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What Is Your Superpower

Each person names one real skill, attribute, or talent as their "superpower" and puts it on a card for the group to read. The card is just the starting point — the conversation after is where people actually learn something new about a colleague.

15–30 min2–50 peopleEasyIndex cards + pensIn personClassroom ✓
By Jon Zajac · Founder & Chief Icebreaker · Last updated February 19, 2024

What is What Is Your Superpower?

What Is Your Superpower gets everyone to name one real skill, personal trait, or talent — their "superpower" — and put it into words: a card with the superpower itself and a quick example of how it shows up in their work or life. Depending on how you run it, cards go up for the whole group, in small groups, or anonymously.

It works because most rooms have no accurate map of who's actually good at what. A quiet person's spreadsheet habit and a manager's knack for de-escalating a tense email both count as superpowers here, and the group discussion afterward — not the card itself — is where that information actually becomes useful.

Skip it with a brand-new group that hasn't built any trust yet: naming a real strength out loud is a bigger ask on day one than it looks. And it leans on a wall or table everyone can gather around, so a fully remote team needs a shared doc or whiteboard standing in for that space.

The rules

  1. Think about a real skill, personal trait, or talent — that's your "superpower."
  2. Write it on an index card or sticky note, with a quick example of how you use it.
  3. Share it however the group's chosen — out loud to everyone, in small groups, or posted anonymously.
  4. Talk through the cards as a group: what's surprising, and how it connects to the work.
  5. Keep the room safe and inclusive; every card gets taken seriously.
  6. Use what you learn — shared superpowers are the easiest collaborations to actually start.

Before you start

  • Group size: 2–50 participants. Works one-on-one through a full room. Past a certain size, small-group or anonymous sharing works better than sharing one at a time.
  • Index cards or sticky notes, and pens. That's the whole kit. Tape or pins are only needed if the cards are going up on a wall.
  • A wall or table for the display. Somewhere the group can gather around and actually read through the pile once the cards are done.
  • Decide the sharing mode first. Whole group, small groups, or anonymous — pick one before you start so step one matches what's actually about to happen.

How to run it

  1. Set the stage 1 min

    Explain the idea in one breath: everyone's about to name a real skill, trait, or talent as their "superpower," and the point is finding out what's actually in the room.

  2. Give thinking time 2–3 min

    Ask each person to land on the one skill, attribute, or talent they'd call their superpower.

  3. Write it down 2–3 min

    Hand out index cards or sticky notes and pens. Each person writes their superpower plus a quick example of how they actually use it.

  4. Share it 5–10 min

    Depending on the mode you picked, people read theirs to the whole group, trade in small groups first, or post anonymously for others to guess.

  5. Talk it through 5–8 min

    Ask what people learned about their colleagues, and where a superpower on the wall could actually help on a real project.

  6. Close it out 1–2 min

    Point out the range of talents in the room, and say plainly that the quiet ones count as much as the loud ones.

← the card's just the excuse to talk.

Facilitator tips

Define "superpower" broadly, up frontSay it before anyone writes: a superpower is any skill, trait, or quality that helps you make a difference for someone else. That catches the people who'd otherwise assume they don't have one.
Offer more than one way to shareWhole group, small groups, or anonymous — offering a choice takes the pressure off anyone who'd rather not stand up and read theirs aloud.
Have leaders go first if the room has power dynamicsWhen managers and reports are both in the circle, ask a leader to share first. It sets the tone and makes the exercise feel safe to follow.
Turn it into next stepsClose by connecting a superpower to an actual role or project — a spreadsheet habit becomes "the person who owns reporting," not just a nice thing someone said once.

Variations

Remote calls

Cards move to a shared doc or whiteboard instead of a wall — people type their superpower in synchronously, or drop it in ahead of the call for an async version.

Why it works

Talent nobody put on a resumeA superpower card surfaces the stuff that never comes up in a standup or a job title — a knack for defusing a tense email, a habit of noticing what's missing from a plan. Those are the ones people actually need to know about.
An instant referral listOnce superpowers are on the wall, "who's good at this" has an answer pinned right there. The exercise doubles as a lightweight skills map for whoever's staffing the next project.
A shared vocabulary for strengths"That's a very [name] move" becomes shorthand the team keeps using long after the cards come down — a compliment that references a real moment instead of a generic one.
HELLO, MY NAME ISJon

"I like that it separates a job title from an actual skill. Everyone's got a superpower nobody put in their bio, and putting it on a card is enough permission for most people to say it out loud."

Jon Zajac · Founder & Chief Icebreaker

Reflection questions

A few of these turn the card wall into an actual debrief.

  1. How did sharing your superpower make you feel about your own strengths?A quick check on how the exercise landed for the person who wrote the card, not just the room reading it.
  2. Did any of your colleagues' superpowers surprise or inspire you? Which one, and why?Surfaces which cards actually changed what people thought about a coworker.
  3. Did anyone share the same superpower? What does that overlap tell you?Shared answers are worth calling out — they point to a strength the team already leans on without naming it.
  4. What was hard about sharing your superpower, and how would you handle that next time?Names the friction directly — useful if you want to run this again with a group that hesitated.
  5. Where could your superpower actually help on a real project?Moves the exercise from a nice moment to something the group can act on this week.

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Jon Zajac

Founder & Chief Icebreaker

I started IcebreakerSpot because I believe strong connections are the foundation of successful teams. This site exists to make it easy to find and share the icebreakers and team-building activities that build trust, spark collaboration, and help groups do great things together.

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