Beyond the Superhero

Humans love a good superhero. They are often a reflection of our best intentions, capable of doing all the things we would do if we had the time, talent, resources, and god-like powers derived from earth’s yellow sun. It’s an archetype that’s particularly appealing to CEOs, especially entrepreneurs who feel like the whole world rests on their shoulders, and bravely take up that responsibility each day. Part of the modern leadership myth we tell ourselves is this sense of CEO exceptionalism. The ultimate success of failure of the enterprise will rest in the lap of the leader, so we try to do it all, have all the answers, and ultimately be the hero of the business.

Yet, rarely do we consider the downside of the superhero trope. Superheroes are fictional.  From another point of view, Batman is an unstable vigilante who lives in a cave. Captain America is a man out-of-time, waking up alone in a new century, eventually turned into a fugitive by his own country. The superhero life is an intensely lonely one, that one way or another ends in tragedy, even after you save the day.

With Beyond the Superhero, Questco CEO Jason Randall proposes another way to lead. Disturbed by the increasingly unfair and unrealistic expectations placed upon modern CEOs, Randall’s leadership philosophy dispels the myth that leaders can and should do it all. A destructive mindset will not only affect a leader personally, but a leader who cannot communicate what they want done, who is untrustworthy of team members to execute effectively, and who is too close-minded to receive valuable insights from colleagues, friends, and confidants is bad for the organization at-large.

Part memoir, part guidebook, Randall’s story is told in personal vignettes from the odd stops along his resume, revealing with candor and clarity the wisdom gained from each experience. With his signature humility and humor, Jason Randall debunks, piece-by-piece the flaws in the superhero leader, while providing actionable steps for becoming a servant leader, who builds instead a sense of humility, confidence, and purpose among themselves and their team members. It’s a revolutionary philosophy that properly places superpowers in the hands of the team, not the individual.