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Making Your Personality Quirks Your Superpower

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10.07.2026

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Flaws can become unique, attractive features when effectively profiled.

While you're busy doubting yourself, someone else may be admiring your strength.

Four actions can turn a trait you were bullied about in school into a helpful quality.

Perspective separates the weird person from the unique, attractive one.

Early in my career as a leader, I met with a team of my peers, each of us heading up a department in our organization. We began chuckling about the quirks and idiosyncrasies of a well-known motivational speaker. When I commented on how goofy he was, my peers burst into laughter. But it was directed at me. They helped me realize I possessed some of the same quirks that he did. I was guilty as charged. The only difference between us—I lacked a little self-awareness that day.

Over time, I not only recognized my personality oddities, but I embraced them. I could see them as a liability or as an asset, and I chose to make them my differentiators. The stuff that made me different can set me apart from the more common or “normal” leader up front. Psychology Today Editor-in-Chief Kaja Perina put it this way, “All personality traits have hidden costs, making them trade-offs. Excelling in one area can create vulnerabilities in another: high openness fosters creativity, but it can lead to indecision. High agreeableness nurtures........

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