It’s no secret that many in the technology field grew up reading comic books and carried their superhero fascination well into adulthood. What once was exclusively the realm of geeks has slowly made its way into the mainstream in the form of a constant stream of blockbuster movies. I love many of the superhero stories, and their resonance with real life in the trenches of enterprise technology work. In this blog article, I will derive the technology leadership lessons from a few classic superheroes. Why? Because if you are leading technology teams, it’s important to lead like a geek.

The X-Men

The X-Men are a bunch of mutants with superpowers, but they can’t effectively control their powers. This makes them freaks of nature and social rejects. Professor X recruits them into his school so he can train them to control and strengthen their superpowers, while protecting and isolating them from the negative influences of society. The result is that they learn to use their powers for good and work together as a team to conquer evil.

Technology geeks are just like the mutants. They are super-smart, but often lack social skills. I’ve seen many with such potential squander their talents in isolation. In the right team, with the right development opportunities, and a positive culture, they can thrive. That’s where leadership comes in. As technology leaders, we need to see the superpower potential, not the social reject. Then, we need to create the environment that enhances the power, mitigates the weakness, and helps them work together to achieve a goal.

Spider-Man

Spider-Man’s motto is “with great power comes great responsibility.” Whether it’s technical ability, leadership ability, or business savviness, that power comes the responsibility to act. We have our innate gifts. Through education and experience, we’ve honed them into superpowers. Now we have the burden and obligation to bring our best to the crisis of the day. Why? Because other people need us. Spider-Man knows that countless people will fall from skyscrapers only to dent the pavement, if he doesn’t swing over there and shoot a web underneath them. Similarly, we fill a specific niche in our team. When we don’t show up, the team suffers. We are responsible to bring our superpowers to bear every day.

Batman

The lesson from Batman is less about superpowers (he technically doesn’t have any), and more about attitude, will, and determination. Batman is angry. He uses that anger to motivate him into action. Technologists are often skeptical, and sometimes pessimistic. Often, they are purist and principled. While many non-technologists find these features frustrating, we should find a way to focus and funnel these attitudes into a world-class, Batman-style superpower. Angry about a bad architecture? Fix it! Skeptical about a vendor’s claims? Put it to the test! Can’t get funding for your pet project? Get yourself motivated enough to stop complaining and actually do something about it! The lesson from Batman is turn angst into positive action. Every leader needs to figure out how to do this better.

Iron Man

Iron Man is pretty much my favorite superhero. He’s a technical genius with ample confidence and negligible humility. In Iron Man’s reality, technology is truly limitless. The real world of technology is quite limited, but something inside me believes that all of those limitations are temporary. Eventually, every technical problem will be solved, and threshold crossed. We just need to hold the pursuit. Also, like Iron Man, sometimes I run low in the humility department, and my technical confidence damages my relationships. That’s the leadership lesson from Iron Man: Believe that technology can solve your problems, but don’t let your ego get in the way of the execution of your idea.

Those are my leadership lessons from the superheroes. Obviously, this is far from an exhaustive list. I just wrote about my favorites. Who’s your favorite superhero, and what leadership lessons have you learned from him or her? I’d love for the comments section to be filled with anecdotes from The Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Captain America, Superman, The Tick, Star Lord, Dr. Strange, or anyone else I’m leaving out.