Make Play Your Leadership Superpower

Be The Hero In Your Own Story

In the fast-paced world of business, leaders who can take bold action while maintaining a positive mindset are the ones who truly soar. But how do you reach those heights?

Try this: imagine you’re the hero in your own story, wielding incredible, interpersonal skills like superpowers that elevate your leadership. After 20 years supporting top executives, I can tell you that trying an imaginative and playful approach is one of the best ways to grow self-awareness and build confidence as a leader. If you’ve been curious enough to explore self-discovery- maybe you’ve been scored by DiSC, measured by Business Chemistry, assessed for Strengths, or even taken the Wonderlick- right on! You’re clearly an exceptional leader who goes the extra mile to work on yourself. We need more professionals like you.

No matter what you’ve learned about leadership so far, play could be the level up you’re looking for. That’s why I’m so inspired to share my philosophy on play as a leadership operating system, and it all starts with your mindset. By integrating play into your perspective and leadership approach, you can harness the power of a growth mindset, embrace visionary thinking, stay personally and professionally resilient, and inspire your team to take empowered, decisive action. Powerful, right?

So let’s dive into how game-based thinking can help you unleash your inner superhero.

The Power of a Growth Mindset

Think of a growth mindset as your hidden superpower, like the ability to see through walls or run faster than a speeding bullet. It’s the belief that your abilities and intelligence are never stuck or static- your leadership presence and impact can grow through dedication and hard work.

Leaders who embrace this mindset are like superheroes in training, always ready to tackle challenges head-on and see setbacks as opportunities to get stronger. Integrating play into your leadership strategy can significantly boost these powers of staying agile, creatively overcoming obstacles, and seeing the strategic bigger picture. If you can practice these positive mental skills yourself, that’s the first step to making play a superpower within your team.

Playful leadership can start as simply as imagining every obstacle as a puzzle to solve or a game to win. This mindset simply asks for you to look at problems from a new or unexpected angle. Sometimes, you’ll need to look at yourself from that new angle to figure out which side of your leadership needs to show up to save the day. Thinking as though you’re puzzle-solving assumes the best from ourselves and others. There’s a not a problem we can’t solve if we just stick with it. There’s not a skill we can’t learn if we just put in the effort.

That kind of positively persevering attitude is a must for a leader to inspire others. And I’m not the only one who see this connection. Carol Dweck’s research on the growth mindset shows that when leaders view their abilities as improvable, they inspire their teams to adopt the same perspective. As she puts it, her work “bridges developmental psychology, social psychology, and personality psychology, and examines the self-conceptions (or mindsets)… their role in motivation and self-regulation, and their impact on achievement and interpersonal processes.” It’s a researched-backed look at what drives bottom line results.

The findings support that teams and leaders who display a growth mindset consistently achieve more. I’m in the game of helping leaders build this skill.

Visionary Thinking Through Play

Every superhero needs a vision—a beacon of hope to guide them forward. Visionary thinking is about seeing beyond the horizon and crafting a compelling future.

Play stimulates creativity, imagination, and innovation which are essential for this kind of forward-thinking. One of the best environments to grow this kind of mental practice is through training and learning at work, especially leadership initiatives and retreats. It’s definitely helpful to set aside time and space away from the daily grind to learn about leadership and explore your vision.

By engaging in game-based learning, the impact raises up a notch because the exercises are hands-on. Leaders have a creative, supportive space to practice and refine their visionary skills in a low-stakes environment, making it easier to workshop new ideas, strawman a strategy, and eventually take bold and innovative action steps back in the real world.

Vision gets stronger when you take the time to play and think through all the possibilities. You learn to love options. Your ideas become more inclusive of others’ strengths and perspectives. This playful approach not only enhances your decision-making skills but also fosters a collaborative and innovative team environment. Introduce play as a way to foresee outcomes and impacts, and watch how this thinking can drive your team towards success.

Taking Inspired Action

What’s a superhero without the confidence to leap tall buildings or face a challenge head-on? Empowered leaders feel confident in their abilities and inspired to take decisive action. They go big or go home. They play for the win.

Game-based thinking also helps leaders stay in the fight when things get rough. That’s because, from the positive and resilient perspective of someone who plays, there’s no challenge that can’t be overcome. Play helps a leader build their strategy, see all the cards, and make the next move, knowing they’ll be another, and another, and another… Rather than getting stuck or sidetracked in a pivotal decision moment, they’ve practiced how to keep their head in the game.

Plus, as serious as a leader’s role is, there’s still something to be said for the power of fun at work. Teams can tell when their leader is engaged, passionate, and optimistic about the task at hand. When work feels like fun, productivity soars. Playful leaders intrinsically understand this. Playing well with others – and positive leadership that uplifts others- defines a superhero-level leader.

Okay, Let's Play!

Alright, here’s where the fun begins. Let’s harness the incredible power of play to elevate your leadership and supercharge your team's performance.

You’ve got three choices ahead of you – think, decide, or do. Pick one that resonates with you or try all three if you’re up for the challenge. Ready? Set? Let’s Go!

Ready: Remember The Game You’re In

• A leaders most important job is making other leaders who can make other leaders. (Thank you for that quote, Dr. Steven Brown)

Set: Get Your Head In The Game-Based Thinking

• What’s in your playbook for lifting others up?

Go: Play For Leadership Superpowers

• Put 5-10 minutes on the clock and use that time to write down all your leadership superpowers.
• Add an asterisk to the power moves that make a positive impact on others.
• Reflect on your skills each day this week- what superpowers do you need to add/improve to get the best out of your team?
• A simple way to know you’re winning is if all your leadership skills get the asterisk for positively impacting others, i.e. your strengths make others on your team better, too.

Your Call to Action: Play for the Win

You’ve read this far so here’s my dice roll: I want you to embrace a playful mindset and incorporate game-based thinking into your leadership style. When you do, you’ll see your team become more engaged, creative, and motivated. By fostering an environment that values play, you’re encouraging innovation, collaboration, and a positive work culture. Serious win.

Remember, the power of play isn’t just for games—it’s your superpower in disguise. You walk into the office with the spirit of a superhero, ready to tackle challenges with creativity and enthusiasm. So, don your cape, leap workplace obstacles in a single bound, and seek out the fun, the challenge, and the growth that comes with a playful approach to leadership. It’s your superpower waiting to help you reach the skies.

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Hey there! I’m Blair Bloomston, the creative mind behind the Play Uplifted blog, fueled by my 20+ years of experience as a game-based learning designer. The ideas and content? All mine. But I have to give a shoutout to my amazing assistant, ChatGPT, who swoops in to fix my typos and smooth out the grammar. Together, we’re here to elevate your leadership game. Cheers for collaborAItion at work!