Do we need corporate heroes?

Prompted by the ouster of BP CEO Tony Hayward and by fines leveled against Michael Dell and his company, the Washington Post asks, “Where have the corporate heroes gone?” Bill George, a management professor at the Harvard Business School, the former chairman and CEO of Medtronic, and an author of books on leadership, says, “There are plenty of corporate heroes out there, but the media tends to focus on failures and problems rather than the CEOs who are making such positive differences in our society.” He cites as examples IBM’s Sam Palmisano, Cisco’s John Chambers, Xerox’s Anne Mulcahy and Ursula Burns, and Google’s Eric Schmidt. These leaders, he writes, “…acknowledge their weaknesses and mistakes, but are always committed to build their institutions rather than pursue their self-interest.”

Howard Gardner, the Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and senior director of Harvard Project Zero, sounds a similar note: “I don’t think we lack any CEO heroes. But I suspect that the true heroes are largely unsung, and prefer to remain that way. They prefer to give credit to others, to remain behind the scenes, to avoid grandiose statements and predictions and promises, and to perform better than anyone expected them.” The ultimate test of such individuals, he adds, includes the extent to which they “…share the desire to remain out of the limelight, rather than to attempt to dominate it, and quietly but responsibly, to do good work.”

Gardner’s ideal leaders seem to be what corporations in particular and society in general need right now, but they don’t, it seems to me, merit the label “hero.”

That seems to be the viewpoint of Todd Henshaw, professor at Columbia University and former director of a leadership program at the US Military Academy at West Point. He responded from Omaha Beach to the Washington Post’s question with these words: “‘Corporate heroes?’ It’s difficult for me to put those two words together. As I traveled around Normandy, I saw the names of heroes inscribed in stone on monuments, but in most cases these men who have changed the world are nameless, anonymous benefactors who gave Europe another shot at freedom. These are heroes.”

Sir Andrew Likierman, dean of London Business School, sums it up nicely: “Those who have the spotlight of publicity and fame come and go. We should look and learn, while reminding ourselves that uncritical admiration is probably best avoided after the age of 5.”