An Often-Overlooked Superpower

We talk a lot about playing to your strengths—with an emphasis on our domain expertise. Still, there is an often-overlooked superpower. The ability to collaborate, make other people look good, and be what Liz Wiseman calls a 'multiplier.’ Given that we don't collaborate well often when it is a strength, collaboration is distinctive. The good news is, even if you’re not a great collaborator today, it doesn’t mean you can’t develop the skill and turn it into a strength.

In my conversation with Chris Yeh on the Disrupt Yourself podcast, we discussed an article by Michael Lewis, “The No Stats All-Star.” The article talks about Shane Battier, a basketball player who played for the Houston Rockets. When he was named an all-star, people were confused. They would remark, “But he doesn’t have any stats.” When you dug deeper, you saw that he did have impressive stats. They just were not the ones to which we often pay attention. Shane’s statistics did not put him on the front page, but what he did in the background made his opponents worse and his teammates better. Shane was a collaborator, and he was gritty. Shane excelled because he developed the skills his team needed rather than trying to outshine his superstar teammates.

His ability to meet the unmet needs of the team led people to call Shane “Lego” because when he was on the court, all the pieces fit.?

From what I understand about Chris Yeh, he has a similar impact on a team. He co-authored two books,? The Alliance with Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha and Blitz Scaling with Reid Hoffman. When Chris is around and collaborating, things work better.?

It’s true, Chris has the strength of collaboration, but it hasn’t always been that way.?

Chris shared, “This is something that I came to later in life. When I started, I was a young child genius-type, full of ego and arrogance. I always believed I was better and smarter than everyone else. And this was something that had carried me quite a long way because in this world, if you're really smart, you can do many things and get away with a lot of things.” It wasn’t until he was at Stanford that Chris started to consider what strengths he might need in addition to his intellect.?

When Chris decided his intellect wasn’t enough - he needed to learn to make others better, to be a Lego. Once he recognized the value and importance of strengthening his ability to collaborate, he had to work at it.

How did he create the distinctive strength of collaboration??

First, he began to do improvisational comedy. He told me, “One of the things you quickly learn in improv comedy is that if you try just to go ahead and attract attention to yourself and be funny on stage, that's one of the worst things to do for being funny. The way you succeed in improv is you support everyone else around you, and everyone collaborates.”? Through improv, he began to understand the importance of empathy.?

In addition to improvisation, Chris got involved in a peer counseling program, where he learned how to be an active listener.?

The combination of empathy, and active listening, completely changed Chris’ worldview and made him realize, "you can accomplish a lot more in this world by building things with others, by collaborating, than simply relying on your own genius.”?

Chris and I have had several conversations throughout the years, and I assumed that he has always been an excellent collaborator. So, it was encouraging to hear that he had to do some self-disruption to get to this point, a stint in both peer-to-peer counseling and stand-up comedy. He is a good reminder that if we see an unmet need and we're willing to do the work, we always have the opportunity to improve to meet that need. In fact, we should continually get better, grow, and develop our team’s unmet needs into a distinctive strength.?

When you see a need or an opportunity to improve your effectiveness, the greatest disruptors work to develop that skill.?

What skills can you develop that would make you more like a Lego?

How can you make collaboration your superpower??

How can you continuously find ways to address unmet needs?