Your team has all the right credentials, all the right experience, all the right systems. But something’s still not working. The meetings feel stale, the dynamics are off, and you can’t quite put your finger on what’s missing. Sometimes the problem isn’t what your team knows—it’s the leadership qualities or team skills they bring to the table.
I recently revisited The Peterkin Papers, a wonderfully quirky collection of 19th-century stories, by Lucretia P. Hale, about a well-meaning but hopelessly impractical family. In one of my favorites, Mrs. Peterkin accidentally adds salt to her coffee instead of sugar. Rather than admit the mistake and start over, she calls in experts to fix it—with tinctures, tonics, and increasingly elaborate advice. None of it works. Finally, a visiting wise woman offers the simplest solution: throw it out and make a fresh cup.
That image—of clinging to the wrong fix when a fresh start is what’s needed—has stayed with me. Especially as I think about teams, because a team is only as strong as the people we gather around the table. And let’s face it, the same people often think the same old ways. Sometimes we need to imagine an entirely different table - with new voices, different insights and fresh skills.
Revisiting this favorite story also made me think about the power of the heroes and characters we read about in books - in childhood, adolescence and adulthood. They leave an indelible mark because they are the kind of people we want to be with, the kind we imagine being ourselves. The wise woman with the most thoughtful answers, the irrepressible outsider whose vision is broader and wider than anyone else's.
Remember that character you loved? They can teach your team something. So here’s an end-of-summer thought experiment that reveals the leadership skills or qualities your team might be missing: If you could bring any fictional character to your next team meeting, who would you choose?
At first glance, it’s a parlor game. But underneath it lies something deeper: a reflection on the human qualities we seek—and too often overlook—in our colleagues, our leaders, and ourselves. These imagined team members reveal what we value: empathy, curiosity, courage, flexibility. And they challenge us to notice who we invite (and leave out of) our real rooms—and why.
Here are seven essential leadership skills or qualities and the fictional characters who embody them.
The Moral Compass (Atticus Finch, from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee)
Atticus Finch is unflappable. He listens more than he speaks. And when he does speak, people lean in. He’s the conscience of the team, the person who reminds everyone of their shared values, especially when things get murky. While some might find his pace too slow for today’s warp-speed work culture, I’d argue the opposite. In times of disruption, Atticus brings ballast. He asks the hard questions—and insists we stay human and just while answering them.
If your team is navigating ethical dilemmas or thorny interpersonal dynamics, choose Atticus’ deliberate wisdom. Or if you need someone to remind everyone exactly what living your values looks like.
The Challenger of Assumptions (Elizabeth Bennet, from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen)
Witty, observant, and unwilling to suffer fools, Elizabeth Bennet is the original challenger brand. She’s the voice in the room who pokes holes in groupthink—not to win, but to think better. She brings a needed skepticism to overpolished decks and cliché-ridden brainstorming sessions. She’ll make sure no one gets away with an untested assumption. And she does it all with a raised eyebrow and a brilliant turn of phrase.
If your team is stuck in a rut, too polite to disagree, or confusing harmony with alignment, choose Elizabeth. She’ll shake things up—charmingly.
The Curious Observer (Francie Nolan, from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith)
Francie sees everything. The cruelty, the beauty, the poverty, the grace. She watches the world closely—not to judge it, but to understand it. Her power is attention. She listens before speaking, learns before acting. She teaches us that you don’t have to be loud to be wise, and you don’t need authority to understand what matters.
Choose Francie if your team needs to unlearn old assumptions, sit with discomfort, or see their work through fresh eyes. She’ll remind you that wonder is a form of intelligence—and a beginner’s mind isn’t childish, it’s courageous.
The Creative Instigator (Jo March, from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott)
Jo will not follow the agenda. She will forget her pen. She might not show up on time. But if you give her space to wander, she’ll come back with an idea no one else has. Jo represents the kind of scrappy, passionate, slightly chaotic energy that fuels innovation. She believes in possibility. She’s allergic to “we’ve always done it this way.” She won’t be your note-taker, but she will be the person who cracks open the conversation everyone else was too scared to start.
When your team needs to color outside the lines—or remember why they loved the work in the first place, Jo’s your go-to.
The Relentless Learner (Hermione Granger, from Harry Potterby J.K. Rowling)
Hermione Granger knows the value of preparation. She comes armed with data, backstories, and—should you need it—time-travel solutions. But more than that, she represents a leadership quality we desperately need right now: the courage to speak truth to power. She’s not afraid to be the smartest person in the room, but she’s also willing to be corrected. Her real growth lies in learning that leadership isn’t just about having the right answer—it’s about knowing when to listen, when to step back, and when to let others step forward.
Choose Hermione when your team needs intellectual rigor, long-range thinking, voracious learning and someone who remembers why you’re doing the work, not just how.
The Culture Carrier (Samwise Gamgee, from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien)
Sam isn’t flashy. He doesn’t seek attention. But he’ll carry the load when others can’t. Every team needs a Sam: someone who shows up, who believes in the mission (and in you), and who keeps going when the mountain looks impossible. Sam represents loyalty, resilience, and kindness—the quiet qualities that don’t show up on resumes but make or break teams in the real world.
If your team is burning out, breaking down, or trying to climb a mountain together, Sam’s a critical choice. He’ll remind you that no one does hard things—or great things—alone.
The Empathetic Storyteller (Dana Franklin, from Kindred by Octavia Butler)
Dana Franklin is ripped through time—transported from 1970s California to the antebellum South, where she must navigate the brutality of slavery while balancing her sense of justice and her own identity. Dana represents radical empathy, adaptability, and the emotional intelligence to survive—and lead—across time, power, and culture. She listens before she acts. She holds space for multiple truths. And she does not flinch from hard history or hard choices.
If your team is reckoning with legacy systems, a culture crisis, or difficult conversations across difference, you need the wisdom and clarity of a Dana. She teaches us that leadership isn’t just about vision—it’s about the courage to stand in tension and stay human.
Who’s Missing On Your Team?
When we imagine our dream offsite team, we’re not just building a fantasy draft. We’re asking ourselves: what qualities do we actually value in our colleagues? And perhaps more importantly—how do we make room for more of them?
Real teams obviously aren’t built with fictional characters. They’re built with flawed, brilliant, distracted, devoted humans. But the characters we choose to admire reveal what we long for, who we want to be and be with. There’s a reason these characters have left a mark, years after we met them for the first time. After all, who wouldn’t benefit from curiosity, reflection, ethical clarity, emotional resilience, a dash of stubbornness and the willingness to start fresh when we’ve salted the coffee.
Summer offers a rare invitation: to slow down, to pause, and to ask not just what our teams are doing—but who they are becoming. It’s a season for reflection, for rethinking who we gather at the table and how we bring out the best in one another. Not just, “Are we aligned on strategy?” but “Are we aligned on the kind of humans we want to be—together?”
If that means making a fresh pot of coffee—or inviting a few new voices to the table—so be it.
First published in Forbes.com.
