Personal superpowers
And what we can learn from them
I’ve just completed the design of a workshop on diversifying your income for creative entrepreneurs. We’ll be spending some time mapping strengths and assets, so I’ve opted for an ice-breaker exercise on personal superpowers to kick start the conversation. Here are some of the prompts and questions we’ll be working through.
What do we mean by personal superpowers?
Our superpowers are often qualities, traits and skills that come naturally to us. The things we do every day without even thinking about it.
They are things that friends, family and colleagues often call on us for. Things that we often take for granted in ourselves.
It’s not unusual for us to have blind spots about our exceptional strengths or even discount them because they come so easily to us.
Examples might include: A good listener, Empathy, Asking insightful questions, Humour, Simplfying complex ideas, Positivity, Observation, Grit.
The purpose of the exercise then is to help people uncover hidden talents and core strengths that they might ordinarily take for granted. As well as have a bit of fun sketching ……
Articulating your superpowers
When I’m introducing this exercise, I’ll usually share the following prompt questions for people to reflect on:
When do you feel empowered, most comfortable and confident to take risks?
When are you most in your ‘flow’, when things feel effortless and bring you joy?
What do people come to you for most often?
And then ask them to draw their superpower – either a quick sketch or character that represents their superpower in some way (usually on a post it note) in less than 1 minute.
Reflecting on our superpowers
In a coaching context, it this exercise can help leaders and entrepreneurs to articulate their specific leadership / entrepreneurial style based on their inherent attributes. It also affords an opportunity to explore what the shadow side of these superpowers might be might be in different scenarios, helping to raise awareness of those thought and behaviour patterns that we naturally lean towards (and when they are not so helpful).
I might ask some of the following:
Which scenarios allow us to play to our strengths and superpowers? When do they serve us well?
What are ‘shadow sides’ to our superpowers? If your superpower is empathy, for example, your ability to consider everyone’s side or thinking can also lead to delays in decision-making or overwhelm.
What can we learn about our working / leadership styles by articulating our superpowers?
If you find it too cringey to aswer for yourself, try asking two or three friends or colleagues how they’d describe your superpowers - you might be suprised by what others value about you….