Use assessments to discern what you are best at in the world—and make it easier to define and refine your executive personal brand.
According to this article from Forbes, the four superpowers of top executives are natural curiosity, empathy, talent identification and strategic thinking. But if every top executive were wonderful at each of these, what would make any of them stand out?
Having a sharpened understanding of your dominant personality trait, communication preference or motivational driver—your superpower—can help you clarify your executive personal brand, lead better and more rapidly achieve your goals.
Here are some thoughts on how to discover what you are best at in the world, why making that discovery at least annually is worth the effort and key next steps to take once you have made it.
How to Discover Your Superpower
Another article from Forbes suggests three questions for clarifying your superpower:
- What unique contribution do I bring to projects, conversations and meetings?
- What do people rely on me for?
- What would be missing if I were to leave?
The Forbes author makes a good point when she writes, “Keep in mind, superpowers don’t necessarily conform to roles. There’s no reason someone in the tax department can’t be creative or the team leader can’t be playful. And while it might be easy to think of some strengths as better than others, they’re all valuable to a team.”
So don’t limit yourself to one idea about your superpower … it might even evolve with time. That’s why we at Revealing Genius encourage leaders to leverage science-based assessments to excavate their superpower and clarify their executive personal brands. Our white paper, “Know Thyself: Self-Assessment Tools Shown to Bolster Executive Personal Branding,” lists our favorite tools, which our clients have used with great success.
In our white paper, we write, “As a rule of thumb, take at least one of these science- and evidence-based assessments each year (some are fee-based; some are free). After all, branding is an ongoing process, and you are, too!”
Answering the questions from Forbes and taking an assessment annually are a good start down the path toward excavating your unique superpower, which lies at the heart of your executive personal brand. We at Revealing Genius have many more ways to help you and other leaders uncover your unique gifts. This is what we call the “excavate” step, the first in our time-proven Excavate–Tell–Affirm™ process.
Next Steps
“This idea of naming your superpower is rich,” writes the Forbes author.
Indeed.
When we look back on Revealing Genius client successes, the personal executive brands that took the time to address all of these questions are the ones that took off. These brands helped our clients achieve their next career milestones—whether that was getting a dream job, a promotion or a board seat; writing a book; delivering a TEDTalk, starting a business; securing start-up funding; developing a winning website, LinkedIn profile or CV; or some other goal.
Our white paper about self-assessment describes some additional steps to take to put knowing about your superpower to best use. These include defining three to five key messages you want to consistently send about your brand and clarifying what it is you want to exude in every action you take.
If you’re getting the idea you’d like to get in touch with your superpower on your way to crafting an outstanding executive personal brand, you can get instant access to the free Revealing Genius 10-minute webinar, sign up for our Excavate-Tell-Affirm™ Brand Leadership Summit or take our online course. We are honored to work with leaders 1:1 or to help build a brand manifesto.
