After the shock of radical workplace change brought on by the global financial crisis, the terrain of business communication has continued to shift—not just rumbling, but dramatically changing shape right under our feet. No wonder it’s hard for the average communication professional to stay standing.
But there’s an antidote to all the fear, confusion and chaos. The antidote is to use your superpowers.
What’s that, you say? You don’t have superpowers? Not true. Maybe you’ve forgotten them. Or more likely, you haven’t discovered them yet.
It’s time to discover your superpowers; bring them to work; and start making a bigger difference in your career, your company and the world. It’s time to make sure you’re recognizing—and talking about—your value as a communication professional and as the unique individual you are.
What’s a superpower?
Hearing the word superpowers might generate images of costume-wearing fanatics. But I suggest that your superpowers are your own unique mash-up of your:
- Gifts
- Talents
- Passions
- Attitudes
- Abilities
- Resources
- Connections
- Lessons learned
- Failures
- Assets
- Unique experiences
How to discover your superpowers
So how do you bring your superpowers to light? There are three critical steps you can start taking right now.
1. Create clarity
When you are crystal clear about your unique attributes, you make better choices about where you should invest your most valuable resources: your time, energy, money, emotions and attention.
This is an important distinction for the busy professional communicator who wants to develop their career. You can’t possibly say yes to everything—yes to learning all new media, yes to all potential new projects, yes to every good idea shared in a blog post or trade publication. You must say no to the things that aren’t right for you—and being clear about what you bring to the table can help you determine what those things are.
How can you find clarity? Start with an inventory. Write down the words that describe you that immediately come to mind for each of the bullet points above, starting with your “gifts.” For example "creating content" or "building relationships" may be talents or even passions of yours. You may also find you have forgotten advantages like "my former boss will always advocate for me"—this could be listed under your "connections" category. What matters is that you understand all the available tools you have in hand, right now, that make you uniquely you. If you tend to overthink things, set a timer for no more than seven minutes and write furiously until the alarm rings. This forces your logical brain to stop judging every word and lets your creative brain take over.
When you review your inventory, pay attention to which items on the list you care about most. Then keep track of how (or whether) these items show up during a normal day. For example, if the words "helping people learn" are on your list, are you involved in work projects where you feel helpful? If "studying an issue thoroughly" is in your inventory, it might make sense that the last-minute, deadline-driven work environment you're in feels out of sync. Communication professionals are well practiced at noticing themes and key messages. That ability can help move you closer to a better understanding of what your superpowers are—and what they’re not.
2. Build your confidence
By definition, confidence means trust or a state of being certain. It’s no wonder we have a confidence deficit today—we live in a time when nothing seems certain.
We can be certain about our superpowers, but we’re not always sure about how to apply them. So it’s time for an experiment that will test old assumptions and give you the certainty you need.
Here’s my favorite experiment to help you build confidence: Eliminate one workplace activity that doesn’t align with your superpowers, and see what happens.
For some, this feels scary or even crazy. Career-ending, you might believe. But it can be easier to do than you think.
For example, I coached a corporate communication leader who always created a weekly report for her managers. She hated doing it and felt drained by the documentation process. After discovering her superpowers, she understood why the work pulled her down—managing detailed work was way outside the range of her superpowers. She suggested to her team that the report items be shared verbally at each week’s staff meeting. Everyone agreed to the change, and she eliminated the draining activity and spent her newfound free time doing things at which she excelled. Her confidence grew.
Another example is of a digital marketer who used to respond to every email within minutes. After realizing his responses were more helpful when he could use his superpower of detailed analysis, he tried waiting three hours before answering an email. In his fast-paced workplace, he anticipated concern or even outrage at this change—but no one said a word. He now felt confident he could take more time and provide well-considered responses to inquiries, which he knew would make him a more valuable employee in the long run.
What experiment could you initiate today to create certainty and start building your confidence?
3. Take control
Many worries that keep us up at night—illness, financial uncertainty, terrorism—speak to our inherent desire for some level of control over our lives. We’re not really afraid of the potential accident; we’re afraid the accident will take away our control over our body, mind or other abilities. We fear what we can’t control.
The truth is that all you can control is what you choose to do, say and think. That’s it. But that’s still a lot.
What are you doing, saying and/or thinking that’s getting in the way of you bringing your superpowers to work every single day? It’s time to stop waiting for the economy/your company/our profession/your industry/your government/our world to change. You can take control of your work life and your career when you:
- Make the right choices for you—not choices based on what others say.
- Do work you care about most—and stop doing what you don’t.
- Recognize when you’re out of control—and know how to get back on track.
If every business communicator in the world discovered their superpowers and applied them each day, our careers, the profession and our organizations would all be on more solid ground.
