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The superstar paradox

Everyone wants a superstar… Until they don’t.

“Give it to the superstar, they’ll make it happen”.

“Give it to the superstar, they’ll make it right”.

“Give it to the superstar, they’ll solve the problems that we have”.

So we seek out the superstar and we embrace them and we give it to them and they dazzle, for a while.

More often than not though, the superstar starts to realise their level of importance to the rest of the group and arrogance gets in the way.

They become a drain on resources (because they deserve more – in their opinion).

They affect morale because they always have to be the centre of attention.

They cause decent and disgruntlement amongst the rest of the team (“do you know who I am?”) It turns out that most of the superstars we seek out, aren’t superstars at all.

The real superstars go about their business quietly, doing amazing things and never disrupt or disturb the status quo around them.

They don’t seek fame and they don’t seek notoriety (and often, they don’t even seek monetary rewards that are deserving of their achievements.

The next time you reach for a superstar, probably best to see whether it is a “real superstar”.

By Colin Campbell on 05/10/2019, 18:00