I used to work with someone who told me that I was super. He’d tell me that what I did was super, my team was super – hell, everything was always super!
 
You’re thinking, ‘Wow, how lucky were you?!’ But…
 
He used that phrase so much that, in the end, nothing felt super. It became a meaningless phrase – a phrase that, when he used it, made me feel like he was just filling the air with empty platitudes.
 
I figured this out when I would go to him, putting my case forward about particularly difficult issues, and he would nod, tell me that my ideas were… you guessed it, ‘Super’ (!) and proceed to go off and do entirely the opposite of what I had suggested (ie. what actually needed to be done.) My suspicions were confirmed when I heard him telling someone else how super their idea was despite him not having heard even half of their sentence!

It’s easy to fall into the trap of overusing phrases like this – super, terrific, awesome, amazing. It’s a shorthand way to come across as positive and appreciative – traits we all want to exhibit – but unless they’re used in a meaningful way, they mean absolutely naff all.
 
What does this have to do with anything?
 
Well, you may or may not have noticed but I call SBLs ‘super-SBLs’ or ‘superhero SBLs’. The irony of this does not escape me, I promise! But not only do I like alliteration, I actually do believe it!

What you achieve on a daily basis is nothing short of superhero capability and sometimes I think you need reminding of that. Especially when you don’t feel super in the slightest.
 
The thing is, recently, I’ve noticed SBLs calling other SBLs ‘super-SBLs’ but in a way that means that they don’t see themselves as super – that, somehow, there’s a superhero scale and some are more super than others. This is just not true! Every single SBL deals with a unique combination of circumstances and issues and conquers it with their own unique combo of superpowers.
 
Ok, you may not always feel like a superhero, and you may have days that are less than great, but even when you’re feeling more like Diana Prince than Wonder Woman, or Clark Kent more than Superman, it doesn’t make you any less of a hero, it just makes you human. And, besides, Diana and Clark are also heroic, albeit it in their own more understated way!
 
Every hero has a bad day or a bad week but that doesn’t stop them being heroes. Heroes come back fighting; they never lose their faith and they never give up, no matter how much is thrown at them on a Monday morning!
 
So the next time you’re feeling low, or looking at other SBLs and thinking about how you don’t feel as super as they are, remember – they are just like you, and you are just like them. You may be super-SBLs in completely different ways, but you have all taken on the superhero mantle, and deservedly so.
 
And, as for me, I know you are an SBL superhero. I see what you do even if your boss or colleagues don’t. I see you on Twitter, in my Facebook group, in my inbox, in my DMs and in my coaching sessions.

The rest of the SBL community sees you too; you are not alone. You are seen. You are appreciated. And you are truly super!

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Appeared in: Education Executive Magazine (@edexec)