Hero Leaders Are Appealing, But Don't Scale
Why Organizations Need Systems of Leadership—Not Just Charismatic Individuals
We love the story of the hero leader. The bold fixer. The visionary savior. The person who single-handedly turns things around.
But here’s the truth: that model doesn’t scale—and it’s quietly holding organizations back.
This week, I’m sharing a new piece: The Hero Leader Fallacy—And the Case for Scalable Leadership. It dives into why so many teams still revolve around one central figure—and what it looks like when leadership becomes something the whole system can carry.
And it’s the same idea that came up in my latest episode of Humanity at Scale: Redefining Leadership podcast with Lisa Kay Solomon, called Designing the Future: How to Be a Good Ancestor. We talk about how leaders can move beyond reactive strategies by using imagination, foresight, and design thinking to make more intentional, values-based choices about the future they want to create.
In different ways, both the article and the episode explore what leadership needs to look like now—and what it takes to build something that lasts.
They both invite you to consider a key question:
What if great leadership isn’t about having the answers—but about creating the conditions for better ones to emerge?
I hope you enjoy this edition. If you do, I’d love for you to subscribe and share it with others who might benefit. Let’s dive in.
The Hero Leader Fallacy—And the Case for Scalable Leadership
We’ve all seen the story before: a bold, decisive leader steps into a struggling organization, makes the tough calls, and turns everything around. The narrative is clean. The arc is compelling. And the hero stands at the center.
This model is deeply appealing—and deeply flawed.
The idea of the hero leader is embedded in how we hire, promote, reward, and tell stories about leadership. It’s reinforced by executive profiles, startup lore, and boardroom conversations. But in today’s environment—where complexity is high, speed is essential, and work happens across networks—this approach doesn’t scale.
We don’t just need better leaders. We need a better model of leadership.
What Hero Leadership Looks Like in Practice
Before we can move past the hero model, we need to understand what it actually is. Hero leadership isn’t defined by ego—it’s defined by centrality. It’s a pattern where one person becomes the hub through which decisions, urgency, clarity, and culture flow.
It can look like this:
Decisions pause until the top person weighs in: Even small, previously aligned plans get rerouted for final signoff.
Meetings depend on one person’s presence: Teams wait to move forward because “we need leadership in the room.”
Purpose gets translated through a single voice: Others defer instead of applying the organization's values themselves.
Success stories center on individuals, not systems: Recognition goes to standout performers over repeatable processes.
Trust is built around a person, not a mechanism: When the leader’s attention shifts, things start to drift.
Why the Hero Model Takes Hold
If the model is so limiting, why is it so common? The answer isn’t just one thing. It’s a set of interlocking dynamics—some cultural, some personal—that make hero leadership feel natural, even inevitable. Here’s why:
People crave it: Heroism fits our storytelling instincts. We remember names, not processes. When a team succeeds, it’s easier to spotlight the “visionary” behind the outcome than the mechanisms that enabled the result. Over time, that shapes how recognition, influence, and promotions are distributed.
Organizations reinforce it: Organizations crave clarity. In moments of ambiguity, a single confident voice feels like relief. Psychologist Daniel Kahneman's work on cognitive ease shows how our brains favor simple, coherent explanations over complex realities. A decisive leader provides the narrative shortcut—especially when systems are messy or slow to adapt.
Leaders lean into it: Hero leadership often begins as responsiveness. A leader steps in to help move things along. People thank them. Progress happens. The loop repeats. Eventually, presence becomes expectation. It also feeds deeper personal needs. When a leader becomes the go-to problem solver, it affirms their value and reinforces a sense of control. And in high-stakes environments, solving the problem yourself often feels faster than empowering someone else to do it differently.
The Real Costs of Hero Leadership
What may start as competence can become a constraint. The more the system relies on a single person for clarity and momentum, the less capable it becomes of leading without them. Hero-driven leadership doesn’t just create bottlenecks. It shapes entire cultures that depend on—and defer to—those at the top.
It limits scale. When key decisions require personal involvement, progress slows and capacity shrinks. Teams learn to wait, not lead.
It suppresses emerging leadership. New leaders often second-guess their instincts when the dominant model is based on heroic instinct.
It distorts accountability. If success is framed as the result of one person’s brilliance, failures can feel like betrayals rather than system breakdowns.
It builds brittle cultures. When trust lives in a person instead of a process, resilience falters the moment that person steps away.
The Alternative To Heros: Scalable Leadership
The alternative to hero leadership isn’t passive or distant. It’s what I call Scalable Leadership—a practice where leadership is designed into the system rather than vested in a single person.
Scalable Leaders don’t just delegate—they architect environments where clarity, coordination, and accountability live throughout the organization. They don’t reduce their presence; they multiply leadership. This reflects what Liz Wiseman describes as Multipliers—leaders who amplify the intelligence and capability of those around them. In contrast to Diminishers, who make themselves the center of every decision, Multipliers create space for others to think, act, and grow.
Here are five core behaviors that define them:
Create clarity others can carry. Scalable leaders embed purpose, priorities, and roles into the fabric of decision-making. For example, they might co-develop a responsibility map that makes ownership visible—so teams don’t need constant check-ins to know who moves what.
Build trust into how the organization runs. They establish rhythms and rituals that make honesty and transparency part of the culture. A team might use weekly retros to discuss what’s working and what’s not—without waiting for leadership permission to fix it.
Design systems that evolve under pressure. Rather than locking teams into rigid plans, they embed adaptation into the process. That might mean monthly checkpoints where teams evaluate results, update their approach, and document lessons — independently.
Model the leadership they want to scale. They narrate their thinking, surface tradeoffs, and invite disagreement. In a moment of tension, they might say, “I’m leaning toward this path, but it’s not a sure bet—what am I missing?”
Foster ownership—and hold it accountable. They empower others to lead and expect them to own the outcomes. A regional team might set its own goals, track results, and lead the review process—proposing adjustments and taking responsibility for changes.
What About Steve Jobs?
Steve Jobs is often used as evidence that hero leadership works. He was bold, visionary, and successful. But his legacy tells a more nuanced story.
Jobs didn’t thrive because he acted alone—he thrived when he stopped trying to. His greatest success came when he built a system that could translate his vision into reality: Jony Ive leading product design, Tim Cook overseeing operations, a resilient executive team navigating setbacks and reinventions.
The version of Jobs that made Apple iconic wasn’t the early-stage micromanager. It was the later-stage architect—the one who empowered others to lead and built systems that outlasted him.
Five Signs You’re Still Leading Like a Hero
Even well-intentioned leaders can fall into hero patterns. It’s not always ego—it’s often habit, helpfulness, or fear of letting go. Here’s what to watch for:
You’re still the default escalation point. People come to you for routine signoffs they could own. Decisions wait for your nod even when others are capable.
Your absence stalls progress. Meetings get postponed or rescheduled if you’re not available. Team members hesitate to commit without your presence.
You’re the interpreter of purpose. Teams seek your approval to validate whether actions align with the mission, rather than using purpose as a shared lens.
Recognition centers on individuals, not systems. Wins are framed around standout performers—while the enabling processes go unnoticed.
Momentum relies on your involvement. Projects speed up when you engage, and slow down when you don’t—revealing that energy lives in you, not in the system.
Sparking New Leadership Thinking
Building scalable leadership isn’t about removing strong leaders—it’s about designing strong systems. Here are five ways to make leadership less dependent on individuals and more embedded in how your organization works:
Make rituals—not individuals—the carriers of context. When decision history, reasoning, and tradeoffs are embedded into regular cadences—like weekly decision reviews or pre-launch alignment forums—teams don’t need a single person to explain “why” or “what’s next.”
Push authority through design, not delegation. Instead of empowering people informally, build clear decision rights and accountability thresholds into workflows. That might mean frontline teams own all operational improvements under a set budget—no signoff needed.
Use purpose as a decision filter, not a motivational slogan. When purpose is turned into simple tools—like a 3-question decision screen—it becomes a shared reference for real-time tradeoffs, not something teams need to interpret or defend to leadership.
Highlight process breakthroughs, not just personal wins. Start telling stories about systems: the new intake form that sped up approvals, the retro format that improved post-project learning, or the cross-team sync that reduced handoff friction.
Design for progress in your absence. Make it a norm that critical meetings, decisions, and priorities move forward without you. If your presence is always required, it’s a sign the system isn’t yet strong enough.
The Bottom Line
Heroic leadership might inspire in the short term, but it creates fragility over time. True leadership isn’t about being central—it’s about making others capable. Scalable Leaders design systems that carry leadership forward, multiply impact, and ensure the organization thrives with or without them.
Additional Resources
Here’s some relevant content that you may find interesting:
Why Smart Leaders Ask More and Tell Less with Liz Wiseman. In this episode of the Humanity At Scale: Redefining Leadership podcast, we explore how leaders can create high-performance, human-centric workplaces by fostering "intense" rather than "tense" environments, embracing "rookie smarts," and avoiding common habits that unintentionally stifle their teams.
Inside the Brain Trust. In this short video, Ed Catmull, president of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios, explains the highly effective concept of the "Braintrust," which comprises a group of passionate peers who advise filmmakers during the production process. Key to its success is that the group has no authority, and that absolute candor and trust must be in place.
How Fearless Organizations Succeed. In this Strategy & Business article, Amy Edmondson describes three steps leaders can take to create psychological safety, the prerequisite for greater innovation and growth.
Humanity At Scale: Redefining Leadership Podcast
Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
Make sure to check out my podcast, where I reimagine leadership for today’s dynamic world—proving that true success begins with prioritizing people, including employees, customers, and the communities you serve. From candid conversations with executives to breakthrough insights from experts, Humanity at Scale: Redefining Leadership Podcast is your ultimate guide to leading with purpose and empathy.
Here are some recent episodes:
The Ethics of Empowerment: How AI Can Make Us Stronger with Vivienne Ming. In this episode of Humanity at Scale, I sit down with Dr. Vivienne Ming, a visionary neuroscientist and AI pioneer, to explore how technology can elevate, not replace, human potential. Sharing her inspiring journey from homelessness to innovation leadership, Ming unpacks how purpose, ethical design, and a deep understanding of human complexity should shape AI development.
Empathy, AI, and the New Rules of the Human Workplace with Erica Keswin. In this episode, I sit down with WSJ bestselling author, human workplace expert, and keynote speaker, Erica Keswin and we explore the future of human-centric leadership in a tech-driven world.
Innovate or Stagnate: Mastering Leadership in a Dynamic World with Charlene Li. In this episode, I sit down with Charlene Li, Strategic Advisor and Keynote Speaker, Founder and CEO of Quantum Networks Group, and New York Times bestselling author, to explore how leaders can harness disruption as a catalyst for innovation.
From Conflict to Connection: Rethinking Moral Disagreements with Kurt Gray. In this episode, I speak with psychologist and neuroscientist Kurt Gray, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at UNC, Chapel Hill, to explore how leaders can navigate moral complexity and foster empathy in organizations.
Scaling with Heart: How Safelite Balances Growth, People, and Purpose with Renee Cacchillo. In this episode, Renee Cacchillo, CEO of Safelite, shares how the company became the dominant force in its industry by putting people and customers at the center of every decision.
The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
Humanity at Scale is a movement to inspire and empower leaders to create humanity-centric organizations