How to debrief a Superpower profile so a senior client hears real insight
This is for you when a senior client opens a Superpower profile and you can see the doubt: real read, or flattery? You want a debrief that lands as insight, not praise they nod at and forget.
A Superpower profile is built to sound like praise: a rare combination, and how few share it. To a skeptic, that reads as buttering-up and slides off.
The report cannot fix that; only the debrief can. Make the client prove each named strength, one moment at a time. A rare strength stops being flattery the second it is tied to a Tuesday they can name.
Four beats. Hold them as a spine, not a script.
Beat 1: put the doubt on the table. Do not open on the headline; it sounds most like flattery. Open on the skepticism: "Reading this, how much felt like a mirror, and how much felt like buttering you up?"
Beat 2: make them earn the strength. Open their Strengths, ranked by rarity. Take the top one or two and ask for one real moment last quarter when each was true. The ones they can back are the real read; the ones they cannot, you say so.
Beat 3: walk them into the Superpower. Open one of their Superpowers, the rare combination most likely to land as flattery. Do not read it at them; ask: "When did this show up? Walk me to the moment."
Beat 4: close on their sentence, proof attached. Have them say the Superpower in their own words and pin one moment to it: "I am the person who ___, and I know it because ___." That last part is proof that survives the drive home.
When you finish, you hold a run-sheet for any debrief. The client holds their rare strength, backed by a moment only they could give. That is insight.
Coaching questions
A bank to pull from, not run in order. Once one lands, follow it.
When it reads as flattery
- Which line did you most want to argue with?
- If a skeptic read this about you, where would they call it generous?
Making them prove it
- Who was in the room the last time this was true?
- What would it have looked like if this were not true of you?
When they deflect the praise
- You just called that luck. What did you actually do?
Landing it in their own words
- Say it back the way you would say it to someone who knows your work.
