This is a replay of an episode about our strengths as our superpowers and it is a useful precursor to the next podcast discussion where my guest will talk about them as natural talents. This replay episode was triggered by two interactions that made me think more about the importance of knowing our own unique superpowers (as Aaron Quigley discussed), ie our strengths, and also our kryptonite (thanks Lewis Chuang), and how this can help us work out what is our good academic life. And to recognise that we can all have different superpowers. Before getting to the replay I also report on some lovely feedback from the episodes with Graham McAllister.

00:29 Introduction

01:39 Update from episodes with Graham McAllister

05:21 Replay - Strengths as Superpowers

06:49 Kyrptonite and Superpowers

08:19 What are your superpowers?

14:29 Other notes about strengths as superpowers

17:21 Summary and pointer to ways to explore strengths

19:25 Additional Pointers

22:05 Outro

Related Links:

The twitter thread started by Lewis Chuang

Aaron Quigley podcast conversation

Mike Twidale podcast conversation

VIA Character Strengths Survey

Strengthscope Strengths assessment tools

Related Work:

Michelle McQuaid, 2014, Ten Reasons to Focus on Your Strengths No matter what your job description says, Psychology Today.

Jeremy Sutton, 2021, Cultivating Strengths at Work: 10+ Examples and Ideas, PositivePsychology.com.

Ryan M. Niemiec, 2020, Coronavirus Coping: 6 Ways Your Strengths Will Help You Turn to your best qualities for prevention, safety, and health. Psychology Today.

Welcome to Changing Academic Life.

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I'm Geraldine Fitzpatrick, and this is

a podcast series where academics and

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others share their stories, provide

ideas, and provoke discussions about what

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we can do individually and collectively

to change academic life for the better.

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I have a wonderful conversation already

recorded, and I had hoped to get it out

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to you last week, but I've been traveling

both for holidays and at a conference and

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haven't had time to finish processing it.

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What I'm going to do though is

replay a past episode where we talked

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about strengths and how we can talk

about strengths as our superpowers.

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Strengths being something that

we are not just good at, but

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that we really love doing.

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And I've chosen this as a replay

because my guest that will be coming

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up next talks about them using the

language of natural talents, and whether

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you call them strengths or natural

talents, they're really important

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to understand and become aware of.

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Because of how we can use that

awareness to shape our work and our

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choices, to enable us to really be

at our best and to make our best

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contributions, and also to recognize

when we may overuse our strengths a

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bit and how they may work against us.

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Before I start that replay though, I

just wanted to give you a quick update.

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If you remember the discussions with

Graham McAllister in recent episodes.

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He talked about the significant impact

that the late Gary Marsden had on him

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and his regret at never actually being

able to tell Gary himself about that.

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After those episodes went out, I

reached out to someone who knew Gary

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Marsden's family, and I asked if he

would share the episodes with them.

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The feedback from them

was really touching.

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Gary's wife said, and to quote.

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Thanks so much for sending this.

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How wonderful.

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It means so much end quote.

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And that so much was in capital letters

with three exclamation marks afterwards.

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Gary's son also reached out to

Graham directly and said to quote,

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there's no way to tell Gary the many

things we wish we could tell him.

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Knowing him, I doubt he would've

been comfortable accepting that

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he had a big impact, but hearing

your stories keeps him alive.

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For me, my sister and my mother.

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Thank you for keeping him

alive for everyone, even if

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it seems like a simple story.

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So that just reinforces the

importance of . Reaching out to

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people and letting them know.

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And I can also share my own

experience of that last week.

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While I was at the conference, quite a

few people came up to me and just said

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about how much the podcast meant to them

and made some quite specific comments

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about the ways in which it mattered.

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I.

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And I'd love to share one . Feedback

on that, which was handwritten on a

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beautiful hand painted postcard and

where the person had gone to quite

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significant effort to try to seek me

out at the conference to let me know.

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And to quote from that postcard.

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Thank you for inspiring a

culture that values everyone

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being their own unique selves.

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Forging new stories, journeys.

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Every once in a while when I feel

lost, not knowing what next Changing

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academic life offers that Ray of

Hope reminding me that work just like

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life is serendipitous in many ways.

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End quote.

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And that feedback really touched

me and made the work so worthwhile.

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All of this reinforces the message that

we are trying to get out in the discussion

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with Graham, that if there is someone

who's had an impact on your life, reach

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out to them and just let them know.

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It can mean a lot.

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So now to get to the replay about

our strengths as our superpowers.

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Or as my next guest will talk

about them as our natural talents.

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Enjoy.

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So where do you naturally

choose to spend your time?

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When you have the option of

making a choice, what do you

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naturally gravitate to doing?

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Where's your happy place or places

as an academic, what is it that

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you really love doing when you feel

the most alive and in the flow?

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Maybe I.

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I wanted to muse on this today

triggered by two different, but I think

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related interactions from last week.

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One was a discussion, uh, with a senior

professor whose colleague made a comment

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to, to them that they should be writing

more and notice the should, but for

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this senior academic they would always

choose, they said to spend time with

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their students, not sitting down writing

another paper yet, even though they were

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really clear on this as their own choice,

they, they felt that, um, they still

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felt somehow that they weren't measuring

up to what an academic should be.

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Again, the should.

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The other example was a Twitter

discussion, responding to the conversation

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with Aaron Quigley, where he talked

about his superpowers of not worrying who

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gets the credit, listening and talking.

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And Lewis Chuang started a Twitter

conversation around superpowers.

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And interestingly also asked

Aaron, what's his kryptonite?

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I love this nod to the Superman comics.

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So if you remember, kryptonite

is Superman's Achilles heel.

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It made him weak and all sorts

of different types of kryptonite

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emerged over the series having

different effects on Superman.

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And then in some, some of the episodes,

he could become immune or found out

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he could be immune from kryptonite

by traveling to alternate dimensions.

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I think a generic kryptonite for many

of us as academics is thinking that

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there must be some ideal super academic

that we all should be aspiring to.

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And this isn't helped by the hyper

competitive culture and the generic

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metrics that we all have to report to.

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And I would suggest that we can get

some immunity from this kryptonite by

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traveling to the alternate dimension of

knowing ourselves better and identifying

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what are our unique superpowers.

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Looking to where we get our energy

from in doing our academic work.

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And also knowing what's our kryptonite.

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It's more specifically, and having mid

mitigation strategies against this.

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I really strongly believe and promote

that there's no ideal academic

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that we should all be aspiring to.

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We're all unique and we need

the diverse mix of us all to

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deliver good science overall.

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So what are your superpowers?

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The questions I started with can be

one way to start to reflect on this.

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So for example, when you do have the

option of making a choice of how you spend

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your time or the opportunity to volunteer

to something, what sort of things

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do you naturally gravitate to doing?

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Where's your happy place?

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What is it that you really love

doing that makes you feel alive and

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where you really get in the flow?

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I.

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If I think of people I've worked with

over the years, I know that there's

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one person I'll always find in the

maker lab if they have free time

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because this is what lights them up.

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Another person I know will be there

behind their closed door, sitting at their

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desk and reveling in the time to write.

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And for me, I know that I will

always prioritize time for people and

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mentoring over writing or tinkering.

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None of us are better or worse

academics than the other.

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We're just different, and we bring

different superpowers to our work.

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So I can also give another

illustration too that just might

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help make this more concrete.

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So all of us work who are

working in universities might be

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required to do some lecturing.

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And so on the surface, by role

title and by task, it might look

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like that is all pretty much the

same, the same job of lecturing.

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But if you actually ask around to the

people that you know and ask them what is

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it about lecturing that they really like?

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If they, if they like it.

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And I'm sure that you will

get a whole range of answers.

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So some of the answers that I've heard

to this question, you know, some people

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love the, the aspect of actually standing

up in front of the class and performing

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in a way and engaging this class.

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Other people will talk about , it's

really the, the interaction with the

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students and facilitating learning

conversations For others, it's about

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breaking down complex ideas into teachable

chunks and how to communicate that.

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For others, it's the creative work

of developing learning materials,

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innovative learning materials.

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Or it might be the strategic

planning of the whole learning

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journey for the student.

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And that sort of, that strategic

thinking is what really,

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um, you know, drives people.

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Or it might be that you are

just motivated by inspiring

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the next generation of leaders.

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I'm sure you can come up with other

reasons and it'd be interesting

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to know what are your reasons.

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For anything we do, I would suggest

even in delivering to the metrics, the

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things that we have to do, we can still

ask ourselves though, what are the parts

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of this that we might actually love?

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And then look at how we can do more

of that in delivering to what we have

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to do, because that's where our energy

lies, and that's where we get to use

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our strengths and our superpowers.

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So in delivering to the metrics, it

may be really annoying and painful,

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but maybe I can also take the time

to celebrate for myself what it is

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that I've learned over the time.

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If love of learning is a, is a

strength for you, just as an example.

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So there's really strong evidence across

a lot of diverse literature in different

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countries, cultures, and with different

settings from students to businesses

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to, um, everyday life that points to

really strong benefits of knowing and

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using and developing your strengths.

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And the literature talks about

things like, you know, people

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who use their strengths more are

happier, experience less stress, feel

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healthier, have more energy, feel

more satisfied and more confident.

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Um, they're more creative and agile at

work and they experience more meaning

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at work and are more engaged as well.

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S So recognizing that we all have

different superpowers also reminds

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us that we don't have to be good or

excellent at everything, and that's

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completely okay, and that we all bring

very different interests and superpowers

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to our work, and that's the great value

of working in collaboration with others.

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I had a conversation for the podcast

with Mike Twidale some time ago, and

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he gave us a great example of how

we can put our different superpowers

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together to compliment one another.

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Just take a listen to this extract.

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I.

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I realized that, you know, one aspect

of delegation that I could do was

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delegate things to people who were

really good at doing this thing

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that I was really bad at doing.

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And that's partly recognizing

strengths and weaknesses in ourselves.

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And it, it was a struggle 'cause at

times I'm inclined to be very egocentric

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and think, well, if I hate doing it,

surely everybody else hates doing it too.

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So I am now going to ask them

to do this horrible thing.

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And then discovering this thing I think

is horrible is something they think

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is really nice and this that something

they think is horrible, I think is fun.

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So learning what it is that you know,

plays to other people's strengths.

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And there may be something that

everybody hates and that has to

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be dealt, but often there are

these sort of different strengths

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and skills that can be played to.

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So isn't that a great example?

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So it's also worth knowing that it's

not enough just to name our superpowers

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and assume that they're always fantastic

to use, or that we don't need to

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develop other skills if we need to.

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So two examples or caveats around

the whole notion of superpowers.

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One is.

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Not having some superpower doesn't

mean that we can't do something

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at all or that we couldn't learn.

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It just means that it doesn't come so

naturally to us and we'll have to put

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in more explicit effort to develop that.

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Programming, um, is an example for me.

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So I, I could learn how to do programming

and even be good at it, but I really

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had to draw on my superpower of

conscientiousness and persistence to

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put in the hard work to get through it

and to enjoy the sense of achievement

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at the end, even if I didn't enjoy the

process and it, it took explicit effort.

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I am also not so great at the bigger

picture, strategic thinking, and

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I could go on courses for this.

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And luckily, so far, like Mike's ex

example, I've been able to work with other

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people who are better at this and to,

uh, compliment our strengths together.

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The second caveat is that sometimes

our strengths or our superpowers

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can also be hidden kryptonite

for us if we overuse them.

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Or underuse them or use them unskillfully

or inappropriately in a specific context.

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So one of my superpowers is being really

curious and, and love, just love to learn.

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And what that means is I have really

eclectic interests and, you know, uh,

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have broad, uh, broad feel of lots of

what's going on in different areas.

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But the downside that I have to

watch out for is because I can be

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interested in all sorts of things.

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I'm really prone to going down rabbit

holes, and so I need to work much harder

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on staying in focus if there's something

I need to do and watching out for myself,

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going down a rabbit hole and wasting time.

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Another example is I think one of my

superpowers might be fairness, and that

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leads me to behave in particular ways

around people and with people you know,

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to, to see that things are just and fair.

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I.

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But it can also not serve me well

when I notice unfairness or injustice

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somewhere else, or feel like someone's

treated me unfairly and I can really

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end up ruminating and being very upset

and having sleepless nights around that.

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So I need to have strategies

for trying to manage that.

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So just having a superpower

doesn't mean that that's brilliant.

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You know, there, there are, you

know, there's lots of nuances around

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actually understanding and using

your superpowers to best advantage.

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So in summary, I.

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We all have our own particular superpowers

and our own particular kryptonite.

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And what I think is interesting in

all of the podcast conversations

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that I have, I how much we hear

this in different people's stories.

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Everyone has a different, a different

career path, different motivations

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for their choices, uh, different

sorts of things that really drive

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them and that they get excited about.

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And it's just a great reminder that

there's no such thing as the ideal

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academic or the good academic life.

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It's what's a good academic life to you.

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And this connects to

our related work today.

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As I said, there's a huge body of evidence

in the psychology and, and in the, you

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know, organizational business literature

about the power of using superpowers more.

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So I'm going to link to two popular

science articles that provide a broad

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overview or summary or discussion

of strengths, and also links to the

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underlying peer reviewed papers.

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And, uh, I said that some of the ways that

you can investigate your own superpowers

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is to just think about, um, the questions

that I ask, but you could also ask others.

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'cause often if we think something

comes so naturally to us, uh, we,

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we just take it for granted and

assume everyone can do that because

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it's just so effortless for us.

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So sometimes it needs other, we need

other people to reflect it back.

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And so there's a link in, in one of those

articles to an exercise called Reflected

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Best Self, where it helps you, it talks

about how you can go and talk to other

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people about helping you identify your

strengths and the articles also point to

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some online profile profiling, uh, tools

that you may like to use as tools to

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think with that might start to point you.

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I will also link to a third article by

Ryan Niemiec, six ways your strengths

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will help you turn to your best qualities

for prevention, safety, and health.

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And that's the end of the replay.

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I'm going to add two additional

links to the webpage and there'll

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be the two different strengths

assessments that you might be

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interested in taking for yourself.

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You can also find many other

strengths assessment tools if

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you wanna do a search for them.

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Um, the first one I'll point to is called

the via VIA Character Strength Survey.

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It is free to take and it has a

significant research base behind it.

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As its name implies.

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It focuses particularly

on character strengths.

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The second strengths assessment

tools I'm going to point to

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are from strength scope.com.

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And for this one, you'll need to pay

and you need to access it through a

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certified strength scope coach who

also goes through the debrief with you.

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And for full disclosure, I

am a certified Strengthscope

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coach if you were interested.

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There are different versions of

the tool of strength scopes tools.

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Uh, you can use it as an individual.

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You can also do a strength scope team

assessment that enables you to identify

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the strengths across the team and

how you might make best use of those.

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And there's a strength scope leader

survey that particularly focuses as

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the name says, on the strengths that

leaders need to bring to their work.

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And there's an extension to the

leaders and the individual surveys

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that can include a 360 component.

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360 being where the feedback is asked

from people that you work with, both,

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um, people that you report to, your

peers, and people who report to you

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. One of the advantages of Strengthscope

and why I particularly like it is that

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it's a little bit more work oriented.

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Strengthscope is also the only

commercial strengths assessment

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tool that's registered with the

British Psychological Society.

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Whatever tool you use though, you'll

find that you'll gain some insights and

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they'll help you to understand what your

strengths might be, and also provide

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pointers for you to reflect on about

how you might make better use of those

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strengths once you have that awareness.

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So have fun exploring what might be

your strengths as your superpowers.

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Knowing that and making better use

of it can make all the difference.

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You can find the summary notes, a

transcript and related links for this

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podcast on www.changingacademiclife.com.

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You can also subscribe to Changing

Academic Life on iTunes, Spotify.

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And I'm really hoping that we can

widen the conversation about how

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we can do academia differently.

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And you can contribute to this by rating

the podcast and also giving feedback.

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And if something connected with

you, please consider sharing this

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podcast with your colleagues.

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Together we can make change happen.