to Leadership Success

We all have heroes: people who supported us in tough times; who saved us from potential ruin; who sacrificed for our well-being and benefit. Call one to mind right now and ask yourself these essential questions about them: Where did that heroism come from? What events forged them into the kind of person capable of performing humbling actions?

Joseph Campbell spent his entire life thinking deeply about those questions. As a writer and professor of history and religion, he studied myths and stories from across time and geography-legends, religious tales, novels, plays, poems-and he noted several common elements among stories about heroic figures, regardless of culture. From this study, he developed a theory about the life and formation of a hero. He called it the "monomyth"-the single story.

More casually, his theory is known as "the hero's journey," a common template of key events that shape the progression of a regular person into a true hero.

Crossing the Threshold

This is the moment when the hero exits what Campbell calls the "ordinary world" and crosses into the "special world." It's a point of no return, because once that boundary is crossed, there can be no turning back. It's often a terrifying moment, filled with uncertainty and risk, with no guarantee of success.

Trials are there by design, not by accident. They exist to build our confidence, to equip us with the experience, resiliency and skills necessary to succeed in our quest.

It's the moment when Neo takes the red pill. When Frodo leaves the Shire. Or Katniss volunteers for the Hunger Games. Crossing the threshold is a moment of full commitment. It's the launch pad of the hero's journey.

In what moment did you "cross the threshold" into the special world of the legislature? Was it the moment you decided to run for office? Responded to a job posting for a staff position? How did that moment feel? Did it seem like a leap of faith?

Trials and Tribulations

As the hero embarks on the journey, he or she confronts a series of wake-up calls-reminders that this is going to be hard. This phase has battles and setbacks, injuries and losses. But through each ordeal, the hero learns, sharpens skills, faces tests and prepares for the personal objective that the journey seeks to fulfill.

It's Marlin facing the shark attack in "Finding Nemo." Or Tom Hanks dealing with the tower sniper in "Saving Private Ryan." Or Frodo ensnared in Shelob's spider web.

These trials are there by design, not by accident. They exist to build our confidence, to equip us with the experience, resiliency and skills necessary to succeed in our quest.

But no hero ever goes it alone. Every hero needs help.

Meet the Mentor

A mentor could be one person or a series of helpers. Mentors offer wisdom, guidance and direction because they have already walked the same path, and they know what pitfalls await the hero along the way.

Their names are iconic: Gandalf. Dumbledore. Obi Wan. Morpheus.

Who has been your most useful mentor? What vital lessons have they imparted? Every hero needs a mentor because at some point in the journey, the hero must face this:

Dark Night of the Soul

This is the crisis. The darkest hour when all hope seems lost. It's the moment when the hero's demons and fears are winning. And the ultimate goal can't be achieved unless he or she faces those demons and defeats them.

It's the moment where Frodo succumbs to the Ring and takes it for himself. When Rocky's trainer Mick dies. Or George Bailey contemplates suicide on the bridge in Bedford Falls.

The dark night of the soul is a moment of reckoning, not with an adversary but with oneself. As Campbell describes it: "The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure that you seek." Only by entering that cave, and facing those fears, can we gain what we need to emerge victorious.

So what fear/flaw/weakness must you conquer in yourself to achieve your legislative hero's quest?

This is a difficult question for leaders in the legislature because we usually don't want to admit our fears or flaws. But it's only after we successfully confront our demons that we can finally arrive here:

Triumph and Treasure

This is the moment where, reborn from the crisis, the hero completes the quest. And in so doing, the hero secures a reward for others, the true objective of any member of the legislature. But this victory always exacts a toll on the hero.

It's the moment when Harry kills Voldemort. When the Black Panther defeats Kilmonger. Or Luke destroys the Death Star.

But the cost is high: Frodo never returning to his beloved Shire. Katniss losing her sister.

If you succeed in your leadership hero's quest, how will that triumph benefit others? And what price will you personally pay for that success?

Ultimately, every legislative leader is a living manifestation of Maya Angelou's definition of a hero: "Any person really intent on making this world a better place for all people." Surely, that is a journey worth taking for all of us.

Curt Stedron is the director of NCSL's Legislative Training Institute.

This article was first published in the Summer 2024 print edition of NCSL's State Legislatures magazine, with the headline "You Leadership Hero's Journey."

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