Mindy Zhang supported Dropbox and Oscar Health scale their products and business lines. She noticed that a leader’s strengths at one stage often became their Achilles’ Heels as the company grew.
Sharing a meaningful exercise from Mindy’s recent Skye workshop: “Your Superpower vs. Achilles Heel.”
To begin, ask yourself the following questions about your leadership style:
What is my Superpower?
Example: “I love taking on a challenge, new ideas, and embracing change.”
What is my Achilles Heel?
Example: “I shared a brilliant new idea yesterday. Why hasn’t it been executed yet?
Here’s Mindy’s list of Superpowers and corresponding Achilles Heels:
– Openness and accountability vs. self-criticism, difficulty
– Need for achievement vs. burnout, imposter syndrome
– Conviction in your vision vs. overconfident, ignorance of counter-evidence
– Love of change and novelty vs. lack of focus, impatient and new ideas
– Scrappiness vs. band-aids that don’t scale
– Empathy vs. people-pleasing, burnout from taking others’ emotions
A few more q’s and considerations:
What situations trigger the flip to activate your Superpower vs. your Achilles heel?
When does your Superpower become your Achilles Heel?
– When we use it on autopilot
– When we take it to an unhealthy extreme
So, how do you evolve your leadership?
– Gain awareness of your Superpowers and Achilles Heels
– Identify what situations tend to trigger the flip
– Intercept the Achilles Heel with a new behavior
I indeed related to a lot of the above! What’s your Superpower vs. Achilles Heel?
