One significant result of COVID-19 is that I’ve been able to catch up on my reading. I just read an article by Ramesh Gulati, who has over 55 years of experience in the reliability field and works for a government contractor for the Air Force. His article focused on the difference between a hero and a leader. That contrast ticked my neurons and started a thought process about the maintenance field.

We talk a lot about maintenance department culture. You can see the culture when you visit a fleet;  it is expressed in the working conditions, the housekeeping, the attitudes you encounter, and, ultimately, the repairs (especially the repairs that were missed and should have been done).

The questions posed were, “Is there a difference between a hero-orientated culture and a leader-oriented culture? Is it possible to have the two together at the same time, or are they mutually exclusive?”

Let’s look at the two styles and how each performs in a maintenance setting. As far as one culture being better or worse for your organization, it probably depends on what your organization does.

In history, heroes are sometimes invited to be leaders (think of Eisenhower or John Glenn), but leaders also become heroes in people’s views (Roosevelt).

While there is much overlap, they are different cultures.

By definition, a hero is a person noted for courageous acts or nobility of character, or a person who, in the opinion of others, has notable achievements, abilities, or personal qualities and is regarded as a role model or ideal. We would say a hero is a person and the orientation is personal.

By definition, a leader is a guiding or directing head, as of an army, movement, or political group. The leader is about the direction of the group.

I assert that the traditional orientation of maintenance is toward the heroic. Talking to maintenance old-timers, you are likely to hear stories about heroism. They will focus on incidents where a failure occurred or was imminent, and the team (or solitary hero) improvised a solution at great personal danger to fix the problem and save the day.

The same conversation with a young maintenance group might concern some technology, some new efficient engine, or that we are in a golden age of horsepower. Somehow, heroism is less front and center. This new focus might be a good thing.

Perhaps leadership is guiding the department toward less drama and more anticipation and remediation of the problems. Maybe the trend of electrification and PM-ization (I made that word up) of the fleet is a function of leadership decisions and desires.

Do we need heroes? Yes. The need for heroes is wired into the human brain. We all love hearing hero stories. Do we want heroes running our fleets? Probably not.