On Heroes, Hero Worship and the Heroic in History

This is the first in a series of posts that will explore the nature and practice of leadership through the lenses of different leadership theories and the biographies of different notable leaders and leadership teams.

On Heroes, Hero Worship and the Heroic in History

Thomas Carlyle (1795 – 1881) was a Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, translator, historian, mathematician, and teacher. Considered one of the most important social commentators of his time, he presented many lectures during his lifetime to wide acclaim in the Victorian era. One of those conferences resulted in his famous work On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History in which he argued that the key role in history lies in the actions of the “Great Man”, claiming that “the history of the world is but the biography of great men”. (Source: Wikipedia)

Thomas Carlyle gave a series of lectures in May of 1840 on the subject of leadership, which are an example of, what is now called, The Great Man theory of leadership. It is important to note that, although Carlyle’s examination of leaders throughout history focused only on men, the theory itself does not specifically exclude women. The focus on men appears to be driven by the highly paternalistic nature of Western society at the time.

The foundation and focus of this theory, as one can imagine from the title, concerns the individual leader. There is little or no acknowledgement of the people supporting the leaders or the circumstances that might have impacted the success or failure of these iconic figures. Carlyle divides these leaders into several different categories: The divine (Odin and other pagan gods), prophet (Muhammad), poet (Dante and Shakespeare), priest (Luther and Knox), philosopher (Johnson and Rousseau) and king (Cromwell and Napoleon).

This theory proposes that the godlike nature of some leaders allows them to provide extraordinary leadership that drives significant historical events. These are the leaders considered responsible for building empires and establishing religions. They are the geniuses of emotional expression and thought that elevates and transcends the ordinary human experience. Their efforts are seen as single handed, with very little mention or credit given to those who supported them. There is also very little attention paid to how these leaders developed. Their noble character and extraordinary skills are seen as inherent rather than developed.

More modern leadership theories have evolved away from many of the ideas presented by Carlyle and The Great Man theory of leadership. It is now generally accepted that leaders develop through their life experiences and that leadership skills can be taught and learned. Theories have lost their gender bias and now reflect the reality that women are as capable of leadership as men. Finally, some leadership theories have shifted their focus away from the individual leader, attending instead to the optimal structure of leadership groups or teams. Although the more modern leadership theories we will explore in the series depart in many ways from this theory, there is still a kind of instinctual urge to find that superhuman figure who is born to lead us to experience and accomplish the extraordinary.

At Ethical Leaders in Action we believe that most, if not all people, can develop themselves to play leadership roles in many different spheres both large and small. The foundation of this development process is a short but powerful list of virtues which can be developed and improved through conscious effort. For more information feel free to take the Virtues of Ethical Leadership Self Inventory (VELSI) which breaks these virtues down into features that can be individually developed. The results of the VELSI come with a quick reference guide to help you understand how the virtues and their individual features fit together. https://ethinact.com/velsi/

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