Using Your Superpowers – Taking Action

In Learning Network by Jamie Mierau

I don’t have to be perfect. I have to act.

Being a high impact manager and leader isn’t about being perfect. It’s about making the best decisions you can and taking action.

The past two months we’ve explored the steps one and two of being a high impact manager and leader:

Step 1: Finding Your Focus
Step 2: Aligning Your Work

Use Your Superpowers

This month, we’ll delve into the third and final step: Using Your Superpowers – taking action.

We’ll let you in on the dirty little secret of leadership.

You don’t have to be perfect. But you have to act.

And using your superpowers is our shorthand for making the best decision you can at the time and taking action.

Everyone has superpowers—whether you’re early in your career or have decades of experience, whether you’re a cog in a big organization or an army of one. Using your superpowers is critical to being a high impact manager and leader.

Before we dive into our superpowers, let’s review the three steps to being a high impact manager and leader, which we’ve explored in detail in previous Learning Network issues.

Step 1: Finding Your Focus

Finding your focus is about clarifying your most important work (we call them imperatives). It’s jumping off the hamster wheel, taking things off your plate, and creating more space for your imperatives.

Step 2: Aligning Your Work

Aligning your work is recognizing that you are not working alone. Your organization is a system and you are part of that system. Alignment is your secret weapon. Wearing your X-Ray goggles to spot obstacles so you can set yourself up for success.

Step 3: Using Your Superpowers

Using your superpowers is about turning your focus and alignment into action. It’s about making the best decisions you can at the time rather than waiting for perfect information or conditions. It’s about using tools, systems, and methods to take effective action.

What does this look like in everyday life?

There are many ways high impact managers and leaders turn their focus and alignment into action. In fact, we have an eight-week course (The High Impact Manager) focused solely on that.

This month, we are sharing two powerful tools that can help you use your superpowers. We know these tools work. During our 25 years in the organizational development consulting business, Conservation Impact and Nonprofit Impact have helped thousands of organizations and people like you use these kinds of tools and we (and they) have seen results.

So, jump in, explore, and experiment! And share with us the challenges you face, how these tools help, and other tools that help you get off the hamster wheel and use your superpowers.