What if you've been downplaying strengths that are actually your superpowers?

Is 'love' really a strength?

I recently completed a strengths assessment. It was an activity we had to complete as part of a course I was taking. I am pretty familiar with the role strengths-based awareness has on our confidence and resilience. Knowing your strengths, playing to your strengths is where you can often access your 'flow' state - that state where time disappears and you become fully immersed in the activity at hand.

So when I received the results of my top 5 strengths, I was some what surprised (first and foremost). And then secondly, I was disappointed.

One of my top strengths was love.

Not leadership. Not strategy. Not decisiveness. Not execution, innovation, or any of the strengths I've been taught to admire, reward6 and quantify in business.

Love.

I reacted the way many clients have done when I've first started discussing their strengths with them. I found myself thinking; 'But that's not a strength!'.

Surely that couldn’t be a real strength. It felt soft. Vague. A bit… irrelevant.

And that reaction made me pause.

My full discomfort wasn’t about the strength itself but about my outdated idea of what a 'strength' is supposed to look like.

For a long time, especially through a traditional (patriarchal) lens, strengths have been defined as something practical, visible, and measurable. Things you can point to on a spreadsheet. Traits that feel controlled, contained, and emotionally neutral. We’ve been conditioned to value what looks productive over what is human.

Love doesn’t fit neatly into that framework.

I hear this all the time when clients identify their strengths as empathy, ability to remain calm, emotionally articulate, observant, self aware, socially aware. They dismiss them as 'not good enough' strengths. At first glance they don't see the value in those strengths and the impact they have.

Noticing the threads

As I paused to reflect on 'love' as a strength, I started seeing it pop up time and time again through my career past.

It’s shaped how I lead; by caring deeply about the people behind the roles.

How I build relationships; prioritising trust over transactions.

How I develop teams; seeing potential before performance.

How I handle conflict; seeking understanding and resolution, not dominance.

How I make decisions; placing people, not just outcomes, at the centre.

I used to think this was 'just who I am.' Something innate. Personal. Separate from my professional value.

But what is innate in us, that which comes naturally, is a strength.

Love has been a capability. A stabiliser in uncertainty. A connector in complexity. A force that creates psychological safety, loyalty, and growth.

Today, as a coach, this strength is even more visible. I care deeply. People matter to me. The work I do is built on genuine relationships, honest conversations, and the belief that humans aren’t problems to fix but people to understand. The clients and work I attract reflect that.

What if some of the qualities you've dismissed as 'too soft' are actually the strengths your workplace is calling our for?

What if empathy is not a liability but a leadership advantage? What if care isn’t unprofessional but essential? What if love isn’t the opposite of strength but an evolved expression of it?

More than ever, in a world marked by burnout, disconnection, and rapid change, business doesn’t need less humanity; it needs more of it. And your strengths might just be the way to access that.

Please consider this an invitation.

Question the strengths you’ve been taught to value. Look again at the traits you’ve brushed off as 'just who I am.' Ask yourself: What if this is actually my superpower? How could using that superpower elevate you or help you address a problem you're facing right now?

And I wonder if you can start to recognise the inner strengths that have always been there.

What superpowers are you downplaying?

Gemma Brown is a life and career coach based in Cambridge. For information about her 1-2-1 coaching services, workshops or team coaching, do contact her here.