Embrace Your Superpowers: Teachers Deserve to Flourish!

Crush the Myth that Educators Never Prosper

Grow Stronger, Better, Faster

So, how do you figure out what works for you?

In their book Hacking Deficit Thinking: 8 Reframes that will Change the Way You Think About Strengths-Base Practices and Equity in Schools, Byron McClure and Kelsie Reed share actionable steps to name, know, and use your strengths. The key is to understand your current mindset, shift away from deficit thinking, and move toward owning your strengths. Best of all, figuring out your strengths will then help you flourish in every area of your life.

Step 1: Identify your strengths.

Before you can understand your strengths, first you must name them. One way to figure this out is (you guessed it) to take an assessment. Here are three we recommend:

CliftonStrengths Assessment:

• This online assessment typically takes anywhere from thirty to sixty minutes to complete.
• It has paired statements, and you select which statement describes you the best.
• It helps you discover what you naturally do best by measuring the patterns of how you think, feel, and behave in various situations.
• The most valuable and memorable part is that it names your top five strengths.
• The only drawback is a nominal fee, and you have to pay more if you want access to the full results (top thirty-four themes, not just your top five).

While it does cost, this assessment is valuable because it provides you with a comprehensive and customized report containing the detailed results of your assessment.

Enneagram Assessment:

• One of the most popular systems for classifying personality types.
• The strength-based assessment provides nine different personality types within the Enneagram theory divided by Heart Types, Head Types, and Body Types.
• Each personality type is defined by a particular core belief about the world and how it works.
• The Enneagram offers self-knowledge and personal and professional development to better understand your core motivations. You then apply that knowledge to all areas of life, including conflict resolution, team dynamics, leadership, and emotional intelligence. 

Values in Action (VIA) Character Strengths Survey:

• Developed by notable psychologists Martin Seligman and Chris Peterson, it strives to identify what’s right with people by classifying their positive traits.
• The survey measures twenty-four character strengths in individuals.
• Seligman and Peterson believe we all possess these character strengths and link them to personal growth, well-being, and life satisfaction.
• The VIA is free and has been widely researched and validated.
• There is also version for children called the VIA Youth Survey.

Step 2: Ask a friend or colleague to describe your strengths.

If you don’t like taking assessments or don’t want to pay for them, then asking someone close to you is a useful way to gain insight.

Get started by asking friends, family, loved ones, or colleagues what they think your strengths are. This is a useful method, especially if it is challenging for you to be introspective personally.

You might also consider feedback from a superior or school leader. Many schools and companies have regularly scheduled performance reviews and evaluations. If you have a healthy relationship with these individuals and they conduct performance reviews objectively and fairly, then it might be worth considering their input.

Step 3: Understand your strengths.

Once you name your positive assets, you can begin to understand them to give you a sense of purpose.

Just think:

• If you don’t know your strengths, how can you express the amazing things you know you can do?
• How can you know what potential roles and responsibilities fit with who you are and what you love?
• How can you lead others in a way that aligns with your strengths if you don’t know what they are?
• How can you help students succeed using their strengths if you don’t know your own?

For example, say that one of your top CliftonStrengths is Relator. That means you thrive on relationships, get along well with others, and find satisfaction in working as part of a team to reach a goal.

 

You as a Relator will most likely thrive and find meaning when working with others, collaborating, and navigating social settings that might otherwise be difficult for non-Relators. Working alone and in isolation is not for you.

Knowing your strengths is essential to knowing who you are and where your abilities lie. Simply put, you can put yourself in situations (or possibly even remove yourself) where you are more likely (or unlikely) to find success and thrive.

Reflect on your top strengths and how you have used them in your life. Here are a few excellent questions to help you reflect and better understand your assets:

• What has given you the most energy in your life?
• What are the earliest memories you have of your strengths?
• Who were you before the world told you who to be?
• When, if ever, have your strengths gone dark? Why?
• Name one strength and how you can begin using it more often.

Step 4: Apply your strengths to make an immediate impact.

Once you have taken a strength-based assessment and can name your top strengths, you’re ready to begin applying them to make a difference right away. Here’s how you can begin:

Share your strengths:

Have you ever been looked over for a job or task you know you would’ve been great at? One reason could simply be because someone is unaware of your strengths.

Imagine, for example, that one of your top CliftonStrengths is Strategic. Strategic people are exceptional at recognizing patterns, navigating hurdles, and accomplishing goals because they know where they should start and can create a plan through to the finish line. In a workplace, the pro is that Strategic people are exceptional at recognizing potential pitfalls or gaps in plans.

 

The con is that they might be more introverted and risk-averse. Even more, Strategic people have difficulty functioning when there isn’t a plan. Others who do not have this strength may see Strategic coworkers as problematic, not being team players, or combative.

Knowing the strengths of each member in a group can help teams and organizations effectively leverage their strengths. 

The bottom line is to be proactive with your strengths and realize it’s okay to set the tone for how you use them.

Write a personal mission statement using your strengths:

Just as organizations and companies create mission statements to guide their decisions and inform their internal teams and external audiences about their purpose, you can develop a personal mission statement to guide your decisions and share your intent.

Your mission statement describes what you hope to accomplish simply and concisely. Once you know your strengths, you align your strengths with your purpose by working them into your mission statement.

Take the PERMA assessments and reflect on the results:

The Authentic Happiness website developed by Martin Seligman’s team at the University of Pennsylvania offers a variety of assessments and surveys through their questionnaire center. The website offers three tools you can use for free to measure flourishing:

• the PERMA Survey, which measures your five aspects of flourishing
• the PERMA Meter, a quick assessment
• the Workplace PERMA Profile to help you determine how much you’re flourishing at work

When you’re done, review the results and reflect on their implications: 

• What areas are you flourishing in?
• In what areas would you like to flourish more?

These questions will help you take action to increase your flourishing.

Step 5: Choose a flourishing activity:

The good news is that each one of us can increase our level of flourishing, happiness, and well-being. Here are a few ideas you can put into action today:

Say thank you to someone: Whether through a note, a call, or face to face, saying a simple thank you will make both of you happier.

Practice the Three Good Things Activity: Every night before you go to sleep, think of Three Good Things that happened to you and write them down. Reflect on your role in why those good things happened so you can generate even more of them in your life.

Accomplish daily random acts of kindness: It’s not just a trite bumper sticker; it’s also a great way to live. You’d be surprised at how good it makes you feel to simply pick up a piece of trash, hold a door for someone, make a phone call or smile at the bank teller. 

Volunteer: We can't say it any better than Mahatma Gandhi:

The Final Word

It’s not selfish or vain to figure out what you’re good at. When you understand your strengths, you move from a position of simply surviving to thriving in your life. You deserve to thrive. You deserve to know your top strengths, what they mean, and how best to put them into action.

Learn more with Hacking Deficit Thinking: 8 Reframes that will Change the Way You Think About Strengths-Base Practices and Equity in Schools:

 What are You Waiting for? Get the Reframes!

Read More

• McClure, Byron, and Kelsie Reed. 2022. Hacking Deficit Thinking: 8 Reframes That Will Change the Way You Think about Strength-Based Practices and Equity in Schools. Times 10 Publications.
• “Reimagine Success: The Role of Equity and High Expectations to Overcome Deficit Thinking.” 10 Publications blog post. January 20, 2025.
• Seligman, Martin. 2011. Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being. Atria.
• “The Feng Shui Fix: Easy Steps to Create a Positive, Energized Space.” 10 Publications blog post. December 29, 2024.
• Wei Huang, Jessica. “4 Practices of Warm Demander Teachers.” November 28, 2023. Edutopia. 

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Unlocking Happiness with Flow

World-renowned psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi described eight characteristics of flow: 

• Complete concentration: Being fully absorbed in the task at hand. 
• Clear goals: Having a clear understanding of what you are trying to do. 
  Immediate feedback: Receiving feedback on your performance in real time. 
• Balance of challenge and skill: Having a good match between the level of challenge and your skills. 
• Effortlessness: Feeling like the task is easy to do. 
• Sense of control: Feeling like you are in control of the task. 
• Altered perception of time: Experiencing a change in how time seems to pass. 
• Merging of action and awareness: Being so involved in the task that your actions and awareness become one. 
• Intrinsic reward: Finding the experience inherently rewarding. 

Csikszentmihalyi's theory of flow suggests that people experience optimal learning and enjoyment when they are in a state of flow. Not surprisingly, he called this state a "flow experience." 

Join almost 300,000 viewers who have learned about his theories in his 18 minute, 55 second TED Talk:

The Superpower of Teachers

You can find this quote everywhere: school staff rooms, X posts, teachstarter.com, Facebook memes and more. We don’t know who was the first to say or write it, but it’s still just as true and just as meaningful.

Resources

• Part of this post’s content was taken from Hacking Deficit Thinking: 8 Reframes That Will Change the Way You Think about Strength-Based Practices and Equity in Schools by Byron McClure and Kelsie Reed.
• Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. “TED Talk – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – Flow – 2004.” YouTube. October 4, 2015. 
• Flow book cover image from Harper Perennial Modern Classics.
• Mahatma Gandhi quote image by Brainy Quote.
• POW image by Image by Tyrus from Pixabay.
• Teachers quote image from teachstarter.com.

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