Superpower Naming (Be More, Not Different)
Name someone's superpower early, then frame every nudge as 'be more' rather than 'be different'.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 88%
A mentoring and management mechanic. Within the first session or two with someone, form and share a hypothesis about their superpower — the thing you believe they could be truly exceptional at. Being seen that way makes people stretch further and, crucially, changes how they receive feedback: subsequent nudges read as 'be more of what you are' rather than 'be someone else', which converts stop-energy into growth energy.
Origin
Komoroske's practice from mentoring hundreds of PMs at Google. He connects it to a Buddhist framing he picked up in one of his own nerd clubs — 'treat everybody like the Buddha' — and to Ed Catmull's 'ugly baby' idea from Creativity, Inc.: every new idea starts out ugly, so look for the seeds of greatness rather than the current state.
Core principles
- 01Assume everyone you talk to has seeds of greatness, even if they cannot see them.
- 02Steel-man the person: find the most compelling part and lean into it.
- 03Being seen and acknowledged is what buys you permission to give hard feedback later.
- 04'Be more' feedback is received as growth; 'be different' feedback is received as stop-energy.
- 05This is simultaneously the compassionate thing and the highest-value thing — a genuine win-win.
- 06Great work only comes from a high-trust environment where people lean into their superpowers; there is no shortcut.
How to run it
- 1
Look for seeds of greatness deliberately
Enter every interaction actively searching for the most compelling thing about the person and steel-manning it. Treat the search as your job, not as something that happens if they impress you.
Pro tip The 'treat everyone like the Buddha' framing forces the posture: assume the greatness is there and your job is to find it.
Watch out Every new person, like every new idea, is an ugly baby at first glance. The instinct to dismiss is the thing to override.
- 2
Form and state the superpower hypothesis early
Within the first session or two, once you can form a hypothesis, say it out loud: 'I think your superpower is…' and describe specifically what you believe they could be truly exceptional at.
Pro tip Hold it as a hypothesis, not a verdict — you will sometimes be wrong, especially if you rush it.
Watch out Going too early raises the error rate. Wait until you can actually see something specific.
- 3
Frame all subsequent nudges as 'be more'
Because they now know you see them and are not trying to make them into someone else, deliver corrective feedback as an extension of their superpower — 'be more' — rather than a correction of their identity — 'be different'.
Pro tip The same words of feedback land completely differently once the superpower has been named. The naming is what earns the reception.
Watch out Skip the naming step and the same nudge reads as stop-energy, and the person defends rather than grows.
- 4
Give them room to stretch and fail
When they want to run at something you privately doubt, let them — voice your concerns, point at the part you find genuinely compelling, and let them go. Either it works, or they exercise their agency, learn, and get stronger.
Pro tip Both branches are positive. That is what makes it cheap to say yes.
Watch out Vetoing the idea they were motivated by trades a certain growth outcome for nothing.
In the wild
Across hundreds of PMs mentored over the years, Komoroske's opening move is to get a hypothesis fast and tell the person what he thinks they could be truly exceptional at. He is sometimes wrong — especially when he tries too early — but the act of being seen changes the relationship.
→ People stretch further and receive nudging feedback better, because they know the feedback is 'be more' rather than 'be different'. He describes getting amazing things out of people simply by treating them with that respect.
Komoroske writes and mentors in parables — seeds shot into someone's brain even when the soil is not ready. People he mentored years earlier seek him out to say: I was frustrated to hear what you said that day, I didn't understand it, and I only now realize how it influenced my decisions.
→ Delayed germination is the expected payoff shape — you cannot force someone to be ready, so you plant and wait.
Common mistakes
Leading with 'be different'
Feedback that implies the person should be someone else is received as stop-energy. They defend rather than grow, and you lose the relationship's upside.
Naming the superpower too early
Komoroske notes he gets it wrong more often when he rushes the hypothesis. A confidently wrong superpower is worse than none — it tells the person you are not actually seeing them.
Forcing readiness
Some insights only land when the person is ready to hear them — the 'Hallmark card fallacy'. Pushing harder does not accelerate germination; it just makes the seed bounce off.
Is it for you?
Best for
Managers and mentors who want people to do great — not merely good — work, and who need difficult feedback to actually land.
Not ideal for
Short transactional engagements, or situations requiring a formal performance-management intervention where directness beats framing.
From the transcript
“so one of the things I try to do when I meet with people I Mentor them I try with it within the first session…”
“they know that you're not trying to tell them be different you're trying to tell them be more”
“I try to see the greatness the seeds of greatness in everything everyone and everything around me I look for I try to find and…”
“if you want to get your team to do great”
From the episode
Thinking like a gardener not a builder, organizing teams like slime mold, the adjacent possible, and other unconventional product advice
Alex Komoroske (Stripe, Google)