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Writer's pictureKelly Tweeddale

Are You an Activator?

Updated: Aug 26, 2022


Capital letter A
Image by Merakist on Unsplash

Break the Tape Leadership's TAPE Assessment measures where creativity and growth meet in a leader, team or organization. The letter “A” stands for Activator. The Activator brings to mind the superpowers of your favorite superhero. When certain elements or conditions happen, we have the type of action that can best be described as BAM! POW! and WHAM! Not only powerful, but intense.


Think of Wonder Woman’s Amazonian cuffs, Spiderman’s ability to weave webs and scale walls, or Captain Marvel’s stamina and agility. They all have in common the ability to activate their powers to move from thought to action quickly. In business or leadership, it is the ability to move from concept to action quickly.


cartoon words such as bang! Bam! Boom!

For the Activator, the actions measured are on the Audacious scale. Yes, most superhero’s share the ability to be audacious in their actions, doing what others would think impossible or too difficult to attempt. The ability to be Audacious requires the ability to acknowledge fear and act anyway. These are actions that require courage and originality. A superhero doesn’t exist just by having a superpower. He or she exists because of the ability to use that power in ways that are unique to them. For a leader, that means having the capacity to acknowledge fear and/or risk, but not letting it act as an obstacle to taking action. For a company that means having the courage not to be a simulator or copycat of your competitor and finding ways to stand apart from the competition in how you act, what you do, and who you hire.


As discussed in the TAPE 3-minute overview, the second component of creativity is connection. The Activator drives highly Authentic connections whether they are a leader, team, or organization. Individuals and organizations can easily drive growth when they double down on their strengths, create partnerships, affinities, and associations with other entities that build upon their own unique talents to create or deepen a strength. And when Audacity and Authenticity come together, you have the skillsets in place to activate your ambitious plan.



The skillsets reflected in being Audacious include:

  • Autonomous or lean decision-making

  • Ability to disagree, deliberate and decide quickly

  • Mastering healthy skepticism while keeping the dream alive

  • Ability to embrace change

  • Obstacle-scalers/solution-focused


The skillsets reflected in being Authentic include:

  • Emotionally intelligent connections

  • Does not abandon values with peer pressure

  • Sets clear boundaries

  • Ability to attract similar passion-driven connections

  • Leveraging the power of diversification to become stronger

Unlike the tempo of the Transporter: immediate and rapid, the Activator’s pace is accelerated and quick, but not at breakneck crisis speed. It is accelerated growth that happens when a prototype is proven, scalability has all the necessary processes, partnerships and agreements; and leaders and teams are aligned around a common objective.


For the individual, the Activator is not only courageous, but as a leader they recognize that they are stronger through their authentic connections. Leaders that are driving change or innovation and use research, data, and input to close the distance that the "leap of faith" has to bridge, are Activators. They use the authentic connections of their team, their industry, and grow in alignment with their values to move from thought to action quickly.


I invite you to take the survey by visiting https://breakthetapeleadership.com/survey. You can take it for yourself and you can take it for your organization to see how creativity can be used as a strategy and growth can happen when action and connection meet.


Break the Tape Leadership helps leaders unleash creativity and potential in themselves and the organizations they lead to generate meaningful momentum.


©2022 Break the Tape LLC


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