The Kryptonite Reframe
Ask 'how does this serve me?' to convert a perceived weakness into a functional advantage — or decide to route around it.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 90%
Lichaw uses a superhero metaphor: your 'Kryptonite' is what you think makes you weak. Instead of denying or suppressing it (fake-it-till-you-make-it affirmations), you interrogate how the trait actually serves you. Many 'weaknesses' are functional habits or wired-in traits (impostor syndrome that drives learning; dyslexia that comes with big-picture spatial thinking). The framework sorts Kryptonite into two piles: 'inner' Kryptonite to embrace and use in small doses, and logistical Kryptonite to simply avoid, automate, or outsource.
Origin
Donna Lichaw's framework from The Leader's Journey (she has a full chapter on Kryptonite). The impostor-syndrome-as-functional angle is her counterintuitive extension; the underlying 'embrace what is' philosophy she credits to her gestalt coaching training.
Core principles
- 01What you think harms you often serves a function — like Kryptonite used in small doses to operate on Superman.
- 02A recurring detrimental habit persists because it's rewarding you somehow (an 'itch' you scratch); it only hurts when overdone.
- 03Don't deny Kryptonite (mechanical affirmations) and don't over-embrace it (burnout) — find the happy medium.
- 04Some traits classified as disorders (dyslexia, ADHD) are different operating modes that carry real strengths, not pure impairments.
- 05Separate Kryptonite you should embrace (inner traits) from Kryptonite you should just avoid/outsource (logistics like scheduling).
How to run it
- 1
Name the Kryptonite
Identify the trait, habit, or feeling you believe is holding you back — impostor syndrome, being 'too quiet,' hating email, poor scheduling, dyslexia.
- 2
Ask 'how does this serve me?'
Instead of trying to eliminate it, intercept the pattern and ask what function it performs. Impostor syndrome, for one co-founder, kicked her into action — she'd read 20 books, take a class, and level up, then feel less like an impostor.
Pro tip Catch it 'at just the right time' — the moment the feeling fires — and ask the question then.
- 3
Classify: embrace-in-small-doses vs. avoid/outsource
If the trait serves a real function (inner Kryptonite), keep it but dose it. If nothing about it serves you (Lichaw's own inability to schedule), don't introspect — just automate it, hire it out, or cut the toxic input.
Pro tip Logistical Kryptonite doesn't deserve a growth journey — 'I don't care, doesn't matter,' automate it and move on.
Watch out Over-embracing functional Kryptonite is the trap: the impostor-driven co-founder did 10x the necessary work, took on others' emotional labor, and burned out — a pattern Lichaw notes especially affects women.
- 4
Find the happy medium
Give yourself credit for the useful side (impostor syndrome signals you're at a growth edge) while capping the version that holds you back or exhausts you.
In the wild
A co-founder called herself an impostor whenever things got hard. Examining how it served her, she saw it always pushed her into action — reading, classes, podcasts — until she mastered the new thing and felt less like an impostor. The downside: she over-did it, playing COO, CFO and CEO at once and burning out.
→ She learned to treat impostor syndrome as a signal she was hitting a growth edge (embrace) while watching for the over-work version (cap).
Lichaw notes dyslexia is very common among CEOs. Rather than an impairment, it means the brain works spatially, big-picture, and visually. A founder isn't buried in documents all day, so struggling with big blocks of text matters little — and the visionary, spatial thinking is probably how they built the company.
→ The 'weakness' is reframed as the very trait that enabled the leadership role.
Common mistakes
Denying it with mechanical affirmations
Propping yourself up with 'I'm good enough, people like me' mirror affirmations is superficial; it doesn't examine why the pattern exists or what it's giving you.
Embracing it so hard it holds you back
The goal is a happy medium. Fully indulging impostor-driven overwork leads to burnout and taking on labor that isn't yours.
Is it for you?
Best for
High-achievers and founders who label a trait or feeling (impostor syndrome, a 'quirk,' a diagnosis) as a weakness and try to suppress it.
Not ideal for
Genuinely harmful behaviors that need to be stopped rather than reframed, or logistical gaps better solved by outsourcing than introspection.
From the transcript
“how does it serve you that's it's a question that it's so important and so so powerful”
“the things that we think harm us actually when we look at how they serve us they can serve a function”
“the trick is to with imposter syndrome to not deny it to embrace it as much as you can but not embrace it so much…”
“every time it kicked in she worked harder and it just meant she was hitting some kind of a growth Edge”
“scheduling things is My Kryptonite but I do meetings for a living”
From the episode
How to discover your superpowers, own your story, and unlock personal growth
Donna Lichaw (author of The Leader’s Journey)