I have been thinking a lot about leadership over the last several weeks while on vacation in some of the most beautiful National Parks in America. One specific theme kept coming to mind that I believe leaders need to understand in the emerging AI landscape… you need to know your core purpose to know your superpowers because these are the keys to success going forward.
Let’s be honest… the job markets for technology, business, and administration are radically changing due to AI, and my belief is there is significant value for leaders who are able to navigate this market knowing not only what they can do, but really understanding their superpowers and core purpose. Let me explain…
Many years ago while working at Amazon I had my annual review with the executive I reported to. He started off with the usual discussion, recapping the year and my contribution to hitting our business goals, and gave me high marks for delivering multiple projects ahead of time and driving significant impact. It was great because it had been a very full year.
Then he paused, and quite awkwardly, where honestly I thought something was wrong… and then he said something I will never forget. He said, “Chris, I put something in your review I have never put in a review before in all my years of managing people because I have never seen it. You have this gift with people, teams of people, and executives that I am going to call ‘contagious optimism’ that elevates everyone you interact with to accomplish harder things than they would have without your involvement. This is your superpower!”
I was floored and probably blushed for the first time in my corporate career because this senior leader had just articulated one of my deepest desires in life, to impact people in a way that made them better and more successful.
I paused for a moment and expressed how much that meant to me, and he immediately said, now don’t lose that because it will become a differentiator in your career. I can honestly say he was right… it has been a recurring theme for many years.
That is what I mean by superpowers and core purpose. I don’t mean just the things you have become good at because you have been doing them a long time. I mean, who did God design you to be and how were you built with specific giftings for a purpose far beyond yourself?
In this market it is more important than ever to really understand those differentiators and operate using them in a way that is visible to our leaders and others we interact with, and more importantly, helps everyone deliver more value from the work. Here are my top recommendations to start finding and utilizing your unique attributes.
4 Ways to Utilize Your Superpowers:
1. Your superpowers are usually something others experience before you really recognize them. My Amazon story demonstrates this perfectly because this executive recognized something in me that was innate to my nature, but not necessarily something I would have been able to articulate. So look for clues from repeated feedback from other people about your impact on them.
2. Find mentors and tools that reveal who you are at your core. One of the greatest unlocks during large market shifts is surrounding yourself with people and tools and technologies that help you evolve while remaining true to your core purpose. It still shocks me how few people have mentors, take leadership assessments, and ongoingly cultivate their skills to become increasingly marketable.
3. Your superpowers are not the same as your resume. AI is increasingly capable of performing tasks, analysis, writing, and even portions of technical coding. The harder things to replicate are the distinctive ways a leader creates clarity, trust, courage, alignment, judgment, or momentum. So be mindful of your unique perspectives and use them to bring clarity and deliver results.
4. Your responsibility is to intentionally utilize your superpowers. Once you know them, you cannot bury them and keep them for yourself. You should deliberately put yourself in situations where those strengths produce disproportionate value. This is not being self-serving, it is being faithful to who you were created to be.
I know that an entire article about knowing yourself, the value you bring, and discovering your superpowers might sound simple at first glance, but in this job market it has never been more important.
The leaders who thrive in the years ahead will not simply be the most experienced with a long list of prior accomplishments. They will be the ones who continue to invest in themselves, understand exactly what makes them different, and learn how to bring those strengths into workplaces that are changing faster than any of us have experienced before.
AI may change what work looks like, but it does not change the importance of knowing who you are, how you were uniquely built, and the value you were designed to bring.
Know your core purpose. Know your superpowers. Then use them… that is a true Leader Unlock!
Much Love,
Chris