03-Discovering and Utilizing Your Superpower

In the dynamic world of startups, where innovation and agility are paramount, understanding and leveraging your personal strengths can be your greatest asset. Jens Heitland, in a recent session from our Startup Leadership Bootcamp, introduced a compelling concept that could very well be the game-changer for startup leaders: Discovering and utilizing your personal superpower.

The Essence of Superpowers

Superpowers are not just the stuff of comic books and heroic tales; they are the inherent skills or talents that come naturally to each of us. These are the abilities that feel almost effortless, yet have a profound impact on what we do and how we connect with others. Jens shared his journey of self-discovery, tracing back to childhood, to uncover his superpower of connecting people. This innate ability to bring individuals together has not only enriched his personal life but has also been a cornerstone of his professional endeavors, from running a successful podcast to building vibrant communities around it.

Finding Your Superpower

The journey to discovering your superpower begins with introspection. Reflect on your life, from childhood to the present, and identify those activities that have consistently brought you joy and fulfillment. Jens suggests using a simple chart that maps out your life experiences, helping you visualize and pinpoint those moments that truly define your unique strengths.

Sharing and Utilizing Your Superpower

Understanding your superpower is just the beginning. The real magic happens when you start using this power in your daily life and work. For Jens, this meant creating platforms where people could connect, share, and grow together. For a startup leader, it could mean anything from innovative problem-solving to inspiring and motivating your team.

Jens emphasizes the importance of sharing your superpower with those around you—friends, family, team members. This not only deepens your relationships but also encourages a culture of openness and mutual support. In a startup environment, where teamwork and collaboration are key, recognizing and combining the superpowers of each team member can lead to unprecedented success.

The Impact of Superpowers in Business

In the fast-paced startup world, aligning your superpower with your business goals can give you a significant edge. Whether it's through leadership, innovation, or strategic networking, your superpower can be the catalyst for growth and success. Jens's experience is a testament to the power of leveraging personal strengths to build communities, foster connections, and drive business forward.

As startup leaders, we often focus on external factors—market trends, competition, funding—but Jens Heitland's insights remind us of the untapped potential within each of us. By discovering and harnessing our superpowers, we not only enhance our personal growth but also empower our teams and propel our businesses to new heights.

To dive deeper into Jens's journey and explore more about superpowers in the context of leadership and innovation, check out his podcast, "The Jens Heitland Show," and connect with him through his website and social media channels. Remember, your superpower is your unique contribution to the world; embrace it, share it, and watch the magic unfold in your startup journey.

Transcript:

 So superpower is the thing for yourself. That is not taking any single energy from you.  I always say, if you know your superpower, this is the most valuable thing for yourself because that's a thing you're naturally good at.  And I ask quite often this question, so what is your superpower?

I ask this for example today in the morning to a very old friend. I asked him, what is your superpower?  And we know each other for a long time. I've never asked him that question. And he didn't know. He is extremely successful in what he's doing, but he does not know what his superpower is.

And  he thanked me afterwards for asking this question. So  how do we get into superpower? We have two, two things. I always use this chart to enable you to find it. From childhood to today, there are a couple of things in your life which you have done, which you have seen, which you have experienced, which help you to find out.

Of course you can do this afterwards. If you have filled out this canvas, you can ask family members, you can ask brother, sister, siblings. You can ask mother, father, grandfather's friends who know you for quite a while, what they believe your superpower is. First, do it for yourself because it helps you to go deeper into that.

So  what do we have in my examples?  Here I go a little bit more into my superpower, just to give you an example. 

So take care of other people. So an activity when I was in the first school, which is called primary school in Germany. I took care of people who are.  Not obvious connected to the group. So I spent time in trying to integrate people into a group, into the class. People who came and moved into the city and haven't been connected to the rest of the class.

It's always difficult for people, or I still remember vividly, I'm not sure if he was Chinese or Japanese, definitely Asian. He moved with his family and they came when I think we were like seven, eight years old and he barely spoke German. So he needed someone who spent time with him and onboards him into the society.

So we spent a lot of time together and I tried to bring him into my friendships and really took care of him. So this is an example I did early on in, in childhood. And then as I grow I  organized  football. 

The football gathering Hey let's go out doing something after school. Let's meet for playing football. So I was always the trigger of organizing this, getting  everyone on board and as well, bringing people in that are not connected. Then of course,  both my first team  in a job, so I started working on construction sites and when I was starting working on construction sites as better, you work together in a bigger company on construction site.

If you need to move things quickly with the demand of finishing things on a construction site  as better, you work together as more,  you are a team as better than it is. So I found very quickly that hey, if we work together, if we enjoy working together, it's way easier and it way more fun. So I was organizing this things.

And then as well,  connecting friends  who benefit 

each other. So that was another thing,  and I still do this on a daily basis, connecting people together I'm doing this naturally. So this all topics which helps you to understand.

So my superpower, what I found out is connecting people, bringing people together, and helping people. So how do I utilize this and what I'm doing. One thing today, what I'm doing, I have a, a, a podcast, and within this podcast network, I'm building a community around the podcast guests. So it's guests only, it's only people who have been on my podcast.

I'm connecting all of them together. And the basic function is WhatsApp group.  The fascinating thing of that is I just do this naturally. I am saying, Hey, you should talk to this person because you might be beneficial to each other. You are talking about the same topic. Maybe you could help each other.

And there are people who have been building businesses together. There have been people who have worked together. They're like client relationships with each other. I just heard the other day that someone has rented out his holiday house for, I think it was like three or four people inside of the WhatsApp group, which is fascinating.

So that just gives you an example of my superpower, and you for sure have a superpower. Whatever it is you, this will help you to find it out. And then if we just link this two below, I'm just changing the color here.

So if you then link to what were the behaviors that are connecting to that activities. So here, for example, if we take care of other people integrating, for example, the Asian person, it was listening,  so I listened. And seeing some,  seeing someone struggle.  So just being there, and this sounds Like business thinking.

Of course I'm formulating that to you that it makes sense from a business perspective as a seven, eight year old boy, you're not thinking about these things. You're just like, do I like this person? Do I not like this person? And that's almost it. Do I want to play with that person? Does it make fun to, to  be connected to that person?

It's not that you're thinking, Hey, this person is struggling. I want to help them. But it's also the environment, how you grew up, how your parents treated you, how the parents grew you up. So there's a lot connected to that as well, especially early on then if we look into the football team, it was bringing people  into the game. 

So  in, in this case, it was, there are a couple of people who have not been connected to this. There, they wanted to play football, but they have never been asked. So I was bringing people in. Who have not been asked to do that. So you see there's already, obviously I've done this a couple of times, so I know exactly what my superpower is.

And for me it's quite easy to formulate a lot of things into this. But for you, it's most probably struggling the first couple of times to find out what it is. So go deeper into this, and if we just take the last one here is  build, building. My first team at a job. It was  a topic around diversity.

I have seen that people are good at certain things. So how do we combine, again our  superpowers and on a smaller level, from a, from an action perspective, how do we combine this, that it helps us to be more efficient in what we are doing? So use this canvas for yourself. Find out your superpower. 

Do it first alone. I really encourage you to do that alone. Then share it with people you love.  That's the easiest level. Share it with people and maybe not share it straight away. Just ask them, what do you think my superpower is? And listen to what they're saying. Try to ask them a couple of questions.

How did you get to that example? Why do you think that is my superpower? I often hear when you talk to your parents that they can tell you a hundred percent what your superpower is, but they have never told you. So having that conversation with family members with best friends is fascinating. And it's a good conversation started as well.

If you do this with your teams, so if you do this with your co-founders, hey, what is your superpower? How can we combine our superpowers? Has our superpower, something to do with our business? Which of course is then the ultimate opportunity for you.