114: "Are You Managing Your Strengths Like a Portfolio?" (lessons from David Nickelson)
🧠 Erik’s Take
Erik reflects on his interview with Dr. David Nickelson, a true polymath with a rare blend of psychology, law, and business. What stuck with Erik wasn’t just David’s accomplishments—but how he thinks. This episode dives into the layered insights that emerge when someone integrates disciplines to solve complex problems. It’s part leadership lens, part self-awareness deep dive, and part creative reframe for anyone feeling boxed in by their own strengths.
🎯 Top Insights from the Interview
- Intersectionality > Expertise: The most marketable thinkers combine rare skills in overlapping ways—not in silos.
- Read Yourself and the Room: Leadership means tuning into your own patterns and the environment around you—especially when emotions run high.
- Portfolio Management for People: Treat your own capabilities like a portfolio—optimize, de-risk, and allocate your energy where it matters.
- Polymaths Spot Patterns Others Miss: When you bring multiple frameworks to the same problem, your lens gets sharper—and more valuable.
- Self-Awareness Is a Start. Systems Awareness Is the Advantage.
🧩 The Personal Layer
This conversation made Erik re-examine his own thinking habits—especially how he’s used (and sometimes siloed) his overlapping skills. He realized he hadn’t deeply considered the marketable synergy between them before. David’s framing pushed him to reflect on how leaders need more than just introspection; they need to know when the environment is distorting their lens. It’s not enough to know thyself—you have to contextualize thyself, too.
🧰 From Insight to Action
- Map Your Portfolio: List what you’re great at, what drains you, and what you’re merely good at but should stop doing. See it like a strategist would.
- Identify Your Intersections: What’s the Venn diagram of your experiences? What unique overlap gives you leverage?
- Check Your Read of the Room: Next time you're in a charged situation, pause. Ask: is your emotional read clouded by your own story?
- Let Go of Competence Traps: Just because you’re good at it doesn’t mean it belongs in your future.
- Design for Differentiation: Don’t just grow. Zig where others zag.
🗣️ Notable Quotes
“Your next level might not be a new skill—it might be combining the ones you already have.”
— Erik Berglund
“Read the room. But more importantly, know how your anxiety might be reading it for you.”
— Erik Berglund
“Treat yourself like a portfolio manager would. Allocate attention to what matters—offload what doesn’t.”
— Erik Berglund
“Self-awareness is powerful. But it’s the synergy with systems-awareness that creates leverage.”
— Erik Berglund
🔗 Links & Resources
