'Don't try to copy other people's superpowers. Discover your own.' As a leader, how do you find your own and how do you help your team find theirs?

Question

Answer

A SWOT analysis of your team combined with your organization’s Why should help you start this journey. For your team, combine this with a force field diagram and a team goals chart.

Answer

Often times, the hardest part of trying to discover your own superpower is accepting that what you're good at, is a superpower. I always admired the folks with really deep technical skills and I undervalued most everything else, which meant, I undervalued myself. I learned by accident and through colleague reinforcement that I had superpowers that were critical, I just wasn't valuing them.
Moral of the story, if you admire Astronauts or Coders but aren't one, don't assume then that your personal skills aren't admirable to others.

Answer

For my own, pay attention to what others praise most often.
For my team, taking my feedback beyond "good job".
If you are relieved knowing that this person is on something, just tell them that.

Answer

You connect with everyone! Inspire each one and find the shared objective and continue to build on until you are no more needed.

Answer

I’ll never forget my first 360 assessment group readout. When a bunch of leaders were assembled in a conference room and handed out our detailed 360 reports, the moderators giggled.

Because they knew ALL of us skipped to the back of our reports to read the negative feedback first.

Then they dutifully reminded us - that the only reason a company invests in 360 exercises is because their participants have already exhibited superpowers. The whole point of the exercise is to help the individual double-down on strengths and not obsess on weaknesses which everyone has to certain degrees.

I’ve never forgotten that, and always remind people I mentor about prioritizing strengths before covering weaknesses.

Answer

For myself be humble from my mistakes and learn from them. For my team I empowered them.

Answer

The recipe that has worked well for me is to focus on the things I’m good at and surround myself with passionate, talented people to compliment what I’m not. Specifically, I acknowledge and accept the things that I’m not good at and surround myself with professionals who have diverse experience and different profile types - Think Myers Briggs’s or Colors. I then make sure that our culture is open for constructive discussion and debate. That health tension and encouragement to openly brainstorm and challenge is critical. Once that trust that is built and people are comfortable to collaborate, everyone on the team accelerates. Their superpowers emerge and are harnessed to boost the business performance. It’s invigorating and builds a culture that people want to be a part of. One caution is to watch for people that may weaponize this. Senior executives are responsible to lead by example to ensure that the culture is not corrupted. That’s when superpowers can go the dark side and distort the culture from within. I’ve experiences this twice in my career. As a new CEO I watch for this every day. Culture is a competitive advantage as you can do so much more when your team is on board.

Answer

You firstly have to discover your weaknesses and strengths.

Answer

Strengths questionnaires are super helpful! Try VIA Strengths Questionnaire. It's also worth paying the $50 or so for the full report, but you get a fair bit of info from the free report as well.
https://www.viacharacter.org/survey/account/register

"Don't try to copy other people's superpowers. Discover your own." As a leader, how do you find your own and how do you help your team find theirs?

Content you might like

Any advice on how to make quick decisions at a large organization without wasting time discussing possibilities and not getting anything done?

Here is a kicker for the New Year, what do you see as the biggest impediment to the C-Suite going from surviving to thriving?

How does your organization calculate the promotion rates, particularly in the context of promotions vs. headcount or promotions vs. eligible population? Wondering what formula everyone else is using and why.

How can I go above and beyond for my work from home employees? What should I be doing to ensure they are as productive as they can be?