Every Voice has a Superpower: do you know yours?
When we hit a crisis, we need our team functioning at full capacity. If we tap into our collective Superpowers, we can push through the barriers, hurdles, and gaps to build a bright future.
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Episode 4 – Full Transcript
Not just superheroes have superpowers.
You have a superpower too, but how do you tap into that true potential? How do you tap into the superpower that is within you when your team needs it most? When your family, when your inner circle, the people that you live life with, whether it’s at work at home or at play, when the people around you need your superpower, do you know what your superpower is? And are you ready to use it?
This has been such an incredible year. Highs and lows, as we’ve talked about on the past few episodes of the podcast, there’s a lot going on in our world, but how do we tap into our potential? When we tap into that true potential, we can become the best possible version of ourselves and bring our best to those around us. We get to a healthy place and we start multiplying that out into the people around us.
One of the tools that I use with teams is the 5 Voices. And it’s a powerful way, a powerful lens to help us understand, not to put us in a box, not to stifle our creativity or creative thinking. I had somebody last week say, well, once you identify your voice, is this kind of a predictable pattern?
Are we putting ourselves into a box, a self-fulfilling prophecy? And I said, no, no, not at all. This helps us understand where our mind comes, where we go. As we are brainstorming, responding to stress and challenge, it understands the lens that we use to look out at the world. And when we have a clear lens, it’s like putting on clear glasses.
I went to the doctor a few weeks ago, and they did two different eye exams, you know, the normal eye chart. And then they had one that they held closer to my face and they measured a certain distance off my shoulder with a measuring tape. And they held the card out there. And I did the same exercise and truth be told my vision is not as good as it used to be friends and family used to call me “Eagle eyes,” but I don’t have that viewpoint anymore.
My eyes aren’t working that well, I’m wearing glasses right now as we’re recording this, but we all need that kind of lens. We need a clearer picture of how we show up in the world, how we see the world, how we process what’s going on on a day to day basis.
There is a way for you to find out your voice. If you want to jumpstart that process, go on over to NewGenerationLeader.com/5voices. You can take the assessment for free. If you are, un-distracted put all your distractions aside, you’re in a quiet place where you can focus and concentrate. I say it should take you about 12 minutes and you’ll get that result and begin the journey of learning more about yourself. So do that.
Here are the five superpowers. Each voice has a superpower, and I want to spend some time talking about the superpowers today, because I think if we can tap into our superpower, we can push past roadblocks. And this truly helps us build collaborative teams, collaborative environments, where we are all bringing our best.
Normally we start with the quieter voices, but we’re going to start with me today. This is my voice, the Pioneer. My superpower is strategic vision. When we’re in a crisis situation, when we’re in a roadblock, the superpower that I bring, when I’m healthy when I’m ready to be effective, when I’m prepared, I’m not stressed. I can see and align the pieces of the picture together, the resources, the people, the opportunities, and say, all right, well, let’s clear the table, sketch out a plan. Here’s where we need to go. And here’s how we’re going to get there.
When you’re stuck at a roadblock, whether it’s a barrier that’s immovable right in front of you, a hurdle that you’ve got to jump over or move around, or a gap that you need to jump on that strategic vision can help clear the haze and help you and your team, your organization move forward.
That’s a really great trait. And only 7% of people, people have this superpower. So this is one of the most powerful things about the five voices. Is it not only helps us understand ourselves, but it truly helps us understand that the superpower we bring, I look at that strategic vision and I think, well, that’s not a big deal. Everybody does that, right? But not everybody does that. And that’s truly the power of the superpowers and the voices is that we can understand something new about ourselves and something that is unique to us and what we bring.
Let’s jump into the Connector. Only 11% of people are Connectors and the Connector superpower is their relational network. Connectors know everyone across departments, across divisions. I use the example last week, we were sitting in an office park and I said, you know what?
If you go across the parking lot to the other side of this office park, there’s another building. Another company in a completely different industry than your team is in. But the natural-born Connectors are going to know somebody in that building. Why I’m not really sure how they do this, but they tap into this superpower all the time. And so when you get to the barriers that hurdles and gaps when your team is stressed, you’re in a crisis mode, you’re responding to something.
The Connectors can tap into those relational networks. They know someone who can help get things done. They know somebody who can join you and collaborate with you and move that strategic vision forward. They can see who needs to be at the table and they know them already. They’ve already built that relationship. And so now they phone a friend. If you will going back to that, who wants to be a millionaire, a lifeline phone, a friend, tap into that network and call somebody who can help you and your team take things to the next level.
Let’s jump over to the Guardian. The Guardian’s superpower is due diligence. And what I’ve realized here lately is the tenacity of a Guardian — detail-oriented and process-driven. They want to make sure the T’s are crossed and the I’s are dotted. They will make sure that everything is buttoned up. They’re going to make sure in a moment of crisis, we don’t move too fast. We don’t move too swiftly, but we move forward. Confidently.
When I was working in emergency management, one of the mantras that we often said was we want to be safe after a disaster. We preached safety to our staff, to our volunteers, to everyone we worked with because we didn’t want to heap disaster on top of disaster. When you’re in a crisis, the last thing you want is to make the crisis worse.
And that’s the superpower the Guardian brings to the table. They want to make sure that you’re not wasting time. You’re not going to jump off after something. That’s a shiny object. They’re going to make sure that you are moving constantly forward and ready to tackle this.
And along the way, the Creative voice lends their perspective. And they help the team both on an innovation side and an integrity side. There is an ideal that we could reach. There is a far-off vision of what we could pursue and the Creative will speak up and make sure that we are raising the bar, that we are pushing the boundaries, that we are looking out to the horizon at everything that could be, are we getting after it? Are we seeing all of these things, are we lifting up our eyes from being locked into the crisis that’s right around us?
What we see right in front of us, these Creatives have an incredible ability to help us lift our eyes to the future and the possibilities to scan the horizon for opportunities and threats and make sure we are ready to move confidently and boldly out into the future. They’re going to give us ideas. The Pioneers will translate those ideas into concrete, strategic vision, but the Creative is going to give us the idea they’re going to help us see and be able to know what we could do, what we could be, who we could be. It’s a really powerful perspective.
Last but not least: the Nurturers. Nurtures make up 43% of our world. And they’re so others-focused. They’re so people-centric, they love to build a team and be collaborative. Their superpower is relational harmony. They want to make sure at the end of the day, we’re all getting together. Still. We’re getting along. We’re friends. We are collaborating effectively. They’re going to function like that. Relational oil inside the team.
They’re going to help us tap into what’s going to make this work better. What’s going to make this flow more efficiently. Do we need a meal? Do we need a break? Are you okay? Do you need some affirmation, some encouragement. They have that relational capacity to tap into what makes us tick. What makes us work? What makes us effective?
When you look at the whole big picture of all five superpowers, and you see what the intersection of those can do, when you see the possibilities from the Creative, they help you expand your vision. The Pioneer then strategizes that while the Connector pulls together, connections and resources, while the Guardian helps us stick to the plan, do our due diligence and the Nurturer makes sure the team is still collaborating and working together.
This is the power of team. This is the power we get. When we tap into who we truly are, who we have around the team and how we can be more efficient and more effective. When you hit your roadblock, tap into your superpowers. If your team hasn’t explored your five voices yet do that today at NewGenerationLeader.com/5voices. There’s a team 5 Voices Bootcamp that we would love to walk your team through to learn something, gain some insights into who you have around your team, so that when you hit your next crisis, you are ready to go.