Summon Your Superpowers

As with the superheroes you may have admired as a child, success will require “superpowers” like vaulting over really tall obstacles and having faith that, with the right tools, you can soar like they did. But you can’t soar unless you first leap. LEAP stands for Leadership Effectiveness And Potential. Within the LEAP framework, four types of mastery help us advance to the leading edge of performance:

1. PERSONAL MASTERY: Exercising commitment, curiosity, and courage to become the best version of ourselves we can possibly be.
2. INTERPERSONAL MASTERY: Connecting, communicating, and collaborating with others to achieve individual and organizational goals.
3. ORGANIZATIONAL MASTERY: Understanding the people, processes, and products within our work environments and how they’re all connected in supplying our customers with exactly what they need at exactly the right time.

1. MOTIVATIONAL MASTERY: Engaging, elevating, and energizing those around us so they, too, strive to be their best selves and unite with others to reach important missions.

I consistently use the term “mastery” for that’s truly what we’re after. It’s like the traditional craftsman system for artists, stonemasons, and carpenters, among others, where one apprenticed oneself to a master and completed the learning process by becoming a journeyman and ultimately a master. There you learned specific skills and techniques, whereas here, as you continue your leadership journey, you will work with intention toward mastery of the beliefs, approaches, knowledge, and actions that will allow you to expand your results, leverage your relationships, integrate the elements of your work environment, and inspire improved performance in those around you. Mastery in all the four areas of LEAP advances us toward the leading edge of effectiveness.

Some of us want nothing more than the appearance of some super­human being drafted out of the comic book pages to fly in, apply extraneous strength, and put the crashing plane back on course. Those sorts of superheroes only exist in comic books and in the movies. The real-life versions look exactly like you and me, and when we master the lessons of LEAP, we boost our superpowers. And you can master them. The core concepts are not difficult in theory, though they take real commitment to apply consistently in our lives.

FIRST STEPS TOWARD SUPERHERO POWERS

We must first establish a commitment to ourselves. This is no easy task. There is no one in the workforce today who doesn’t struggle, at least from time to time, with commitment to self— mind, body, spirit, and values. It’s a struggle. You must take care of yourself before you can grow as a leader and take care of and inspire others. Without commitment there can be no mastery. Self-commitment is the starting point. But how do you get there?

STEP 1: Understand you are a superhero to someone. Maybe it’s to your child. Maybe it’s to an intern in the office. Part of being a superhero is noticing those around you and mentoring them to be superheroes, too.

STEP 2: Recognize that to soar, to unleash your inner superhero, you must evolve. An inherent part of the commitment I am asking you to make is twofold: to evaluate where you are in your leadership development now and to accept the need for transformation. Whether we’re talking about Clark Kent becoming Superman or Diana Prince turning into Wonder Woman, transformation means a willingness to let go of your fear of change and your acceptance of the status quo. It means embracing your superpowers.

STEP 3: Superpowers are amplified with clear intention. When I talk about intention, I always say, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” What is will? Will is intention. If I want clear intention, I get focused on my goal with such unbending purpose that I refuse to fail, no matter what. Our results are related to the intentions that preceded them. Success requires that we get clear about the results we choose to create. Imagine you are habitually late and declare to the world that from now on you will be honor-bound to being on-time, not blaming any outside forces.

Overall, what do you want to be, do, and have? Per­sonally, I’m on a mission to be my best, do great things, and have meaningful success. Our success hinges on the clarity of our answers to this question. This is true at home, at work, and in all areas of our lives. Clear intention starts with what you want.