Where Have All the Heroes Gone?

I was ten minutes into my stationary bicycle ride a few days ago when I was struck by a story in Time magazine. The title of the story was “How I lost My Hand But Found Myself.” The story was a very personal reflection from a senior Time magazine correspondent who had lost his arm from an explosion in Iraq. Michael Weisskopf was on special assignment in Baghdad to do a story on the American soldier. The grenade had landed two feet away from him as he sat in an armored humvee with six other people. His first reaction after waking up in a hospital and being told that one of his arms was missing was, “why the hell did I pick up that grenade?”

My reaction was pretty much the same, “why the hell did he pick up the grenade?” In the article, Weisskopf recalled that one of his nurses said that he picked up the grenade “because of an instinct to survive.” I’m not up on war games, but I can’t imagine that Weisskopf believed that picking up a grenade would contribute to his survival. In fact, if his only concern was surviving I think he would have simply dived out of the humvee. No, I believe that there was something else going on in that 30 seconds before the explosion. I think that Michael Weisskopf became, maybe unwillingly….a hero.

With another 50 minutes left on the bicycle, I had a lot of time to think about the people in my own life that I considered heroes. I tried to think of people who had sacrificed their own well-being to save a life or advance a worthy cause. Instantly my grandmother came to mind. After raising seventeen kids of her own, she took on the responsibility of raising me after my parents died. I was a relatively good kid, but I think that took courage.

I also thought of a good friend of mine who at the height of his professional career, found himself caught between quietly observing an abusive work environment and self-preservation. I suppose I’ll never know how long he contemplated the risks involved with doing the right thing. And if there was ever any hesitancy about doing the right thing, I never saw it. No, my friend insisted on working through the system, on using the HR policy that every company has in place to protect people from harmful work environments. Like Michael Weisskopf, my friend picked up the grenade.

Fortunately my friend didn’t lose an arm, but it probably felt like it. He lost his job and the chance for a comfortable life as a corporate executive. He learned very quickly in order to have a successful anti-discrimination and anti-sexual harassment program in place, HR mangers need to have the courage to make them work. In other words, someone in HR needs to be willing to pick up the grenade.

The fact is, employees need to know that HR is a safe place where facts can be sorted out and the people involved can be comforted. I realize that might be wishing for a miracle since HR managers are people first. As a result, it would be impossible for any HR manager to not at least consider the “protect thy self and thy family” rule. However, the reality is….the first time that management shoots a hostage, confidence in HR will end and the chance for a healthy work environment will be lost. I guarantee it.

This means that at any moment HR managers can find themselves in the eye of the storm. I’ve known a few who were faced with this dilemma and buckled under the weight. They selected club membership over integrity, silence over action. I don’t think that they were bad people. Unfortunately, there is often a thin line between heroes and villains. The outcome can often rest on one decision. Still, whether those HR managers who select the passive route know it or not….the sacrifice is far too great. One of the fastest ways to put an organization on the fast track for financial decline and talent decay is to allow a hostile environment to exist.

Heroic behavior is finding the courage to take a significant risk or make a great sacrifice to achieve, in some cases, a basic goal. Equality and personal respect in the workplace is pretty basic. Yet, the pursuit of these basic rights can create an HR manager’s “defining moment.” It can mean the difference between five pages in a handbook and something tangible that employees base their daily interactions around. However, heroism always involves a significant real or potential cost to the heroic person. It is a fact. Both Michael Weisskopf and my friend know that. However, I’m confident that if and when that bridge is crossed, the question will not be “what did I loose” but rather, “what did I gain?”