Superpowers in the Workplace
When I look back at all of the managers, leaders, supervisors and mentors I have had in my life, they fall into two categories; Service to Others/People Focused Leaders, and Service to Self/Fear Based Task Managers.
The leaders that encouraged me to use my strengths and explore how to use them effectively had the most profound impact on my life. But I also learned immensely from those that used fear based, control, or intimidation and manipulation tactics (read about an example of this HERE).
When I was hired into my first formal influential leadership role in charge of sales performance (the title was Sales Champion, something we all giggled over) for 120-150 sales associates/Account Executives (10-15 teams) in an Oregon mortgage call center which was ranked at the bottom (dead last) in the company, the first thing I did was begin getting to know each person and the unique gifts, or Superpowers, that they brought to the team. I found that the skillsets varied immensely from those that could be physically seen to those that were more subtle in nature. I spent the first several months sitting side by side with each team leader as well as each of their Account Executives and just observed them at work.
After a few months I had mentally tallied up each person and their strengths, as well as identified those that were struggling with performance and needed support. Even those struggling have unique Superpowers, and sometimes identifying, cultivating, and leveraging those is all it takes for the person to find their “mojo” and begin improving performance.
I began bringing together 3-4 Mortgage Account Executives at a time for private group coaching sessions where I leveraged the strengths of each person to teach the skills needed, rather than lecturing them on what needed to change. I then supplemented the group coaching sessions with individual follow up coaching sessions to solidify what they were learning and build on it. In addition, I began having the team leaders sit in on the coaching sessions so they could learn the skill set they needed to keep the momentum going and continue improving their teams when I was working with another team. The results were immediate.
Within a year the entire call center went from last place in the company to the very top, or #1, in the company. And I did not terminate a single associate.
What does it take to identify strengths in others? First and foremost, we must have People Focused Leaders in place vs. Fear Based Task Managers. People Focused Leaders put the success of their team ahead of their own (which coincidentally creates a dynamic so powerful that success is imminent and exponential). They do not just care about success at work, they care about each person individually and take an active interest them.
From my experience the more people a manager is responsible for, the less time they have available to get to know each person and their Superpower. But that does not stop the People Focused Leader from putting their team first ahead of themselves in any way they are able. For the greatest success, teams should be limited in size to allow for a People Focused Leader to operate at their full potential (a separate blog topic).
Once a People Focused Leader is in place, getting to know each person on the team is the first step in identifying the unique Superpowers their team possesses. No Superpower is too small. I repeat; there are no small or insignificant Superpowers. And everyone has them. Whether the Superpower is one of celebration and encouragement (someone who recognizes birthdays and passes cards around for people to sign; an obvious one) or an innate talent to relate to clients and the ability to sell a ketchup popsicle to someone wearing a white suit, every Superpower is powerful.
I will share an example of two beautiful women who worked for me about 8-10 years ago at the same time, on the same team, as Mortgage Account Executives.
I had recently been recruited from a role as a Process Designer in another area of the company to take over a mortgage sales team within the Oregon mortgage call center. This team had recently been removed from sales and was given back-office work to complete due to the poor sales performance of the team overall (they were ranked in the bottom 5% of the 500+ sales teams in the company). I began getting to know each person on the team and identified each person’s individual Superpower(s). The team lacked structure and organization which, in an incredibly fast paced and unforgiving call center environment, created even more chaos. I knew my work was cut out for me and needed to create time for myself to be able to teach and coach as much as possible while creating and cultivating a positive culture. I needed to leverage the Superpowers of my team to create the space to do this.
I had noticed that one of the newer young women on the team was incredibly organized (we will call her Sally); color coded notes from the phone conversations with clients to recall important details about what they were looking to accomplish, excel documents organizing leads, follow ups, etc. To say this girl was organized was an understatement and incredibly humbling (yet motivating) to someone like me who has always worked at staying linearly organized (NOT one of my Superpowers). She was relatively new and was still learning all the intricacies of the Mortgage Account Executive role, but that was irrelevant for how her skills would help the team. Not only was she incredibly organized, it actually brought her joy to create organization out of chaos. It was one of her Superpowers.
The other young woman on the team (we will call her Amelia) who will be used in this example was an up and coming top performing Mortgage Account Executive who had aspirations to get into leadership. They were both in their early 20s. The same age I had been when I had been promoted to Sales Champion in charge of sales for the Oregon mortgage call center. When I was preparing for my interview as Sales Champion, I was told I looked too young to be in management. However, because the Sales Champion role reported to a national team outside of the mortgage call center, the interview process took place over the phone and my “young-ness” was not part of the decision process. Because of this experience, I knew I wanted to help this up and coming young woman get into a leadership position herself.
There were several Mortgage Account Executives on the team that had decent sales skills (helping clients accomplish their goals with the products we had available) but lacked the organization to stay on top of all the administrative tasks required to be successful. I approached Sally and explained to her that I wanted her to teach these Mortgage Account Executives her organization processes. She looked at me like a deer in the headlights. She had no idea what or how to teach these skills. This was because she did not know that her skill set was unique; she assumed everyone else on the team was similarly organized. I find this to be true almost 100% of the time; a person does not know that the unique Superpower(s) they possess is/are not the same Superpower(s) as their co-worker. Therefore, a People Focused Leader is key in identifying the Superpowers of their team, then facilitating learning sessions to leverage them.
Because Sally was a little nervous teaching a skillset that she thought was universal, I facilitated the learning session. I gathered the Mortgage Account Executives that needed the organizational help into Sally’s workspace and had her walk through her process beginning to end. Because Sally assumed her skillset was not unique, there were times she needed prompting to address crucial lessons and provide examples for the lesson to be as relevant to these Mortgage Account Executives as possible and “stick”. Because I knew each Account Executive’s strengths and where they needed assistance, I was able to help drive the questions and conversation down the path each one of them needed to learn the lesson that would benefit them most.
Within an hour or two, the collaboration had changed the mood from one of frustration to one of hope and excitement- it was palpable! I was so excited to see the immediate change in demeanor of not only the Account Executives learning from Sally, but also from Sally herself. Seeing the excitement and “ah-ha" moments from her teammates in turn brought Sally fulfillment and excitement as she had provided an invaluable resource and lesson to the team. Change was immediate.
In the meantime, being that Amelia had aspirations of becoming a team leader (People Focused, not Fear Based) and I had much work to do continuing to bring the team together, I unofficially promoted her to my “Assistant Manager”. I delegated tasks to her that would not only help prepare her to become a strong leadership candidate when the time came, but it also created time and space for me to continue helping the team improve their sales skills.
Amelia was quick, efficient, and incredibly knowledgeable about the Mortgage Account Executive role and had an incredible desire to help others. I began giving Amelia mortgage applications that had been submitted by less experienced or less successful Mortgage Account Executives to review. I asked her to review the in-process as well as declined applications (they did not meet the qualifications for a mortgage loan underwriter to be able to approve the loan application) and look for things that may have been missed up front by the Mortgage Account Executive. She then provided candid and factual feedback to the Mortgage Account Executives (or to me to provide the feedback for her) about why the mortgage loan application was not viable (did not meet the guidelines, or did not truly meet the client’s original needs). She then taught and showed them the resources needed to identify more viable leads up front and avoid submitting mortgage loan applications for clients that would ultimately be declined resulting in an upset client as well as wasted time and lower performance/success by the Mortgage Account Executive.
In addition to reviewing the work of Mortgage Account Executives, she started assisting with client escalations. By assisting with and resolving client escalations it not only helped her confidence in dealing with the issues a leader has to address, but it also helped her further identify the challenges her teammates (that she was reviewing mortgage applications for) were experiencing that were keeping them from realizing greater success. This in turn gave her the additional knowledge needed to provide even more relevant feedback and coaching to the team. Her path to leadership had begun.
In both examples I identified each of their individual Superpowers; a skill that was innate to each of them and also brought them joy. I then leveraged those Superpowers by helping to facilitate learning sessions for them to teach their skill set to others. This created time for me to provide more intense and individualized coaching sessions to the team while giving others an opportunity to “shine” and develop their Superpowers even further.
A “win-win”, if you will.
Conversely, Fear Based Task Managers are thinking of their own success and ranking vs. the success of those that are in their care. They are focused on gaining all the recognition and the spotlight to gain promotions, bonuses, and accolades. What they don’t understand is that by engaging the Superpowers of the team it not only improves performance of the team overall, it improves morale, highlights and encourages leaders to blossom, and frees up time and space for them to focus on things they truly enjoy. Instead, Fear Based Task Managers feel the need to control. From people, to processes, to how their team engages with clients, they want to control it all. They start whittling away at what makes each person unique; attempting to create mini-bots of themselves; it’s their way or the highway.
When fear based control tactics fail long term (which they always do), the Fear Based Task Manager begins controlling with intimidation, threats, discrimination, isolation, and in the event they have someone they absolutely cannot control; termination. They silence those with a voice; their voice is the only one that has anything valuable to say.
Besides the ramifications this type of management causes to the team and company, it kills morale, creativity, and the desire to do more. It even destroys the belief that success is attainable. People who are being managed by fear-based tactics may improve in the short term out of fear and desperation, but it is never sustainable. Ever.
This type of management does not just impact the workplace, the fear and hopelessness instilled is taken home and projected onto family and friends. Instead of getting more out of their team, they drive great associates out from the company and squash any desire to do better. Dream Killers, if you will.
Engaging the Superpowers of those within your company, from executive leadership down, is an invaluable tool. When learned and practiced, this technique is arguably the most successful tool a leader can possess.
In the example above, by utilizing the Superpowers of my team including those of Sally and Amelia, the team successfully improved from the bottom 5% of the company to top 5% of the company (#2!).
Oh, and BONUS; Sally is now working for herself as a very successful Mortgage Account Executive and manager with a team beneath her, and Amelia is managing a very successful team of Mortgage Account Executives and is a much sought after leader to work for and with.
My personal bonus has been watching these two beautiful women continue to harness and leverage their Superpowers and in turn teach others how to leverage theirs. NOTHING brings me more joy than watching the growth that comes from investing in others and their Superpowers.
“Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others.”
- John Maxwell
Click HERE to hear a real-life example of a Fear Based Task Manager for context.
Read about Fear Based Task Managers vs. People Focused Leaders HERE.