The Green Lantern Theory of Success
The comic book hero “Green Lantern” has a ring with spectacular powers limited by his own will. Many of the leaders I coach assume their careers work the same way. But this “Green Lantern theory” of work is a recipe for burnout.
The idea of a “Green Lantern theory” comes from Dartmouth political scientist Brendan Nyhan’s work on the presidency. Nyhan argues that voters believe presidents are so powerful they can achieve anything they want. So if presidents aren’t achieving their goals, voters assume presidents must not be trying hard enough or wanting it enough.
I thought about this idea recently when I contributed to a LinkedIn collaborative article on motivation in the nonprofit sector. If you’re not aware of these articles, they give people an opportunity to add their expertise by commenting on a series of short posts written by AI.
As I read the posts, I started feeling a twisting in my gut. Every one of the points the AI engine generated threw the responsibility back onto the worker.
If we’re feeling unmotivated, it suggested, it’s because our values aren’t in alignment, we’re not setting SMART goals, we’re not actively seeking the support we need, we don’t have a sense of purpose, we’re not balancing our workload well, and we’re not investing enough in our learning and growth.
In other words, we’re just not showing enough willpower.
That’s the Green Lantern Theory of Work. It assumes that 1) we have the ability to create whatever we want, 2) our ability to create what we want depends only on our imagination, drive, and will (i.e., our motivation), 3) if we fail, it must be because we aren't motivated enough. In short, it’s all our fault.
Can we remind ourselves that when we think this way, we’re operating on white-supremacist, patriarchal, and classist beliefs? Because the only people who can even begin to think this way are white males with massive amounts of resources.
Can we also remind ourselves that when we think this way, we’re operating on comic book logic? Because even high-resource white males don't have magic rings.
Faulty as the logic in the LinkedIn article is, we can’t blame the AI. It’s merely reflecting back beliefs and assumptions that are so baked into our culture of work they seem natural. Beliefs and assumptions that are making work such a toxic mess.
Let's think differently.
What if we saw our sagging motivation not as a problem to be solved but as a call to care for ourselves? What if we're just tired, angry, and frustrated? What if we're feeling abandoned by our colleagues and friends? What if we’re failing through no fault of our own? What if we're confused and uncertain about what to do next?
Maybe, when we're feeling unmotivated, we shouldn't push ourselves forward. Maybe we should just sit down for a moment and just be.
Want to learn to balance motivation and self-care? Book your free Discovery Session here.
