Are you maximising your superpowers?
Superpowers? Thought that only beautifully muscled, strong and hyperspeed geniuses had them? Well, that might be true in the world of Marvel and DC, but even there, mere mortals had superpowers – check out Black Widow and Batman for starters…
Using these effectively can lead to the following (Gallup):
· 6x more engaged individuals at work – as an employer – wouldn’t this be amazing? As the employee – how much more fulfilling could your life be?
· Companies that focus on strengths leads to 10-19% increased sales and 14-29% increased profits
· Training someone to hone their strengths is multiple times faster and more effective than working on their weaker aspects (Strengthscope)
What would you like to improve about yourself?
‘People and organisations see weaknesses as more changeable than strengths’. Steimer & Mata 2016
Time and again, this question is asked, and the answer is mostly deficit-based. For example, it might be ‘I need to be a better at the compliance side of the business’. Perhaps you do, but surely you can also contribute in ways that are more productive for you, and therefore constructive for the organisation? Many perceive self-development, professional development and coaching to be something that is for the weak, the underperforming and a liability, and yet reframed, it can be the best thing for you, your job, your career and your organisation.
Case Study:
X is poached to join company A. Company A has an established business model and the division that X is taking over has a different client base and as such a different business model. It has been seen as a poor cousin to date and inherited from someone who was very ‘old school’ and controlling. When X took over, the team that remained was used to being micromanaged, suspicious of X and dysfunctional in many ways, and disparate intra and inter-team. In trying to move forwards, X focused on discipline, upping management and structure to give the team what they thought they wanted.
Whilst some structure and management is required, these were not X’s strengths. X shone when it came to being strategic, idea generation and making the most of situations to create value for businesses. Why X was hired in the first place. So for awhile X struggled to motivate and engage the team trying to work to their ‘known and accepted culture’. X failed to deliver, lost the faith of the team and that of the bosses and ended up being even more focused on micromanaging them, at the expense of X’s actual work. However, by focusing on X’s strengths and implementing them – X managed to turn everything round, very quickly, through creating a vision & strategy that galvanized the team. X looked at the bigger picture and drew on different ways to be innovative about developing the business division and ‘disrupted’ internal structures where appropriate to create economies of scale. Today, X’s division has nearly doubled revenues and reduced costs – thereby not just creating value but also increasing efficiencies and synergies where appropriate. Much of this change was down to focusing on strengths and not on areas of relative weakness.
What are superpowers aka strengths?
Strengths
‘A good or beneficial quality or attribute of a person or thing’
‘The capacity of an object or substance to withstand great force or pressure’
‘The emotional or mental qualities necessary in dealing with (difficult or distressing) situations’ OED
Looking at those three definitions combined – why would one not focus on and harness one’s strengths more often?
What it looks like when you are supercharged
Ie when you are ‘in flow’.
Think about times when you are thoroughly immersed in your work and the next time you look up, you’ve missed lunch and it’s nearly dinner time. Or even if you’ve had a long day and you’re exhausted, you feel really satisfied deep in your bones with what you’ve achieved that day. Or even if it’s not work-related, you left that activity such as helping someone or volunteering at the pet shelter, contented and happy. That is usually when you are working with and using your strengths to the max.
Being ‘in flow’ looks like this – energised, motivated, happier, fulfilled, more confident and a lot less stressed. With all these positive attributes, what you’re presenting is someone who is going to be more engaged, resilient and the best version of themselves to contribute to whatever the cause or project is. Why wouldn’t this be a major objective? To have yourself and members of your organisation, in full flow and playing to their strengths?
When is using your strengths not all that great?
It isn’t ever wrong to use your strengths. After all, it is your superpower. However, there are moments when they can be overused, such as a tennis player might overuse her signature backhand slice – she might get injured from overuse and opponents will start expecting that predictability – therefore it loses its power. In the same vein, overusing a strength might lead to ‘flooding’ the system.
Here are some examples. An optimist is often seen as enthusiastic. In overuse, they could appear unrealistic. Or a very disciplined individual can be very efficient, but overused, rigid. A great networker is fantastic at relationship building but for many, that can be perceived as shallow – the very opposite of relationship building.
At other times, some might use the wrong strength for that occasion. Some might have a very commanding persona – a great strength for leadership. However, at times, it might be useful to defer to another one, eg analytical – people who think through facts about situations and perceive that, that aspect is more useful in this scenario than ordering people around.
Finding your superpowers and using them for good
Whilst strengths are your ‘innate gifts’, like with anything, if untrained or undeveloped, they won’t serve you as well as you’d like. Aim for a growth mindset (Dweck)
• Take notice of yourself, others & themes in your life
• How do particular activities, tasks, projects, ventures make you feel?
• What would others say?
• What have you accomplished?
• Strengths assessment – these can be administered by a qualified practitioner/coach
Increase your self-awareness
• Learn more about your strengths
• Feedback from others – what have they said about your strengths and how to use them better?
• How do your strengths interact with/leverage off each other?
• How do they interact with/leverage off others?
• How do you ensure that you are not overusing one, ie using your strengths intelligently?
• How can you balance them out with the others?
• How might learning a new skill develop your strengths?
• Pay it forward
Some further questions to ask yourself
• How do I use my strengths to achieve my objectives?
• How might I use my strengths to live to my values & my purpose?
• How can I incorporate more of my strengths at work?
• How are my strengths visible in ways they are not in others?
Conclusion
In any review of oneself or of an organisation, if one looks at the potential benefits of strengths and the downsides of not, the sensible decision would be to implement strengths for the growth, development and sustainability of said business or professional career. Yet, despite all the studies,
Only 17% of people spend time at work focusing on their strengths (Buckingham).
Isn’t this a bit of a waste? So what are you doing to harness your strengths to get you to where you want to be? As an organisation, what more can you do to leverage off your strengths as a business, as teams and as individuals to flourish and succeed as you can and want?
What’s stopping you from being energised, motivated, more confident, resilient and in your element?
Here’s the video from today’s conversation. Remember to check out Davina’s website and you can also find her on LinkedIn. She is one of our treasured partners and you will learn so much from her and her work.
0:30 Introduction to why maximising superpowers are important to you, your career, your professional and home life, your business and general resilience
3:05 Introduction to the amazing Davina – whose mission is to help us restore and retain good mental health for every day of our lives – good or bad
4:10 Agenda
4:20 What would you like to improve about yourself?
5:15 Case Study I – a leader surrounded by dysfunction
10:55 What are superpowers?
11:30 Why are they important?
12:50 When you are supercharged, ie ‘in flow’
16:25 Show of power
18:00 When you’ve blown a fuse
22:55 Only 17% of people spend their time at work playing to their strengths
23:30 Finding your superpowers and using them for good
28:20 Training and using your superpowers for good
29:00 Some further questions to use your strengths more
30:25 Case Study II – 2 co-founders in conflict
38:00 Davina introduces the concept of inner strength & resources and how it relates to her work
39:50 Meditation – Focusing inwards – what our inner strengths are and how they feel within our bodies
54:00 Wrapping – how was that experience? Building awareness and our inner tools so we can use them throughout your life
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