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The Wizard of Us: Your Hero’s Journey
by Leah Brewer, NALP, CAM, The Leasing Queen
Word count without title and bio: approx.
The 1939 MGM movie “The Wizard of Oz”, based on L. Frank Baum’s writings, is so much
more than just two women fighting over a pair of shoes. It’s an analogy of our careers, of
change management, of staff development , and the movie version brings the business
lessons to life in Technicolor.
The character of Dorothy Gale is a perfect metaphor of a long-time employee discontent
in her current position. She’s bored in a black and white, dustbowl job, so she causes
some drama, pulls other workers away from their duties, and gets her supervisor, Auntie
Em, pretty angry with her behavior. She wishes for change, to go looking for her heart’s
desire. When given a decision by her corporate office that she can’t live with (Toto must
go), she leaves without notice. She seeks advice from a self-proclaimed expert, Professor
Marvel, who tells her to go back to what’s familiar, that there are more good things than
bad in her current position. But Dorothy is not able to go back, because while she was
gone, there was a hostile takeover. Turmoil, tornado, twister, oh my!
Change!
Dorothy winds up with change, alright…more than she expected! The day she onboards,
she causes an accident which “terminates” a long-term nasty competitor and takes over
her best resource, the magical Ruby Red Slippers. In her new job, she is in unfamiliar
surroundings, with unfamiliar co-workers; she doesn’t know where to even start! “I’ve a
feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore!”, Dorothy utters. Now she doesn’t seem to even
WANT the change she wished for; instead, she wants to return to her old, familiar
environment.
Luckily, a mentor names Glinda comes along, gliding in a bubble, to advise and guide her.
Glinda gives Dorothy her first self-evaluation: “Are you a good witch, or a bad witch?”
Glinda confronts the nasty and bossy competitor who threatens to take their best
resource, the magical Ruby Red Slippers, by any means necessary. The Wicked Witch of
the West, or WWW, is a perfect metaphor for all the nasties: nasty co-workers, nasty
supervisors, nasty competitors and even nasty customers. WWW doesn’t like that
Dorothy has joined the team, and does what she can to have her terminated…literally!
Glinda provides direction and helps Dorothy identify a goal, create a plan and start on the
right path: Find the Wizard in the Emerald City who can get you back to your old
life….just follow the Yellow Brick Road!
And off goes Dorothy on her quest….her Hero’s Journey. Along the way, she assembles a
team. Basically, she hires everyone she meets, even though they lack some very basic
skill sets! As they begin to work together, Dorothy steps up to be the team’s leader. She
discovers that she needs to help her team get to their goal before she can fully reach her
own goal. Along their journey, they encounter challenges which require teamwork,
creative thinking, problem-solving, flexibility and even a little restructuring when the
team leader is unavailable. Each one of the team stretches their courage, their
compassion and their common sense, keeping their goal in sight and letting nothing, not
even flying monkeys, veer them off course.
After solving the problems and conquering the challenges, the team reaches the Wizard,
only to discover that the skills they wanted to be given, had been gathered along the
journey. The Wizard acknowledges the team’s newfound skills with an Awards
Ceremony, as he knows that recognition is a powerful reward. Lion is given a medal of
Courage, Tin Man is given a testimonial, Scarecrow is given a diploma. Dorothy, however,
did not meet her goal and the Wizard is unable to guide her to her destination.
As the movie closes, Dorothy’s mentor, Glinda, arrives to provide additional coaching,
and gives her the final training Dorothy needs: “Close your eyes, click your heels together
three times and quote this mantra repeatedly ‘There’s No Place Like Home’ ”. So WHY
did this mentor, Glinda, tell Dorothy during their initial consultation to find the Wizard
who would help her reach her goal, yet later provide her with the correct procedures for
success? Glinda could have saved a lot of time by giving Dorothy the answers at their first
meeting.
Glinda, our Hero’s mentor, knew the importance of the journey, of the experiences, of
being given the opportunity to stretch your skills, your interpersonal relations and your
creative problem-solving techniques. A good mentor will not simply hand you the
answer, but will let you discover it. Each of us has our Hero’s Journey that strengthens
and equips us for future conflict and success. Rather than be granted success, we earn it
ourselves. “You’ve always had the power, my dear, you just had to learn it for yourself”.
Leah Brewer, NALP, CAM is a nationally recognized multifamily housing trainer with nearly 30
years in property management, from a leasing consultant to a consultant for leasing. She is the
founder of Full House Marketing® and the Skillbuilder Series educational programs, and cofounder of SkillbuilderOnline.com. In 2014, she launched the training series, There’s No Place Like
Home, which includes 24 topics presented by six national speakers, all within the Wizard of Oz
theme. www.FullHouseMarketing.com