What is your superpower? At some point in our lives, we have been enamored with a fictious hero that possesses a superpower. A unique tool only they can deploy that sets them apart. It has the potential to save the world.
What Is Your Superpower?
A few weeks ago, our Mayor and I were meeting with one of our local principals. Both the principal and I are products of our community and the school system she now plays a key role in administering.
She was recently appointed as the principal of her school and as customary, as best practice we like to facilitate a meeting between the principal and Mayor Allegood. It’s generally an informal, “get to know you” session in his office.
As the meeting went on, she asked him a question that has Stuck with me since. One that I have never heard asked before. It was, “What is your superpower?” What a neat and unexpectant question!
The question made me ponder this, “Can leaders really possess a superpower?” Maybe fictitious superheroes are not the only ones capable of having one? If leaders are in fact capable, how do we identify it? Then what do we do? Let’s dive in.
Identify It
Whether it was a cartoon, a comic book, or a movie, the plot usually begins with the hero discovering their superpower. It can happen through a supernatural event, moment of crisis that demands heroic response, or tragic circumstance. It is the one thing the hero goes to when everything else fails. It can save the day.
As a leader, how is our superpower revealed? Very few of us find it through a supernatural event. Crisis and tragedy can be an opportunity for discovery.
Superpowers can also be discovered in vocabulary, words, and moments. The vocabulary that the people you love and care for use to describe us, words contained within a note of gratitude written to us, or defined in those instinctive reactions when someone we are responsible for leading is struggling. Instincts that spur us to run into the lives of people when everyone else is running out.
Known superpowers of great leaders include discernment, love, empathy, emotional intelligence, communication, flexibility, pragmatism, enthusiasm, persistence, resilience, awareness, etc. Which one is ours?
Be Careful With It
As a hero discovers their superpower, they learn the magnitude of its capability. Sure, the superpower could save the world, but it could also destroy it if misused.
Most superpowers come in the form of a weapon. Even villains possess superpowers. We would be extremely cautious of a villain’s power, but never think to be concerned of a hero’s.
While a hero’s intentions are always good, intentions do not always determine direction. Even with the best of intentions, great care should go into their use.
As leaders figure out their superpower, it must be used with great caution. Maybe the superpower is analysis, but it leads to abstraction, the concept of viewing people as numbers on a spreadsheet. Maybe it’s public speaking, but it leads to shallow relationships that don’t connect. Maybe it’s caring, but leads to suffocating those cared for. I could go on and on.
Ultimately, we need to be careful that the use of our superpower doesn’t have unintended consequences. We must constantly be on guard of not only its awesome capability, but its unintended consequences.
Be Aware Of Kryptonite
Superman is one of the legendary heroes who possesses many superpowers. The simple act of finding a telephone booth, changing into spandex and a cape in tight confines ignites his ability to fly! But, there is one thing that can zap all of his superpowers…Kryptonite. The one thing that can transition him from SUPERhuman to NORMALhuman in no time at all.
A leader’s kryptonite is pride. Our superpowers build status, create notoriety, and generate applause. This level of prestige and praise can easily lead us to think too highly of ourselves.
Grounded in pride, a leader’s superpowers are short lived and not sustainable. Pride can zap our superpowers, sending us from extraordinary to ordinary in no time flat. It presents the opportunity to turn us into the villain, one capable of misusing that superpower.
The kryptonite for the villain of pride is humility. As C.S. Lewis once said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.” Humility is the good that defeats the evil of pride.
Conclusion
Wouldn’t it be great to possess a superpower that could find the cure for cancer, end all wars, feed every starving person, rid the world of disease, and provide every human being with an opportunity for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?
While we may not possess that type of superpower, ours could ignite a chain of superpowers that could save the world. In the meantime, we can take our individual gift and apply that superpower to helping someone else find theirs. Even on the toughest of days. When we are exhausted, discouraged, and our Capes are Tattered. That is what leadership is.
What is your superpower?