What is Your Working Genius?
Over the past three decades since completing college and entering the workforce full-time, I have mainly occupied leadership positions, with a short period as an "individual contributor" in an organization. Looking back on my leadership path, I have faced more challenges than accomplishments. Reflecting on my leadership journey, I've encountered more mistakes than I have hit home runs.
One significant error was my belief that I had to constantly exude enthusiasm and be hands-on in supporting my team members in their roles.
However, with hindsight, I realize this approach was draining and, to be frank, quite frustrating. I felt overwhelmed by the need to motivate and rally behind my team. This is not a negative comment towards any of my direct reports or people that I was leading but rather a candid admission of how challenging and exhausting it was to provide constant support.
Deep down, I believed that if my team understood their tasks clearly, they should be capable of executing them without extensive assistance.
Being completely transparent, I eventually realized – just a few years ago – that the encouragement and support I provided to my team members were actually a source of frustration for me.
I mean, it’s actually a literal “frustration” for me. When I did the Working Genius assessment a while back, that’s what it said. It says that enablement is a frustration for me.
Before I continue, let me clarify that I'm not suggesting avoiding exhibiting behaviors or traits that my direct reports require and anticipate. It's essential to support and empower them when necessary. However, it's equally important for me to stay true to myself, know who I am, and not try to pretend to be somebody I’m not. So, for me, trying to act like a superstar with support and empowerment might come across as insincere, ingenuine, and manufactured.
Let's shift the focus away from me and delve deeper into the Working Genius model and its relevance to you. The Working Genius is designed to help every leader determine what energizes and drains them and where their best contribution comes from. Recognizing each team member's strengths and matching their tasks accordingly can boost productivity, enhance team spirit, and position your organization for enhanced innovation and execution.
Too many organizations suffer because leaders don't understand their personal areas of "working genius" or those of their teammates.
Now, let's dive into all six types of Working Genius and see how a simple assessment can enhance clarity and teamwork in the workplace. Each person possesses innate talents related to work. The Working Genius model outlines six distinct talents, or "geniuses," essential for achieving success in any undertaking. These Working Geniuses are:
The Genius of Wonder:
The natural gift of pondering the possibility of greater potential and opportunity in a given situation
The Genius of Invention:
The natural gift of creating original and novel ideas and solutions
The Genius of Discernment:
The natural gift of intuitively and instinctively evaluating ideas and situations
The Genius of Galvanizing:
The natural gift of rallying, inspiring, and organizing others to take action
The Genius of Enablement:
The natural gift of providing encouragement and assistance for an idea or a project
The Genius of Tenacity:
The natural gift of pushing projects or tasks to completion to achieve results
When teams are missing one or more of these essential strengths, gaps can appear, resulting in a lack of insight and intuition. Failure to identify and close those gaps can lead to suboptimization of work effort. For example, if your team doesn't have someone with the genius of invention or wonder, it will struggle to develop original ideas. As you identify the Working Geniuses of your team, if you find it is unbalanced or missing a particular genius, you can consider restructuring and reorganizing projects, teams, or departments.
In the Working Genius model, my areas of Working Genius are galvanizer and tenacity. I love to get people excited about ideas, and I love pushing things across the finish line. However, my frustrations are invention and enablement. I am not inspired by the idea of thinking about a problem with no apparent solution, and I am not particularly good at providing unconditional support and assistance. This doesn't mean I can't come up with innovative ideas or encourage my team. As a leader, I want to excel at all I do and give my team what they need. However, I can tell you from personal experience that the times I have spent a significant amount of time in my areas of frustration led me to exasperation and burnout. Knowing this about myself has allowed me to tap into my genius and lean into others on my team to fill my gaps.
So for you, here are some questions:
What are your types of working genius?
How do they affect your work and your team?
Where are you pulling yourself up by the bootstraps to manufacture energy because you think, “That’s what good bosses do”?
Where do you “come alive” out of the six geniuses when you have the space and the intentionality to exercise them?
By knowing your geniuses and those on your team, you will be happier, your team will be happier, and you’ll be the most productive.