When it comes to putting the right people in the right jobs, it’s important to determine the tasks that they do best and naturally bring them joy. Patrick Lencioni, keynote speaker at the 2021 RealTrends Gathering of Eagles share the way to determine each leadership team member’s working genius.
When it comes to work, we all have natural talents. When those natural talents are used, we’re full of energy and joy. But do you know what your gifts are? You may be more aware of what they aren’t – because they drain us of energy and are tasks that frustrate us. Wouldn’t it be great to surround ourselves with people who naturally love the tasks we don’t?
The Six Types of Working Genius is the latest tool from Patrick Lencioni, the renowned expert on organizational health and author of many books including, “The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team”. The Working Genius model and assessment tool helps everyone, including leadership teams and sales agents, identify their gifts so leadership can maximize their satisfaction and success in their daily work.
There are 6 Working Genius types:
THE GENIUS OF WONDER – We can’t help but question whether things could be better in the world of buying/selling real estate. We are bothered when we see unmet potential, and we’re constantly curious and on the lookout to make changes.
THE GENIUS OF INVENTION – We are all about creativity. We love to generate new ideas and solutions to problems we face in the real estate industry.
THE GENIUS OF DISCERNMENT – We can evaluate or assess a given idea of situation and provide guidance. We have good instincts, gut feel and judgment and integrate that with logic and common sense.
THE GENIUS OF GALVANIZING – We can bring energy and movement to an idea or decision. We love to inspire people to get involved and rallying them to act.
THE GENIUS OF ENABLEMENT – We jump in and offer assistance to get the transaction or effort moving forward. We contribute our help in any way required and not on our terms.
THE GENIUS OF TENACITY – We ensure that every detail is followed through so the transaction or project gets closed, completed and crosses the finish line with excellence.
Each of us has two of these which are our areas of Genius, where we have a spark, it boosts our energy, and we have natural ability. Then, we have two that we call areas of frustration, where we get drained of energy and have little natural ability. Finally, there are two in the middle, areas where we might have the ability, but it’s not a source of passion or satisfaction for us. If we can maximize the time we spend in our areas of genius and minimize the time we spend in our areas of frustration, imagine how our productivity and happiness will increase! If we can surround ourselves with people who have the Working Geniuses which are our frustrations, envision how much more success we’ll achieve together.
As a certified facilitator of the Working Genius assessment, I’ve worked with teams that were shocked at the consequences when one of the Genius traits is missing. I had one team where no one had Wonder as a Working Genius, and they realized that they were failing to identify serious problems and not taking advantage of major opportunities. Another team was lacking in Discernment and they were always trying to implement new ideas or solutions that turned out to be inadequate or ineffective. And then there was one team which was underrepresented with Tenacity. They were failing to get projects completed and transactions closed.
Discovering our Working Geniuses and those we work with will significantly impact our excitement in our careers. As Patrick Lencioni says, “If you want to be successful and fulfilled in your work, you must tap into your gifts. That can’t happen if you don’t know what those gifts are.”
