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Unlocking your superpowers
Great people don't burn out from hard work. They burn out from the wrong work.
Every key person has a natural way of getting things done. Spend too much of the week working against it and the cost shows up as dread, procrastination, lost revenue — and eventually, a resignation.
Richard's story
A square peg, until age 33.
For most of his life, Richard felt pushed down paths that didn't fit how he naturally works — labelled disorganized and scattered, with a tornado of ideas and no way to explain it.
In life insurance, the paperwork was the problem. Forms, scanning, documenting, making sure nothing was missed. He dreaded it so much that he postponed booking the client applications that were the only thing producing revenue. The work wasn't hard. It was the wrong kind of work for him — and it cost far more energy than the hours suggested.
Discovering the Kolbe A™ Index gave him the language for it. Today, as a Kolbe Certified™ Consultant, he helps founders and teams find where their energy produces the most value.
Three parts of the mind
Thinking (cognitive) — skills, knowledge, experience.
Feeling (affective) — personality, values, preferences.
Doing (conative) — how you instinctively take action. This is where the energy drain hides.
What a superpower actually is
Not one score. A combination.
A superpower isn't a single Kolbe number. It comes from how all four Action Modes work together, combined with talents, thinking style and what motivates you. Kolbe is the fastest way to see where that superpower will show up and create value — because it measures action.
Follow Thru
How you organize and systematize.
Quick Start
How you deal with risk and uncertainty.
Implementor
How you handle space and tangibles.
Other lenses Richard uses alongside Kolbe: Working Genius (Patrick Lencioni), CliftonStrengths (Gallup), Kairos Cognition and PRINT®. Names and concepts remain the property of their owners. There is no high or low in Kolbe — your instincts are what they are.
Energy drain simulator
Watch what happens to a great team member over time.
Pick an example, then move the sliders. Friction drains energy, less energy means less joy, and without challenge or growth the slide speeds up.
Strong Quick Start, counteracting Follow Thru — like Richard (3-3-8-6). Work against their grain: forms, compliance paperwork, scanning and documenting, rigid checklists.
Energy left at the end of the week53%
Life quotient — how often they enjoy the work52%
Each hour against their grain costs about 4× the energy. This week that's 36 extra hours' worth of energy spent on 12 hours of work. They fit their role 70% of the time — the other 30% they're a square peg in a round hole.
Burning out
👤
Your largest competitor
Weekends become recovery time. Highly skilled, still delivering — and quietly disengaging.
What it costs
Dreads the paperwork, postpones the client meetings that create it — and revenue stalls.
What changes it
Remove, automate or hand off the paperwork so the innovator stays in front of clients.
Illustrative model, not a Kolbe result or a prediction for any individual. It shows how friction, energy and purpose combine over time.
A team example
Chris and Sarah weren't difficult. They were different.
Chris, the creative lead, generated a constant stream of new ideas and changes — often to work the team had already agreed. Sarah, a meticulous planner, needed structure and closure. Frustration built on both sides, even though they liked and respected each other.
Once they saw how each of them was wired, the conversation moved from emotion to design. Chris agreed to capture ideas first and run the important ones through Dan Sullivan's Impact Filter™ before bringing them to the team. Sarah got the stable plan she needed to deliver.
Illustrative story from Richard's original guide. Impact Filter™ is a Strategic Coach® concept by Dan Sullivan.
Questions worth asking
Which recurring task does your best person keep postponing?
Who is quietly carrying work that drains them?
What would change if they spent that time on work that fits?
Who would you least want to lose to your largest competitor?
Find the friction before it costs you a great person.
In the Maximum Leverage X-Ray, Richard looks at the people, the work and the systems together — and starts building leverage immediately.
Download the original guide: Unlocking Your Entrepreneurial Potential (PDF, 28 MB)