The Power of Epic Stories to Bring Virtue to Life

Things that are transcendent and timeless are often illustrated through epic stories.  For the Severn Leadership Group (SLG) that story is “Boys in the Boat” written by Daniel James Brown and published in 2013. The book jacket describes “an unforgettable portrait of an era, a celebration of a remarkable achievement, and a chronicle of one extraordinary young man’s personal quest”. It is a true story of character, virtue, and courage. The people of SLG have used that story and those attributes to illustrate SLG’s unique and foundational approach to leadership, followership, and team dynamics. The result is a movement of ideas and practices that is innovative and yet independent of fads and fashion.

Like any valid system, the SLG framework provides a model for developing necessary future competence, assessing current performance, and evaluating past performance. In the SLG cohorts, the fellows primarily focus on the first two. Among the most important aspects of why SLG is different is the contribution of the mentors. They bring the perspective of using the SLG framework to assess their own past performance, good and bad. From this, they develop and share useful insights to their fellows.

Another epic story is the 2023 novel by Mark Helprin, “The Oceans and the Stars”. While fictional like its inspiration, Homer’s “Odyssey”, it is also the story of an epic journey, heroic deeds, longing for home in times of peril, and inescapable confrontations with demons and monsters. The main character in Helprin’s novel is the embodiment of virtuous leadership that transforms people, teams, and cultures. 

The book’s subtitle “A Sea Story, A War Story, A Love Story” –  is something for everyone.  Helprin has been reading the U.S. Naval Institute’s Proceedings, Jane’s Fighting Ships, and the Strategic Survey since 1967, so the novel is rich in the details of ships, war, and the people who commit themselves to service. As a kindness to some readers, he advises those primarily interested in the story to skip ten pages to avoid a section of interesting yet technical explanation. The love story is woven throughout. It meets the test of describing a love so deep and so intense that even in death there is no separation. This is a book worth reading on so many levels.

Reading “The Oceans and the Stars” provides an opportunity, particularly for graduated fellows and new mentors, to continue to assess and develop their understanding of the SLG framework. It is not hyperbole to state that the novel is a textbook example of the virtuous leadership that SLG embodies. Volumes alone could be written on the emotional intelligence of the main characters and the lack of the same in the people that surround them. While all of the LITER (love, integrity, truth, excellence, and relationship)  virtues are frequently displayed, truth and the willingness to stand up for what is fundamentally right are at the heart of the story. At the most intense part of the story, leadership, followership, trust, and technical and organizational competence align to produce an extraordinary outcome. 

And then there is courage, “not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point” in the words of C.S. Lewis. This story is full of such testing points it would risk spoiling the story to offer examples. The words of G.K. Chesterton offer a glimpse: “Courage is a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a willingness to die”. 

In an April 2024 Wall Street Journal article Helprin said: “There is so much good in this country, so much courage that we may yet summon well-steeled resolve” to address the threats we face.  This story demonstrates an important tenet of the SLG Leadership-Followership model: that leadership which begins with a single person but is not about that person can summon such resolve.

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Sheldon is a Severn Leadership board member and has been a mentor since 2022. His career was primarily in corporate supply chain leadership and related consulting. Sheldon has a BS in Finance from Lehigh University and an MBA in International Business from Emory University. 

He and his wife Janet, after a lifetime of corporate moves, live in Fort Myers and thrive on service, travelling and the joy of nine grandchildren.

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