May 7, 2025 • 22 mins
This is a replay of an episode about our strengths as our superpowers and it is a useful precursor to the next podcast discussion where my guest will talk about them as natural talents. This replay episode was triggered by two interactions that made me think more about the importance of knowing our own unique superpowers (as Aaron Quigley discussed), ie our strengths, and also our kryptonite (thanks Lewis Chuang), and how this can help us work out what is our good academic life. And to recognise that we can all have different superpowers. Before getting to the replay I also report on some lovely feedback from the episodes with Graham McAllister.
00:29 Introduction
01:39 Update from episodes with Graham McAllister
05:21 Replay - Strengths as Superpowers
06:49 Kyrptonite and Superpowers
08:19 What are your superpowers?
14:29 Other notes about strengths as superpowers
17:21 Summary and pointer to ways to explore strengths
19:25 Additional Pointers
22:05 Outro
Related Links:
The twitter thread started by Lewis Chuang
Aaron Quigley podcast conversation
Mike Twidale podcast conversation
VIA Character Strengths Survey
Strengthscope Strengths assessment tools
Related Work:
Michelle McQuaid, 2014, Ten Reasons to Focus on Your Strengths No matter what your job description says, Psychology Today.
Jeremy Sutton, 2021, Cultivating Strengths at Work: 10+ Examples and Ideas, PositivePsychology.com.
Ryan M. Niemiec, 2020, Coronavirus Coping: 6 Ways Your Strengths Will Help You Turn to your best qualities for prevention, safety, and health. Psychology Today.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Geri (00:05):
Welcome to Changing Academic Life.
I'm Geraldine Fitzpatrick, and this isa podcast series where academics and
others share their stories, provideideas, and provoke discussions about what
we can do individually and collectivelyto change academic life for the better.
(00:31):
I have a wonderful conversation alreadyrecorded, and I had hoped to get it out
to you last week, but I've been travelingboth for holidays and at a conference and
haven't had time to finish processing it.
What I'm going to do though isreplay a past episode where we talked
about strengths and how we can talkabout strengths as our superpowers.
(00:55):
Strengths being something thatwe are not just good at, but
that we really love doing.
And I've chosen this as a replaybecause my guest that will be coming
up next talks about them using thelanguage of natural talents, and whether
you call them strengths or naturaltalents, they're really important
(01:18):
to understand and become aware of.
Because of how we can use thatawareness to shape our work and our
choices, to enable us to really beat our best and to make our best
contributions, and also to recognizewhen we may overuse our strengths a
bit and how they may work against us.
(01:39):
Before I start that replay though, Ijust wanted to give you a quick update.
If you remember the discussions withGraham McAllister in recent episodes.
He talked about the significant impactthat the late Gary Marsden had on him
and his regret at never actually beingable to tell Gary himself about that.
(02:01):
After those episodes went out, Ireached out to someone who knew Gary
Marsden's family, and I asked if hewould share the episodes with them.
The feedback from themwas really touching.
Gary's wife said, and to quote.
(02:22):
Thanks so much for sending this.
How wonderful.
It means so much end quote.
And that so much was in capital letterswith three exclamation marks afterwards.
Gary's son also reached out toGraham directly and said to quote,
(02:49):
there's no way to tell Gary the manythings we wish we could tell him.
Knowing him, I doubt he would'vebeen comfortable accepting that
he had a big impact, but hearingyour stories keeps him alive.
For me, my sister and my mother.
Thank you for keeping himalive for everyone, even if
it seems like a simple story.
(03:12):
So that just reinforces theimportance of . Reaching out to
people and letting them know.
And I can also share my ownexperience of that last week.
While I was at the conference, quite afew people came up to me and just said
about how much the podcast meant to themand made some quite specific comments
(03:36):
about the ways in which it mattered.
I.
And I'd love to share one . Feedbackon that, which was handwritten on a
beautiful hand painted postcard andwhere the person had gone to quite
significant effort to try to seek meout at the conference to let me know.
(03:59):
And to quote from that postcard.
Thank you for inspiring aculture that values everyone
being their own unique selves.
Forging new stories, journeys.
Every once in a while when I feellost, not knowing what next Changing
academic life offers that Ray ofHope reminding me that work just like
(04:23):
life is serendipitous in many ways.
End quote.
And that feedback really touchedme and made the work so worthwhile.
(04:44):
All of this reinforces the message thatwe are trying to get out in the discussion
with Graham, that if there is someonewho's had an impact on your life, reach
out to them and just let them know.
It can mean a lot.
So now to get to the replay aboutour strengths as our superpowers.
(05:05):
Or as my next guest will talkabout them as our natural talents.
Enjoy.
So where do you naturallychoose to spend your time?
(05:26):
When you have the option ofmaking a choice, what do you
naturally gravitate to doing?
Where's your happy place or placesas an academic, what is it that
you really love doing when you feelthe most alive and in the flow?
Maybe I.
I wanted to muse on this todaytriggered by two different, but I think
(05:48):
related interactions from last week.
One was a discussion, uh, with a seniorprofessor whose colleague made a comment
to, to them that they should be writingmore and notice the should, but for
this senior academic they would alwayschoose, they said to spend time with
(06:10):
their students, not sitting down writinganother paper yet, even though they were
really clear on this as their own choice,they, they felt that, um, they still
felt somehow that they weren't measuringup to what an academic should be.
Again, the should.
The other example was a Twitterdiscussion, responding to the conversation
with Aaron Quigley, where he talkedabout his superpowers of not worrying who
(06:35):
gets the credit, listening and talking.
And Lewis Chuang started a Twitterconversation around superpowers.
And interestingly also askedAaron, what's his kryptonite?
I love this nod to the Superman comics.
So if you remember, kryptoniteis Superman's Achilles heel.
It made him weak and all sortsof different types of kryptonite
(07:00):
emerged over the series havingdifferent effects on Superman.
And then in some, some of the episodes,he could become immune or found out
he could be immune from kryptoniteby traveling to alternate dimensions.
I think a generic kryptonite for manyof us as academics is thinking that
there must be some ideal super academicthat we all should be aspiring to.
(07:26):
And this isn't helped by the hypercompetitive culture and the generic
metrics that we all have to report to.
And I would suggest that we can getsome immunity from this kryptonite by
traveling to the alternate dimension ofknowing ourselves better and identifying
what are our unique superpowers.
(07:49):
Looking to where we get our energyfrom in doing our academic work.
And also knowing what's our kryptonite.
It's more specifically, and having midmitigation strategies against this.
I really strongly believe and promotethat there's no ideal academic
that we should all be aspiring to.
(08:10):
We're all unique and we needthe diverse mix of us all to
deliver good science overall.
So what are your superpowers?
The questions I started with can beone way to start to reflect on this.
So for example, when you do have theoption of making a choice of how you spend
(08:32):
your time or the opportunity to volunteerto something, what sort of things
do you naturally gravitate to doing?
Where's your happy place?
What is it that you really lovedoing that makes you feel alive and
where you really get in the flow?
I.
(08:53):
If I think of people I've worked withover the years, I know that there's
one person I'll always find in themaker lab if they have free time
because this is what lights them up.
Another person I know will be therebehind their closed door, sitting at their
desk and reveling in the time to write.
(09:15):
And for me, I know that I willalways prioritize time for people and
mentoring over writing or tinkering.
None of us are better or worseacademics than the other.
We're just different, and we bringdifferent superpowers to our work.
So I can also give anotherillustration too that just might
help make this more concrete.
(09:36):
So all of us work who areworking in universities might be
required to do some lecturing.
And so on the surface, by roletitle and by task, it might look
like that is all pretty much thesame, the same job of lecturing.
But if you actually ask around to thepeople that you know and ask them what is
(10:01):
it about lecturing that they really like?
If they, if they like it.
And I'm sure that you willget a whole range of answers.
So some of the answers that I've heardto this question, you know, some people
love the, the aspect of actually standingup in front of the class and performing
in a way and engaging this class.
(10:25):
Other people will talk about , it'sreally the, the interaction with the
students and facilitating learningconversations For others, it's about
breaking down complex ideas into teachablechunks and how to communicate that.
For others, it's the creative workof developing learning materials,
(10:47):
innovative learning materials.
Or it might be the strategicplanning of the whole learning
journey for the student.
And that sort of, that strategicthinking is what really,
um, you know, drives people.
Or it might be that you arejust motivated by inspiring
the next generation of leaders.
(11:09):
I'm sure you can come up with otherreasons and it'd be interesting
to know what are your reasons.
For anything we do, I would suggesteven in delivering to the metrics, the
things that we have to do, we can stillask ourselves though, what are the parts
(11:29):
of this that we might actually love?
And then look at how we can do moreof that in delivering to what we have
to do, because that's where our energylies, and that's where we get to use
our strengths and our superpowers.
So in delivering to the metrics, itmay be really annoying and painful,
(11:50):
but maybe I can also take the timeto celebrate for myself what it is
that I've learned over the time.
If love of learning is a, is astrength for you, just as an example.
So there's really strong evidence acrossa lot of diverse literature in different
(12:12):
countries, cultures, and with differentsettings from students to businesses
to, um, everyday life that points toreally strong benefits of knowing and
using and developing your strengths.
And the literature talks aboutthings like, you know, people
who use their strengths more arehappier, experience less stress, feel
(12:36):
healthier, have more energy, feelmore satisfied and more confident.
Um, they're more creative and agile atwork and they experience more meaning
at work and are more engaged as well.
S So recognizing that we all havedifferent superpowers also reminds
(12:56):
us that we don't have to be good orexcellent at everything, and that's
completely okay, and that we all bringvery different interests and superpowers
to our work, and that's the great valueof working in collaboration with others.
I had a conversation for the podcastwith Mike Twidale some time ago, and
he gave us a great example of howwe can put our different superpowers
(13:19):
together to compliment one another.
Just take a listen to this extract.
I.
I realized that, you know, one aspectof delegation that I could do was
delegate things to people who werereally good at doing this thing
that I was really bad at doing.
And that's partly recognizingstrengths and weaknesses in ourselves.
(13:40):
And it, it was a struggle 'cause attimes I'm inclined to be very egocentric
and think, well, if I hate doing it,surely everybody else hates doing it too.
So I am now going to ask themto do this horrible thing.
And then discovering this thing I thinkis horrible is something they think
is really nice and this that somethingthey think is horrible, I think is fun.
So learning what it is that you know,plays to other people's strengths.
(14:04):
And there may be something thateverybody hates and that has to
be dealt, but often there arethese sort of different strengths
and skills that can be played to.
So isn't that a great example?
So it's also worth knowing that it'snot enough just to name our superpowers
and assume that they're always fantasticto use, or that we don't need to
(14:26):
develop other skills if we need to.
So two examples or caveats aroundthe whole notion of superpowers.
One is.
Not having some superpower doesn'tmean that we can't do something
at all or that we couldn't learn.
It just means that it doesn't come sonaturally to us and we'll have to put
(14:47):
in more explicit effort to develop that.
Programming, um, is an example for me.
So I, I could learn how to do programmingand even be good at it, but I really
had to draw on my superpower ofconscientiousness and persistence to
put in the hard work to get through itand to enjoy the sense of achievement
(15:07):
at the end, even if I didn't enjoy theprocess and it, it took explicit effort.
I am also not so great at the biggerpicture, strategic thinking, and
I could go on courses for this.
And luckily, so far, like Mike's exexample, I've been able to work with other
people who are better at this and to,uh, compliment our strengths together.
(15:32):
The second caveat is that sometimesour strengths or our superpowers
can also be hidden kryptonitefor us if we overuse them.
Or underuse them or use them unskillfullyor inappropriately in a specific context.
So one of my superpowers is being reallycurious and, and love, just love to learn.
(15:58):
And what that means is I have reallyeclectic interests and, you know, uh,
have broad, uh, broad feel of lots ofwhat's going on in different areas.
But the downside that I have towatch out for is because I can be
interested in all sorts of things.
I'm really prone to going down rabbitholes, and so I need to work much harder
(16:19):
on staying in focus if there's somethingI need to do and watching out for myself,
going down a rabbit hole and wasting time.
Another example is I think one of mysuperpowers might be fairness, and that
leads me to behave in particular waysaround people and with people you know,
(16:40):
to, to see that things are just and fair.
I.
But it can also not serve me wellwhen I notice unfairness or injustice
somewhere else, or feel like someone'streated me unfairly and I can really
end up ruminating and being very upsetand having sleepless nights around that.
(17:02):
So I need to have strategiesfor trying to manage that.
So just having a superpowerdoesn't mean that that's brilliant.
You know, there, there are, youknow, there's lots of nuances around
actually understanding and usingyour superpowers to best advantage.
So in summary, I.
(17:23):
We all have our own particular superpowersand our own particular kryptonite.
And what I think is interesting inall of the podcast conversations
that I have, I how much we hearthis in different people's stories.
Everyone has a different, a differentcareer path, different motivations
(17:46):
for their choices, uh, differentsorts of things that really drive
them and that they get excited about.
And it's just a great reminder thatthere's no such thing as the ideal
academic or the good academic life.
It's what's a good academic life to you.
And this connects toour related work today.
(18:06):
As I said, there's a huge body of evidencein the psychology and, and in the, you
know, organizational business literatureabout the power of using superpowers more.
So I'm going to link to two popularscience articles that provide a broad
overview or summary or discussionof strengths, and also links to the
underlying peer reviewed papers.
(18:28):
And, uh, I said that some of the ways thatyou can investigate your own superpowers
is to just think about, um, the questionsthat I ask, but you could also ask others.
'cause often if we think somethingcomes so naturally to us, uh, we,
we just take it for granted andassume everyone can do that because
it's just so effortless for us.
So sometimes it needs other, we needother people to reflect it back.
(18:50):
And so there's a link in, in one of thosearticles to an exercise called Reflected
Best Self, where it helps you, it talksabout how you can go and talk to other
people about helping you identify yourstrengths and the articles also point to
some online profile profiling, uh, toolsthat you may like to use as tools to
(19:11):
think with that might start to point you.
I will also link to a third article byRyan Niemiec, six ways your strengths
will help you turn to your best qualitiesfor prevention, safety, and health.
And that's the end of the replay.
I'm going to add two additionallinks to the webpage and there'll
(19:34):
be the two different strengthsassessments that you might be
interested in taking for yourself.
You can also find many otherstrengths assessment tools if
you wanna do a search for them.
Um, the first one I'll point to is calledthe via VIA Character Strength Survey.
It is free to take and it has asignificant research base behind it.
(19:59):
As its name implies.
It focuses particularlyon character strengths.
The second strengths assessmenttools I'm going to point to
are from strength scope.com.
And for this one, you'll need to payand you need to access it through a
certified strength scope coach whoalso goes through the debrief with you.
(20:22):
And for full disclosure, Iam a certified Strengthscope
coach if you were interested.
There are different versions ofthe tool of strength scopes tools.
Uh, you can use it as an individual.
You can also do a strength scope teamassessment that enables you to identify
the strengths across the team andhow you might make best use of those.
(20:47):
And there's a strength scope leadersurvey that particularly focuses as
the name says, on the strengths thatleaders need to bring to their work.
And there's an extension to theleaders and the individual surveys
that can include a 360 component.
360 being where the feedback is askedfrom people that you work with, both,
(21:11):
um, people that you report to, yourpeers, and people who report to you
. One of the advantages of Strengthscopeand why I particularly like it is that
it's a little bit more work oriented.
Strengthscope is also the onlycommercial strengths assessment
tool that's registered with theBritish Psychological Society.
(21:32):
Whatever tool you use though, you'llfind that you'll gain some insights and
they'll help you to understand what yourstrengths might be, and also provide
pointers for you to reflect on abouthow you might make better use of those
strengths once you have that awareness.
So have fun exploring what might beyour strengths as your superpowers.
(21:59):
Knowing that and making better useof it can make all the difference.
You can find the summary notes, atranscript and related links for this
podcast on www.changingacademiclife.com.
You can also subscribe to ChangingAcademic Life on iTunes, Spotify.
(22:23):
And I'm really hoping that we canwiden the conversation about how
we can do academia differently.
And you can contribute to this by ratingthe podcast and also giving feedback.
And if something connected withyou, please consider sharing this
podcast with your colleagues.
Together we can make change happen.
Welcome to Changing Academic Life.
I'm Geraldine Fitzpatrick, and this isa podcast series where academics and
others share their stories, provideideas, and provoke discussions about what
we can do individually and collectivelyto change academic life for the better.
(00:31):
I have a wonderful conversation alreadyrecorded, and I had hoped to get it out
to you last week, but I've been travelingboth for holidays and at a conference and
haven't had time to finish processing it.
What I'm going to do though isreplay a past episode where we talked
about strengths and how we can talkabout strengths as our superpowers.
(00:55):
Strengths being something thatwe are not just good at, but
that we really love doing.
And I've chosen this as a replaybecause my guest that will be coming
up next talks about them using thelanguage of natural talents, and whether
you call them strengths or naturaltalents, they're really important
(01:18):
to understand and become aware of.
Because of how we can use thatawareness to shape our work and our
choices, to enable us to really beat our best and to make our best
contributions, and also to recognizewhen we may overuse our strengths a
bit and how they may work against us.
(01:39):
Before I start that replay though, Ijust wanted to give you a quick update.
If you remember the discussions withGraham McAllister in recent episodes.
He talked about the significant impactthat the late Gary Marsden had on him
and his regret at never actually beingable to tell Gary himself about that.
(02:01):
After those episodes went out, Ireached out to someone who knew Gary
Marsden's family, and I asked if hewould share the episodes with them.
The feedback from themwas really touching.
Gary's wife said, and to quote.
(02:22):
Thanks so much for sending this.
How wonderful.
It means so much end quote.
And that so much was in capital letterswith three exclamation marks afterwards.
Gary's son also reached out toGraham directly and said to quote,
(02:49):
there's no way to tell Gary the manythings we wish we could tell him.
Knowing him, I doubt he would'vebeen comfortable accepting that
he had a big impact, but hearingyour stories keeps him alive.
For me, my sister and my mother.
Thank you for keeping himalive for everyone, even if
it seems like a simple story.
(03:12):
So that just reinforces theimportance of . Reaching out to
people and letting them know.
And I can also share my ownexperience of that last week.
While I was at the conference, quite afew people came up to me and just said
about how much the podcast meant to themand made some quite specific comments
(03:36):
about the ways in which it mattered.
I.
And I'd love to share one . Feedbackon that, which was handwritten on a
beautiful hand painted postcard andwhere the person had gone to quite
significant effort to try to seek meout at the conference to let me know.
(03:59):
And to quote from that postcard.
Thank you for inspiring aculture that values everyone
being their own unique selves.
Forging new stories, journeys.
Every once in a while when I feellost, not knowing what next Changing
academic life offers that Ray ofHope reminding me that work just like
(04:23):
life is serendipitous in many ways.
End quote.
And that feedback really touchedme and made the work so worthwhile.
(04:44):
All of this reinforces the message thatwe are trying to get out in the discussion
with Graham, that if there is someonewho's had an impact on your life, reach
out to them and just let them know.
It can mean a lot.
So now to get to the replay aboutour strengths as our superpowers.
(05:05):
Or as my next guest will talkabout them as our natural talents.
Enjoy.
So where do you naturallychoose to spend your time?
(05:26):
When you have the option ofmaking a choice, what do you
naturally gravitate to doing?
Where's your happy place or placesas an academic, what is it that
you really love doing when you feelthe most alive and in the flow?
Maybe I.
I wanted to muse on this todaytriggered by two different, but I think
(05:48):
related interactions from last week.
One was a discussion, uh, with a seniorprofessor whose colleague made a comment
to, to them that they should be writingmore and notice the should, but for
this senior academic they would alwayschoose, they said to spend time with
(06:10):
their students, not sitting down writinganother paper yet, even though they were
really clear on this as their own choice,they, they felt that, um, they still
felt somehow that they weren't measuringup to what an academic should be.
Again, the should.
The other example was a Twitterdiscussion, responding to the conversation
with Aaron Quigley, where he talkedabout his superpowers of not worrying who
(06:35):
gets the credit, listening and talking.
And Lewis Chuang started a Twitterconversation around superpowers.
And interestingly also askedAaron, what's his kryptonite?
I love this nod to the Superman comics.
So if you remember, kryptoniteis Superman's Achilles heel.
It made him weak and all sortsof different types of kryptonite
(07:00):
emerged over the series havingdifferent effects on Superman.
And then in some, some of the episodes,he could become immune or found out
he could be immune from kryptoniteby traveling to alternate dimensions.
I think a generic kryptonite for manyof us as academics is thinking that
there must be some ideal super academicthat we all should be aspiring to.
(07:26):
And this isn't helped by the hypercompetitive culture and the generic
metrics that we all have to report to.
And I would suggest that we can getsome immunity from this kryptonite by
traveling to the alternate dimension ofknowing ourselves better and identifying
what are our unique superpowers.
(07:49):
Looking to where we get our energyfrom in doing our academic work.
And also knowing what's our kryptonite.
It's more specifically, and having midmitigation strategies against this.
I really strongly believe and promotethat there's no ideal academic
that we should all be aspiring to.
(08:10):
We're all unique and we needthe diverse mix of us all to
deliver good science overall.
So what are your superpowers?
The questions I started with can beone way to start to reflect on this.
So for example, when you do have theoption of making a choice of how you spend
(08:32):
your time or the opportunity to volunteerto something, what sort of things
do you naturally gravitate to doing?
Where's your happy place?
What is it that you really lovedoing that makes you feel alive and
where you really get in the flow?
I.
(08:53):
If I think of people I've worked withover the years, I know that there's
one person I'll always find in themaker lab if they have free time
because this is what lights them up.
Another person I know will be therebehind their closed door, sitting at their
desk and reveling in the time to write.
(09:15):
And for me, I know that I willalways prioritize time for people and
mentoring over writing or tinkering.
None of us are better or worseacademics than the other.
We're just different, and we bringdifferent superpowers to our work.
So I can also give anotherillustration too that just might
help make this more concrete.
(09:36):
So all of us work who areworking in universities might be
required to do some lecturing.
And so on the surface, by roletitle and by task, it might look
like that is all pretty much thesame, the same job of lecturing.
But if you actually ask around to thepeople that you know and ask them what is
(10:01):
it about lecturing that they really like?
If they, if they like it.
And I'm sure that you willget a whole range of answers.
So some of the answers that I've heardto this question, you know, some people
love the, the aspect of actually standingup in front of the class and performing
in a way and engaging this class.
(10:25):
Other people will talk about , it'sreally the, the interaction with the
students and facilitating learningconversations For others, it's about
breaking down complex ideas into teachablechunks and how to communicate that.
For others, it's the creative workof developing learning materials,
(10:47):
innovative learning materials.
Or it might be the strategicplanning of the whole learning
journey for the student.
And that sort of, that strategicthinking is what really,
um, you know, drives people.
Or it might be that you arejust motivated by inspiring
the next generation of leaders.
(11:09):
I'm sure you can come up with otherreasons and it'd be interesting
to know what are your reasons.
For anything we do, I would suggesteven in delivering to the metrics, the
things that we have to do, we can stillask ourselves though, what are the parts
(11:29):
of this that we might actually love?
And then look at how we can do moreof that in delivering to what we have
to do, because that's where our energylies, and that's where we get to use
our strengths and our superpowers.
So in delivering to the metrics, itmay be really annoying and painful,
(11:50):
but maybe I can also take the timeto celebrate for myself what it is
that I've learned over the time.
If love of learning is a, is astrength for you, just as an example.
So there's really strong evidence acrossa lot of diverse literature in different
(12:12):
countries, cultures, and with differentsettings from students to businesses
to, um, everyday life that points toreally strong benefits of knowing and
using and developing your strengths.
And the literature talks aboutthings like, you know, people
who use their strengths more arehappier, experience less stress, feel
(12:36):
healthier, have more energy, feelmore satisfied and more confident.
Um, they're more creative and agile atwork and they experience more meaning
at work and are more engaged as well.
S So recognizing that we all havedifferent superpowers also reminds
(12:56):
us that we don't have to be good orexcellent at everything, and that's
completely okay, and that we all bringvery different interests and superpowers
to our work, and that's the great valueof working in collaboration with others.
I had a conversation for the podcastwith Mike Twidale some time ago, and
he gave us a great example of howwe can put our different superpowers
(13:19):
together to compliment one another.
Just take a listen to this extract.
I.
I realized that, you know, one aspectof delegation that I could do was
delegate things to people who werereally good at doing this thing
that I was really bad at doing.
And that's partly recognizingstrengths and weaknesses in ourselves.
(13:40):
And it, it was a struggle 'cause attimes I'm inclined to be very egocentric
and think, well, if I hate doing it,surely everybody else hates doing it too.
So I am now going to ask themto do this horrible thing.
And then discovering this thing I thinkis horrible is something they think
is really nice and this that somethingthey think is horrible, I think is fun.
So learning what it is that you know,plays to other people's strengths.
(14:04):
And there may be something thateverybody hates and that has to
be dealt, but often there arethese sort of different strengths
and skills that can be played to.
So isn't that a great example?
So it's also worth knowing that it'snot enough just to name our superpowers
and assume that they're always fantasticto use, or that we don't need to
(14:26):
develop other skills if we need to.
So two examples or caveats aroundthe whole notion of superpowers.
One is.
Not having some superpower doesn'tmean that we can't do something
at all or that we couldn't learn.
It just means that it doesn't come sonaturally to us and we'll have to put
(14:47):
in more explicit effort to develop that.
Programming, um, is an example for me.
So I, I could learn how to do programmingand even be good at it, but I really
had to draw on my superpower ofconscientiousness and persistence to
put in the hard work to get through itand to enjoy the sense of achievement
(15:07):
at the end, even if I didn't enjoy theprocess and it, it took explicit effort.
I am also not so great at the biggerpicture, strategic thinking, and
I could go on courses for this.
And luckily, so far, like Mike's exexample, I've been able to work with other
people who are better at this and to,uh, compliment our strengths together.
(15:32):
The second caveat is that sometimesour strengths or our superpowers
can also be hidden kryptonitefor us if we overuse them.
Or underuse them or use them unskillfullyor inappropriately in a specific context.
So one of my superpowers is being reallycurious and, and love, just love to learn.
(15:58):
And what that means is I have reallyeclectic interests and, you know, uh,
have broad, uh, broad feel of lots ofwhat's going on in different areas.
But the downside that I have towatch out for is because I can be
interested in all sorts of things.
I'm really prone to going down rabbitholes, and so I need to work much harder
(16:19):
on staying in focus if there's somethingI need to do and watching out for myself,
going down a rabbit hole and wasting time.
Another example is I think one of mysuperpowers might be fairness, and that
leads me to behave in particular waysaround people and with people you know,
(16:40):
to, to see that things are just and fair.
I.
But it can also not serve me wellwhen I notice unfairness or injustice
somewhere else, or feel like someone'streated me unfairly and I can really
end up ruminating and being very upsetand having sleepless nights around that.
(17:02):
So I need to have strategiesfor trying to manage that.
So just having a superpowerdoesn't mean that that's brilliant.
You know, there, there are, youknow, there's lots of nuances around
actually understanding and usingyour superpowers to best advantage.
So in summary, I.
(17:23):
We all have our own particular superpowersand our own particular kryptonite.
And what I think is interesting inall of the podcast conversations
that I have, I how much we hearthis in different people's stories.
Everyone has a different, a differentcareer path, different motivations
(17:46):
for their choices, uh, differentsorts of things that really drive
them and that they get excited about.
And it's just a great reminder thatthere's no such thing as the ideal
academic or the good academic life.
It's what's a good academic life to you.
And this connects toour related work today.
(18:06):
As I said, there's a huge body of evidencein the psychology and, and in the, you
know, organizational business literatureabout the power of using superpowers more.
So I'm going to link to two popularscience articles that provide a broad
overview or summary or discussionof strengths, and also links to the
underlying peer reviewed papers.
(18:28):
And, uh, I said that some of the ways thatyou can investigate your own superpowers
is to just think about, um, the questionsthat I ask, but you could also ask others.
'cause often if we think somethingcomes so naturally to us, uh, we,
we just take it for granted andassume everyone can do that because
it's just so effortless for us.
So sometimes it needs other, we needother people to reflect it back.
(18:50):
And so there's a link in, in one of thosearticles to an exercise called Reflected
Best Self, where it helps you, it talksabout how you can go and talk to other
people about helping you identify yourstrengths and the articles also point to
some online profile profiling, uh, toolsthat you may like to use as tools to
(19:11):
think with that might start to point you.
I will also link to a third article byRyan Niemiec, six ways your strengths
will help you turn to your best qualitiesfor prevention, safety, and health.
And that's the end of the replay.
I'm going to add two additionallinks to the webpage and there'll
(19:34):
be the two different strengthsassessments that you might be
interested in taking for yourself.
You can also find many otherstrengths assessment tools if
you wanna do a search for them.
Um, the first one I'll point to is calledthe via VIA Character Strength Survey.
It is free to take and it has asignificant research base behind it.
(19:59):
As its name implies.
It focuses particularlyon character strengths.
The second strengths assessmenttools I'm going to point to
are from strength scope.com.
And for this one, you'll need to payand you need to access it through a
certified strength scope coach whoalso goes through the debrief with you.
(20:22):
And for full disclosure, Iam a certified Strengthscope
coach if you were interested.
There are different versions ofthe tool of strength scopes tools.
Uh, you can use it as an individual.
You can also do a strength scope teamassessment that enables you to identify
the strengths across the team andhow you might make best use of those.
(20:47):
And there's a strength scope leadersurvey that particularly focuses as
the name says, on the strengths thatleaders need to bring to their work.
And there's an extension to theleaders and the individual surveys
that can include a 360 component.
360 being where the feedback is askedfrom people that you work with, both,
(21:11):
um, people that you report to, yourpeers, and people who report to you
. One of the advantages of Strengthscopeand why I particularly like it is that
it's a little bit more work oriented.
Strengthscope is also the onlycommercial strengths assessment
tool that's registered with theBritish Psychological Society.
(21:32):
Whatever tool you use though, you'llfind that you'll gain some insights and
they'll help you to understand what yourstrengths might be, and also provide
pointers for you to reflect on abouthow you might make better use of those
strengths once you have that awareness.
So have fun exploring what might beyour strengths as your superpowers.
(21:59):
Knowing that and making better useof it can make all the difference.
You can find the summary notes, atranscript and related links for this
podcast on www.changingacademiclife.com.
You can also subscribe to ChangingAcademic Life on iTunes, Spotify.
(22:23):
And I'm really hoping that we canwiden the conversation about how
we can do academia differently.
And you can contribute to this by ratingthe podcast and also giving feedback.
And if something connected withyou, please consider sharing this
podcast with your colleagues.
Together we can make change happen.
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