The first of the 5 C’s of the leadership journey is capability. The capability journey involves finding your superpower and identifying your unique skills and gifts, whether you were born with them or have developed them over time.
Your superpower will often be something you don’t even recognize as an asset—it comes naturally to you and is not something you’ve intentionally leveraged into fulfilling some job description. But odds are you’ve been using it all your life in other ways.
To discover your superpower, you need to dig deep into the skills you’ve acquired, the unique talents you were born with, or those that seem to come naturally.
How Do You Discover Your Powers?
Here are some questions you can ask yourself to find your superpower:
1. What Do You Devote Your Free Time To?
Your superpower is often connected to the thing you can’t not do—almost like you’re compelled. What do you do in your free time? What do you do on your nights and weekends?
If you often find your mind going back to a specific area or thought process, that may be a clue that you are tapping into something you have a superpower for.
2. What Are Other People Telling You Your Superpower Is?
People often see things in you that you don’t see in yourself. In most cases, people won’t tell you so directly—though it certainly doesn’t hurt to ask the people who know you best or work with you most closely.
More often, though, people will give you clues by asking you certain things. What kind of favors do people request from you? You can find another clue by paying closer attention to the compliments you receive—especially the ones you brush off.
3. What Feels Effortless to You?
It shouldn’t feel hard when you’re acting in alignment with your superpower. It should feel natural, even effortless. You may even get frustrated with other people when they don’t share your superpower. You’re dismissive of it in yourself because it comes naturally to you, and you think it should come naturally to everyone. So, what do other people do (or not do) that exasperates you?
Your Superpower Journal
Consider keeping a journal where you observe yourself for a while. Take note of what activities you kept returning to because they felt natural, effortless, or like you entered a “flow” state.
Note any compliments people gave you or tasks people asked you to do or to help them with. These will be a good guiding light to help you find your superpower.
Discovering your superpower is a very personal journey. There is no one-size-fits-all prescription for figuring it out. You have to start where you are and work with what you have. You can seek coaching or external assessments or ask yourself other questions like those here.
At the end of the day, it’s up to you to do the introspective brainwork to come to your discovery.