Discovering Your Superpowers

You can be good at something, but you can’t be great at something unless it also energizes you and bring you joy.

A major aspect of my work is to help others name, own, and grow their unique and innate strengths, which I call superpowers. We all have superpowers, but we’re often blind to them because they come so naturally and we discount what comes naturally to us and think that everyone else has them too.

I believe that effective personal development starts with personalizing a growth journey to every individual’s superpowers. It’s the role of leaders to help their teammates discover each other’s superpowers and apply these differentiating contributions to the team.

So, what is a superpower? And how can you leverage it in your workplace? Here’s how I define them:

• Instinctive: Superpowers are so innate that we don’t realize we’re using them.
• Inimitable: They are unique to us and cannot be truly imitated.
• Energizing: They are life-giving and invigorating, unlike other draining strengths.

Why do superpowers matter in the workplace? We tend to focus on deficiencies rather than proficiencies. As a leader, helping your team discover and remember their distinctive strengths can unleash incredible potential.

In this two-minute video, I discuss how leaders can help their team harness their superpowers, transforming performance and team dynamics.

This is the last in this special edition series of The Leadership Playbook: Superpowers with Sanyin, that’s in partnership with AceUp, an innovative  coaching companies that is working overtime to deliver human-centered leadership transformation in turbulent times. AceUp’s Human-Centered Leadership® work with the Institute of Coaching,  is so relevant because the workplace is constantly changing, at a pace never seen before.

FROM MY DESK

Identify and Develop Your Natural Strengths (HBR)

Now that you have a sense of what superpowers are, my latest piece in Harvard Business Review dives more into how you can discover your superpowers.

However, it’s not only about why we should gain self awareness about our innate strengths, which are often our biggest blindspots.

It’s also about the HOW. And key is the engagement with others. After all, self-leadership is a team sport. We become better when we invite others to help us see ourselves clearly.

And even more so, it’s about our responsibilities as teammates and leaders to help each other discover and harness their superpowers towards meaningful missions and goals.

This HBR piece is the latest in a collection of pieces on this work. Others can be found in:

• MIT Sloan Management Review - Coaching for the Future Forward Leader quarterly print, digital, and video column
• Dialogue Review - The Last Word quarterly print and digital column
• 4 LinkedIn Learning Courses
• The Leader as Coach - Coaching in the Flow of Business- this is a suite of 5 Online Courses in partnership with ExecOnline and Duke Corporate Education
• The Launch Book: Motivational Stories to Launch Your Idea, Business, or Next Career.

I’m excited about how the superpowers work is evolving and the wonderful responses from readers. I’m now working on the book. I’d love to hear from you on how the superpowers work is helping you.

Thank you for reading! To get more tools and insights beyond this newsletter, subscribe to my Superpowers with Sanyin newsletter.