What's your leadership superpower?

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:00:05

Absolutely loving clarity to confusion that

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:00:09

yeah, you've nailed it.

Lee Griffith: 00:00:11

Not clarity to confusion, that would be my anti

Lee Griffith: 00:00:18

superpower!

Lee Griffith: 00:00:23

You're listening to How To Take The Lead with Lee Griffith

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:00:26

and Carrie-Ann Wade.

Lee Griffith: 00:00:27

Two corporate colleagues turned business

Lee Griffith: 00:00:29

besties, who question everything we've ever learned about

Lee Griffith: 00:00:31

leadership.

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:00:32

What started with us putting the world to

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:00:33

rights over a gin after work, is now a weekly show challenging

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:00:36

myths and perceptions and exploring what leadership looks

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:00:39

like in the modern day.

Lee Griffith: 00:00:41

We'll also be sharing our experiences and

Lee Griffith: 00:00:42

stories along the way.

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:00:44

You can find our show notes at

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:00:45

howtotakethelead.com

Lee Griffith: 00:00:46

Hit subscribe to receive new episodes every

Lee Griffith: 00:00:49

Thursday.

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:00:49

Plus we'd love for you to rate or leave a

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:00:51

review of the show.

Lee Griffith: 00:00:53

And please share your thoughts and stories on the

Lee Griffith: 00:00:55

topics we cover using the hashtag how to take the lead.

Lee Griffith: 00:01:02

Hello, and welcome to episode one of how to take the lead, the

Lee Griffith: 00:01:07

podcast. Can you can you even believe it a year ago we were

Lee Griffith: 00:01:14

setting up for our first Instagram Live and absolutely

Lee Griffith: 00:01:19

cacking our pants. Now we're like oh yeah, go us we're just

Lee Griffith: 00:01:23

gonna do a podcast.

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:01:24

Here we are with five series' of live under

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:01:27

our belts and we could turn this into a podcast no probs.

Lee Griffith: 00:01:32

So we are delighted to have you join us

Lee Griffith: 00:01:36

today. We have a great first episode planned now. This

Lee Griffith: 00:01:41

episode was inspired by something I saw on TV recently.

Lee Griffith: 00:01:45

So you know I love my detective shows.

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:01:48

Anybody who has ever come across you must know

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:01:51

that you love your detective shows.

Lee Griffith: 00:01:53

And no it wasn't an episode of Murder She Wrote

Lee Griffith: 00:01:56

although I'm sure there'll be Jessica Fletcher inspiration at

Lee Griffith: 00:01:59

some point in this series, but it was a show called The Rookie.

Lee Griffith: 00:02:04

Have you seen it?

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:02:05

I haven't. I haven't. I've only got I've only

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:02:07

got your say so that is worth and watch Lee.

Lee Griffith: 00:02:10

I'm not going that far but it's it's a American cop

Lee Griffith: 00:02:16

detective show, trainee cops anyway. One of the episodes one

Lee Griffith: 00:02:23

of the rookie cops was trying to figure out what his secret power

Lee Griffith: 00:02:26

would be. And he was able to recognise all the things that

Lee Griffith: 00:02:30

his colleagues were really great at but couldn't really pinpoint

Lee Griffith: 00:02:33

his thing. And the show was as it was you know, goes through

Lee Griffith: 00:02:38

different scenarios of which he's trying to fit. Is this what

Lee Griffith: 00:02:41

my superpower is? Is this is what my superpower is? By the

Lee Griffith: 00:02:44

end of it. He obviously had figured out what your superpower

Lee Griffith: 00:02:48

was. And for him it was empathy because he'd served some time

Lee Griffith: 00:02:52

wrongly, I say in prison, and so he could recognise in other

Lee Griffith: 00:02:58

people who were scared about going to jail or being arrested.

Lee Griffith: 00:03:02

So that was his superpower, you don't need to watch the episode

Lee Griffith: 00:03:05

now I've basically just told you the story.

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:03:07

We should have done a spoiler alert, if anybody

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:03:10

wanted to watch it.

Lee Griffith: 00:03:11

But anyway, it got me thinking about superpowers in

Lee Griffith: 00:03:17

leadership. My train of thought, if you bear with me, was that

Lee Griffith: 00:03:21

often we talk about the fact that as a leader, particularly

Lee Griffith: 00:03:25

if you're a senior one, you've got to be across everything. But

Lee Griffith: 00:03:30

that doesn't mean you have to be great at everything. And we know

Lee Griffith: 00:03:36

that there's a lot of strength in knowing where you excel, in

Lee Griffith: 00:03:39

the same way as knowing where you're not so great that you can

Lee Griffith: 00:03:42

make sure you've got the right teams around you. But I don't

Lee Griffith: 00:03:45

think I ever really thought about my superpowers until I

Lee Griffith: 00:03:48

left my corporate role and was trying to figure out life where

Lee Griffith: 00:03:53

I fitted in the world. And what I wanted to do next, and this

Lee Griffith: 00:03:58

episode really got me thinking about that and how much

Lee Griffith: 00:04:01

awareness do leaders bring to what is their superpowers? So

Lee Griffith: 00:04:06

Carrie-Ann you know, was this an epiphany moment for you as

Lee Griffith: 00:04:10

well?

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:04:12

Yeah, when we started having this conversation

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:04:14

about leadership superpowers, I was like, they are actually a

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:04:17

thing but I don't think I've ever really considered them as

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:04:21

superpowers before. So it got me thinking they're definitely

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:04:24

real, but I'm not sure how I thought about them before

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:04:27

superpowers came into my vocabulary about it. So I guess

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:04:31

really, for me when I started to reflect on it, I started to

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:04:34

think about things that as, not necessarily just as leaders but

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:04:38

as individuals, as people, that we are naturally and innately

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:04:41

good at things that just come naturally to us to be within our

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:04:45

gift to do really well. They might be skills, they might be

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:04:48

certain behaviours that arepossibly very unique to you

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:04:52

because they're based on your skills and experiences. But I

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:04:54

don't think until very recently, I'd ever considered talking

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:04:58

about them as superpowers but now that we have started to have

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:05:01

that conversation I am all over the leadership superpowers.

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:05:04

I want a cape and I will probably wear my pants over my

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:05:10

trousers again. Yeah, I'm loving the leadership superpowers

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:05:17

conversation now. Definitely.

Lee Griffith: 00:05:19

So obviously, I need to know what your

Lee Griffith: 00:05:21

superpower is. I mean, I think I know what it is from what I've

Lee Griffith: 00:05:24

seen from you over the years. But you know, how would you

Lee Griffith: 00:05:28

describe your superpower?

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:05:29

Oh my, this is such a hard question because I'm

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:05:32

one of those people I find it really cringey having to talk

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:05:35

about myself.

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:05:37

So I was I was trying to think about how I would sum this up

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:05:41

and I'm not quite sure even as a communicator that I've got the

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:05:44

words right, but I definitely feel like my superpower is

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:05:48

around enabling people to be able to contribute and come into

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:05:54

a conversation, into a topic, helping to facilitate them

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:05:58

having a voice and facilitating getting an outcome. And doing

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:06:03

that, I think, diplomatically so for me, I feel like there's

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:06:06

something for me about facilitation and collaboration

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:06:10

and bringing people together to get hopefully a positive outcome

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:06:14

and reach a good solution on something.

Lee Griffith: 00:06:17

Fabulous. With my coaching hat on I'd be saying

Lee Griffith: 00:06:20

you've got great self awareness because that's totally how I

Lee Griffith: 00:06:23

would be nailing what your superpower was as well.

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:06:26

I'll just make little note of that for myself.

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:06:30

And I'm sure we'll get on to asking for feedback from others

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:06:33

at some point in this conversation. Thank you very

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:06:35

much, Lee, much appreciated.

Lee Griffith: 00:06:37

You're welcome. You're welcome. So a bit of a

Lee Griffith: 00:06:43

philosophical question.

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:06:45

Woah, woah, whoah. What's your superpower?

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:06:47

You can't make me say mine and feel really awkward and cringey

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:06:52

about it and then not tell me what yours is.

Lee Griffith: 00:06:55

Do you know I thought is she going to ask me

Lee Griffith: 00:06:58

or not. But then I thought, oh, it's a bit egotistical if I go

Lee Griffith: 00:07:01

hang on, let me just tell you what my superpower is, thank you

Lee Griffith: 00:07:03

very much. So my superpower I think, interesting, you know,

Lee Griffith: 00:07:14

I'd love to get your reflections on it, but my superpower I think

Lee Griffith: 00:07:16

is around being able to get clarity from confusion so you

Lee Griffith: 00:07:21

know, you know I love organising stuff. Love a Trello board, but

Lee Griffith: 00:07:27

can also be I love helping people sift through sort of out,

Lee Griffith: 00:07:32

filter their thoughts and their information and ideas, and all

Lee Griffith: 00:07:37

these things that might conflict and try and streamline it into

Lee Griffith: 00:07:39

something that's really simple and easy to understand and help

Lee Griffith: 00:07:43

them to communicate it. So that strategy and planning type stuff

Lee Griffith: 00:07:48

but taking that confusion and bringing it into something

Lee Griffith: 00:07:50

really simple, I think is what I love to do.

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:07:54

You, love to do it but also you are excellent at

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:07:57

it. I nearly dropped a swear word and I was gonna say your

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:08:00

bloody excellent at it. Absolutely loving clarity to

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:08:05

confusion that yeah, you've nailed it.

Lee Griffith: 00:08:08

Not clarity to confusion. That would be like my

Lee Griffith: 00:08:19

anti superpwer.

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:08:20

See this is why I need a Lee in my life because

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:08:22

I need that superpower.

Lee Griffith: 00:08:26

Yeah, I'm not gonna be paying you to do my

Lee Griffith: 00:08:28

marketing anytime soon.

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:08:31

Confusion to clarity, get it right confusion

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:08:34

to clarity. I think you've nailed it and I think that you

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:08:37

have other superpowers but that's definitely one of your

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:08:41

total supercharge boost superpowers.

Lee Griffith: 00:08:45

Right. Can I move on now?

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:08:46

Yes, please move on quickly.

Lee Griffith: 00:08:51

So my philosophical question. I don't

Lee Griffith: 00:08:54

actually know if it's a philosophical question. I might

Lee Griffith: 00:08:56

have to ask my husband this. But is a superpower something you

Lee Griffith: 00:09:00

either have or you don't have? Or is it something that you

Lee Griffith: 00:09:05

develop your powers in over time? Are we like saying for it

Lee Griffith: 00:09:09

to be a real superpower then it's got to be really innate in

Lee Griffith: 00:09:13

you.

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:09:14

So my personal view on this because it was a

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:09:17

bit of a nature versus nurture type scenario, I think. I think

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:09:21

there are things that you are naturally brilliant at, that

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:09:24

you're very gifted in and that are innate, and I think they are

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:09:27

definitely 100% your superpowers. Now I don't think

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:09:32

that's to say that you can't nurture those even further with

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:09:35

practice and learning. And it doesn't mean that you can't

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:09:39

learn over time, I don't think, to get better at those things

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:09:42

that you're innately good at. But for me, I do think if it's a

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:09:46

genuine superpower, it's something that just feels like

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:09:49

it comes very naturally to you. You might not even know that you

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:09:52

do it really well. But that it's there and you do it. Obviously

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:09:55

as a leader or as a human being, there are other skills and

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:10:00

things that we can learn to help complement those superpowers but

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:10:03

for me, it feels like it's definitely very much more of a

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:10:07

nature thing. I don't know about you Lee, you've got a look on

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:10:10

your face that says you might disagree, which might be the

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:10:13

first time ever in Take The Lead.

Lee Griffith: 00:10:15

I don't disagree, per se but I do think that there

Lee Griffith: 00:10:20

is probably a bit more of nurture, in my view point than

Lee Griffith: 00:10:24

than perhaps you. I kind of think your superpower is a bit

Lee Griffith: 00:10:28

like your muscles and you need to exercise them a bit. You

Lee Griffith: 00:10:32

know, I've got a six pack somewhere hiding under this top,

Lee Griffith: 00:10:36

but I need to work out to kind of really get it popping,

Lee Griffith: 00:10:39

workout a lot to get a popping.

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:10:41

No, was that my key to go no you don't Lee, you

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:10:48

look fabulous?

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:10:50

So I think you know, yes people are going to be naturally

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:10:55

skilled in certain areas, but I do think that there are

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:11:01

nurtured side comes in a bit.

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:11:03

Yeah, I don't disagree with you actually Lee. I think that's

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:11:06

about people not, like it hasn't been identified. They haven't

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:11:09

identified for themselves yet what their superpower is and

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:11:13

that they maybe need somebody to say you are really good at this,

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:11:16

like you should do this more or you should practice it more or

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:11:20

understand a bit more about kind of the impacts that you have

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:11:23

when you operate in this way. So yeah, I wouldn't I wouldn't

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:11:27

disagree with that point. And I think sometimes it takes another

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:11:30

person to maybe say to you, you know, you're in this situation,

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:11:35

you're really good at doing this. I think that's a brilliant

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:11:37

thing that you can do, which might actually for you just be

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:11:40

part of how you operate on a day to day basis. You might not

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:11:43

perceive that as a superpower but other people might, so I

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:11:47

definitely think there is something about identifying what

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:11:50

they are and how you can get better at them and how you can

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:11:54

utilise them more in your leadership journey, I guess.

Lee Griffith: 00:11:57

So there's definitely something for me

Lee Griffith: 00:12:00

about when I look at leaders that I've worked with, who have

Lee Griffith: 00:12:05

perhaps had a limiting self belief or negative self talk

Lee Griffith: 00:12:10

about they just can't do something so I don't like

Lee Griffith: 00:12:13

presenting. I'm not great at presenting. Then you work with

Lee Griffith: 00:12:17

them. You develop them, they'd get more practised at it. They

Lee Griffith: 00:12:20

realise it's not as scary as they thought. They start getting

Lee Griffith: 00:12:24

good feedback. It boosts their confidence. And then suddenly,

Lee Griffith: 00:12:30

they're in lecture theatres, giving presentations and they're

Lee Griffith: 00:12:32

not even thinking about it and then really connecting with

Lee Griffith: 00:12:35

people, so I do think there is a journey that is is not

Lee Griffith: 00:12:39

necessarily always just feedback. Some of it's your own

Lee Griffith: 00:12:41

self internal work you have to do as well.

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:12:44

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:12:47

part of what we're about when we talk through how to take the

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:12:51

lead isn't it, about how you go on that journey and how you

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:12:54

identify some of these areas that you might need to work on.

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:12:57

So I don't necessarily think that you are born with your

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:13:01

superhero cape on day one, like you know what it is and you're

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:13:05

going to be brilliant at it. But I think over time you start to

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:13:08

identify those things that you are really good at and that you

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:13:10

want to spend more time practising getting better at,

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:13:14

enacting in your daily life, in your leadership life. I also

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:13:19

think there's something for me around you know, we've talked,

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:13:22

I've talked about identifying what yours are in terms of

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:13:25

superpowers, but I think there's also something about knowing

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:13:30

where maybe you don't have those superpowers, and that's okay,

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:13:33

too. And actually, as a leader, I think don't be afraid to build

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:13:38

your team around bringing in other superpowers that you don't

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:13:41

have. I think that's absolutely okay to do that. And it's a

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:13:44

really important part of being a leader and kind of knowing

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:13:47

actually what you're maybe not so good at and that you need to

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:13:50

bring some of that into your team to help you lead

Ad break: 00:13:53

At Cat's Pajamas we empower brilliant communications

Ad break: 00:13:53

effectively.

Ad break: 00:14:01

professionals to grow and thrive in their careers through

Ad break: 00:14:03

mentoring, collaboration and community. And if you'd like to

Ad break: 00:14:07

find out more or subscribe to our newsletter, you can visit

Ad break: 00:14:13

www.cats-pajamas.co.uk where you can even book your free 30

Ad break: 00:14:17

minute discovery call. I'm so passionate about helping you to

Ad break: 00:14:21

grow and thrive and I'm really looking forward to working with

Ad break: 00:14:23

you.

Lee Griffith: 00:14:30

If you're enjoying this episode of how to take the

Lee Griffith: 00:14:32

need, please hit subscribe and go leave a review or rating.

Lee Griffith: 00:14:36

We'd also love to hear your stories and thoughts on today's

Lee Griffith: 00:14:39

topic. Please DM us on LinkedIn show notes or tag us into your

Lee Griffith: 00:14:43

socials using the hashtag how to take the lead.

Lee Griffith: 00:14:45

You know I love Google so I googled leadership superpowers

Lee Griffith: 00:14:52

and a whole load of articles popped up and they were talking

Lee Griffith: 00:14:56

about the secret or hidden skills that leaders have. And

Lee Griffith: 00:15:01

what surprised me, and it's something that we talk about all

Lee Griffith: 00:15:04

the time, things like empathy, listening communication, these

Lee Griffith: 00:15:09

so called soft skills, and I say in bunny ears because I hate

Lee Griffith: 00:15:15

that word. But these are the same things that people either

Lee Griffith: 00:15:19

belittle or don't think it was important when they're

Lee Griffith: 00:15:23

recruiting people or developing people. And I just thought it

Lee Griffith: 00:15:26

was really interesting that actually, for many they're seen

Lee Griffith: 00:15:31

as superpowers yet in their day to day working people don't

Lee Griffith: 00:15:35

appreciate them.

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:15:36

Yeah, well,we've talked about this in

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:15:38

many other episodes of how to take the lead when we were doing

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:15:42

our lives. I know and I think there is something about in this

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:15:46

day and age needing to just think differently about what

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:15:48

we're recruiting for from a leadership perspective. And I

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:15:51

think you know, it isn't necessarily always about being a

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:15:55

technical expert in a field. It's actually much broader than

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:15:58

that in terms of kind of what you're bringing to the table as

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:16:01

a leader and we talk a lot back it being about connection,

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:16:05

building relationships, and actually you need to have all of

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:16:08

those superpowers and some of that well, some of them might be

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:16:12

your superpowers, some might just be powers because maybe

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:16:14

like you say, you do have to nurture them a bit more

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:16:16

understand how you can kind of enact these powers bit more, but

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:16:20

definitely for me, I mean it, aggravates me when people call

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:16:23

them soft skills. I think they're actually just skills you

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:16:25

should expect every leader to have but being able to be

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:16:28

empathetic, for example, is really important. But I guess it

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:16:32

goes back to that nature versus nurture point because some

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:16:35

people are naturally more empathetic than other people. So

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:16:38

it's kind of how do you test some of these things when you're

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:16:42

looking at building your leadership team?

Lee Griffith: 00:16:45

Yeah, yeah. And test do they have it versus

Lee Griffith: 00:16:50

could they get it, which is really interesting, which I'm

Lee Griffith: 00:16:53

sure is a whole other topic that we cover in another episode. If

Lee Griffith: 00:16:57

you're, you know, someone's listening to this now, and

Lee Griffith: 00:17:00

questioning what their superpowers are, a bit like, you

Lee Griffith: 00:17:03

know, the guy in The Rookie at the beginning of the show, how

Lee Griffith: 00:17:06

do you even go about starting to identify what your superpowers

Lee Griffith: 00:17:11

are?

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:17:11

So I think for me in terms of that sort of how

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:17:14

to question, take some time to work out what your superpowers

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:17:17

might be. Think about what you're good at what you feel

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:17:20

you're good at where you feel most confident that you're

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:17:22

having an impact, you know, in the workplace as a leader, and

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:17:26

don't be afraid to ask other people for some feedback around

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:17:29

it. Like ask other people because they might recognise

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:17:32

things in you, as we've said previously, that you might not

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:17:36

highlight yourself as a superpower and you might not

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:17:38

realise how important that is for your team, for your

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:17:42

organisation for you to be kind of acting in that way. So that

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:17:45

would definitely be one of my tips. And I think on the point

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:17:49

of impact, as well. Understand, you know, once you've got a

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:17:53

sense of what you're bringing to the table as a leader, what you

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:17:56

perceive and others perceive to be your superpowers, and you

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:17:59

might have more than one which would be brillian, I also think

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:18:02

it's really important to reflect on where they can have the

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:18:06

biggest positive impact so that you are a bit more considerate

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:18:10

about where you might be using those superpowers and putting

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:18:13

them into action because you want them to have a positive

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:18:16

impact. So are you really clear where you can have that impact

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:18:20

in your organisation or team?

Lee Griffith: 00:18:21

I completely agree about the sense checking with

Lee Griffith: 00:18:25

other people. And when I was doing, setting up the business

Lee Griffith: 00:18:30

or thinking about what I wanted to do next, I actually drew out

Lee Griffith: 00:18:33

a Venn diagram of what people told me, if this sorry, this is

Lee Griffith: 00:18:38

the super organiser filter and sorter coming out. I drew out

Lee Griffith: 00:18:43

what people told me I was great at what I thought I was good at

Lee Griffith: 00:18:47

and then what I loved doing because I do think there's a

Lee Griffith: 00:18:50

difference between what you enjoy and what you excel at.

Lee Griffith: 00:18:53

I've been told that I've been really good at stuff that I've

Lee Griffith: 00:18:56

absolutely hated and found really unfulfilling. So it was

Lee Griffith: 00:18:59

important for me that I had those three dynamics. And then

Lee Griffith: 00:19:02

from that, I was able to identify the two or three things

Lee Griffith: 00:19:07

that were cropping up, you know, in common across the three

Lee Griffith: 00:19:10

areas. And they made me feel really excited and thought

Lee Griffith: 00:19:15

actually, I can make a business just out of focusing on that. So

Lee Griffith: 00:19:17

I thought that was a really helpful exercise. People can't

Lee Griffith: 00:19:21

see me but I am doing a Venn diagram with my hands.

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:19:26

Excellent. I would just say sorry, I'm just

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:19:29

going pick up on a little point I noticed there Lee, when you

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:19:31

said it was what other people thought you were great at but

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:19:34

what you thought you were good at. Come on, big yourself up a

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:19:38

bit more. This is aboutour superpowers. It's got to be what

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:19:41

you think you're great at as well.

Lee Griffith: 00:19:45

If I knew anything about superhero films, I'd

Lee Griffith: 00:19:50

probably throw in some analogy here about Spider Man losing his

Lee Griffith: 00:19:55

powers or something but I don't so I'm just gonna say

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:19:58

and Superman. There's something with that as

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:20:00

well, but I don't know enough about it.

Lee Griffith: 00:20:03

Is it possible to lose your superpowers?

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:20:07

I think, I don't think maybe ever

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:20:10

completely lose them. But I think there is something around

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:20:14

how motivated you are to use them. So I think motivation can

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:20:19

play a big part in how much you choose to use your superpowers,

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:20:24

or not. And I think a lack of motivation means that you might

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:20:28

find it much harder to tap into your natural superpowers or

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:20:33

complete lack of motivation might mean that you're like, no

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:20:36

I've disengaged with this, it's not for me. So for me, I think

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:20:39

there is a bit of a connection between motivation and your

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:20:43

leadership superpowers.

Lee Griffith: 00:20:44

Yeah, I always say certainly with people I work

Lee Griffith: 00:20:48

with that any strength that you have if you overplay it can

Lee Griffith: 00:20:54

become a weakness and I do think that would be the same for your

Lee Griffith: 00:20:57

superpowers. So you know, a great leader is someone who is

Lee Griffith: 00:21:01

really adaptable, who works on their skills and recognises when

Lee Griffith: 00:21:05

they need to take a different approach and it's really

Lee Griffith: 00:21:08

important that you don't become complacent and overplay that one

Lee Griffith: 00:21:12

trick thing that's yours.

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:21:13

You don't want to be the one trick pony.

Lee Griffith: 00:21:16

No I know that I love finding ordering things,

Lee Griffith: 00:21:20

for example, but I also know of myself that if I do that too

Lee Griffith: 00:21:24

much, I can become really indecisive. I can feel quite

Lee Griffith: 00:21:27

overwhelmed with too much information. So my strength

Lee Griffith: 00:21:31

becomes my greatest weakness, but it's something I'm aware of.

Lee Griffith: 00:21:35

It's something I work on and I say the same to leaders that I

Lee Griffith: 00:21:38

work with, you know, how can you make sure for example, your

Lee Griffith: 00:21:41

attention to detail doesn't become micromanaging other

Lee Griffith: 00:21:45

people. So it's a really fine balance sometimes.

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:21:49

And I think really important to have that

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:21:51

awareness of what you've just said and kind of test it out a

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:21:55

little bit. Like, if you're going spend the time considering

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:21:58

and thinking about what your superpowers might be spend the

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:22:01

same amount of time thinking about, as we send about that

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:22:04

impact, like if I do this too much, what's the impact going to

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:22:08

be? What's the potential negative impact? So yeah, I

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:22:11

think that's a really good, I think that's actually a really

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:22:13

good tip. And something I'm thinking that I might need to do

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:22:16

for myself

Lee Griffith: 00:22:17

It's something that we don't do because we all

Lee Griffith: 00:22:19

like to be in our comfort zones as well. So it can be so easy

Lee Griffith: 00:22:23

for us to just fall into the thing that we like to do, but it

Lee Griffith: 00:22:26

can put you into a quite destructive cycle if you are

Lee Griffith: 00:22:31

someone that just completely goes OTT with it.

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:22:34

I also think one of the other things around

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:22:36

superpowers is sometimes once other people know what yours

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:22:39

are, they want to utilise them a lot and sometimes that can feel

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:22:44

quite constricting in the workplace. So like if your

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:22:49

organisation, your leadership team, whomever, know that you're

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:22:52

really good at something you sort of become the go to person

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:22:55

for that thing all of the time and sometimes you can feel like

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:22:58

actually I want to stretch myself outside of this and we

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:23:02

need some other people to be able to help lead some of this

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:23:05

and be good at it as well. Otherwise, I think that can feel

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:23:08

like quite a difficult scenario to be in.

Lee Griffith: 00:23:11

So what would your advice be if someone is in that

Lee Griffith: 00:23:15

situation where they're going, you know, oh, hang on a minute,

Lee Griffith: 00:23:18

this is the fifth time this month I've been told to do this

Lee Griffith: 00:23:21

project of this type for example. Why can't someone else

Lee Griffith: 00:23:25

pick up the slack?

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:23:26

I think you have to be able to have that

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:23:28

conversation. And you know, there are lots of ways around

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:23:31

that conversation. Some of it might be about actually I don't

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:23:34

feel like I'm getting any learning opportunities because

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:23:37

you're always expecting me to lead the same thing. And

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:23:40

actually I need that opportunity to grow that might be one part

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:23:44

of the conversation you need to have. Some of it might be about

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:23:47

your capacity as in you know, often what can happen is you get

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:23:51

given extra things because they are of that type because people

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:23:55

know your superpower is going to make it happen. And I think

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:23:58

sometimes you have to have that conversation about I don't have

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:24:00

the capacity to take that on because I've got all of this

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:24:02

other workload that I need to be responsible for. So I think

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:24:06

there's different ways around having the conversation

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:24:08

depending on the impact that it's having. But I think

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:24:11

definitely you have to have that open conversation otherwise you

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:24:14

might become a bit resentful that you you know you're not

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:24:17

getting those other opportunities to use your

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:24:20

superpowers in different ways.

Lee Griffith: 00:24:22

Yeah, and I think that's a really good point for

Lee Griffith: 00:24:25

leaders in general to be aware of when they're looking at

Lee Griffith: 00:24:28

perhaps their teams and how they're dividing tasks or giving

Lee Griffith: 00:24:32

opportunities to people you know, if you think about a chief

Lee Griffith: 00:24:35

executive, who might be looking at their executive team going

Lee Griffith: 00:24:39

right, well, I know so and so's really great at doing the staff

Lee Griffith: 00:24:42

facing stuff so I'm going to just keep pushing it to them all

Lee Griffith: 00:24:45

the time. But then they're actually causing an issue where

Lee Griffith: 00:24:48

you've not got great visibility by the you ever executive

Lee Griffith: 00:24:51

members, internally, for example. So as a leader, it's

Lee Griffith: 00:24:55

not necessarily just about you looking at your own skills, but

Lee Griffith: 00:24:58

looking at the broader skill sets of your team and their

Lee Griffith: 00:25:00

superpowers and not letting them be overused as well.

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:25:04

We are building the superhero team. I love it.

Lee Griffith: 00:25:11

To wrap up, every episode we're going to bring you

Lee Griffith: 00:25:15

the how to, so this is the bit you can skip right to the end of

Lee Griffith: 00:25:19

the episode for if you just want the headlines of what we've been

Lee Griffith: 00:25:21

talking about or some really practical takeaways. Although of

Lee Griffith: 00:25:25

course, we do hope that you stay and listen to the whole thing.

Lee Griffith: 00:25:27

So in today's how to we're going to focus on how to harness your

Lee Griffith: 00:25:32

superpower, obviously. Carrie-Ann, what would be your

Lee Griffith: 00:25:37

kind of key tips or takeaways?

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:25:39

My key tips would be take the time to work

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:25:42

out what it is if you don't already know. And if you're

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:25:45

anything like me, you probably find it quite cringey thinking

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:25:48

about io you might need to make that time to work that out. And

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:25:52

ask for feedback to help you with some of that because one of

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:25:56

your superpowers might be something you don't consider to

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:25:59

be one. And then my third kind of top tip or takeaway could be

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:26:03

to really take that time to understand where your

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:26:05

superpowers can have the biggest positive impact to make sure

Lee Griffith: 00:26:06

Well, mine you've stolen two of them. So the whole

Lee Griffith: 00:26:09

you're focusing them and your energy in the right place.

Lee Griffith: 00:26:19

mapping what you love and what people say you're great at, I

Lee Griffith: 00:26:23

think if you do that as an exercise, then you'll start to

Lee Griffith: 00:26:26

realise where your superpowers lie. And then I would just end

Lee Griffith: 00:26:30

with the remember if you overuse your superpower, it can become a

Lee Griffith: 00:26:35

weakness.

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:26:36

That is honestly, yeah, I'm glad I

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:26:39

didn't steal yours because that was your top tip. But that is

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:26:43

the top tip of the episode. I think that's what I'm going

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:26:46

reflect on.

Lee Griffith: 00:26:47

Excellent. Well, that's it. End of Episode One.

Lee Griffith: 00:26:50

We've done it!

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:26:51

Look forward to seeing you, hearing you, talking

Carrie-Ann Wade: 00:26:53

to you for Episode Two.

Lee Griffith: 00:26:55

Well, I can see you but no one else can!