Why your superpower may actually be holding you back
Understanding Shadows of Superpower
This Lenny Rachitsky‘s podcast episode featuring the inimitable Nikhyl Singhal is one of the best episodes I have listened to.
Staying away from jargons and wishy-washy messages, this probes deeply into what makes a successful career and being more intentional about how we look at growing in careers
The concept I have reflected on the most is Shadows of Superpowers.
“… And I thought it was an incredibly powerful phrase that everyone focuses on your superpowers, but no one ever thinks about what shadows they create.
Shadows of superpowers to me is the story of a lot of executives. There’s an adage that’s thrown around, which is, what gets you there isn’t what got you here.
It’s sort of the tools that have made you successful today, you need to almost rebuild or relearn to get to the next phase.
….oftentimes people have a great superpower. They go into a performance review, person says, “You’re getting some feedback from your peers that you struggle in collaboration.”
And the manager even sometimes is puzzled, but the individual will say, “Are you kidding me? My last five performance reviews told me that I was one of the best collaborators in the company. How in the world is that possible?”
And then what you realise is that, “Well, you’re collaborating as long as people agreed with your point of view.
Now as a leader, we’re asking you to be opinionated, and because you just think you’re an amazing collaborator using the exact same tool set. And it turns out that when you’re dealing with senior people, that may not even be in your function, they may not be product, they may not be tech, they recoil, but you’re moving so fast because it’s your superpower.
You would never think that this needs to be rebuilt.”
What is the shadow of your superpower?
Do give this one a listen.
Also, highly recommend Nikhyl’s newsletter on substack – probably the only one I diligently read on the topic
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