HOW WORKING GENIUS CAN HELP YOUR TEAM

Last week, I shared some ways that understanding the Working Genius model can help us as individuals. This week, I want to share a little about how the Working Genius model can help teams. Those teams can be at work, at home, in churches, non-profits, and other volunteer groups as well.

In last week’s article, we talked about how understanding the Working Genius model and your own Working Geniuses helps you understand yourself better, including helping you show a little more grace towards yourself and others. Understanding that what is easy for us might not be so easy for our teammates and what we struggle with might be areas that they are gifted in can help us appreciate the teams we find ourselves in so much more.

Understanding your own working geniuses is a great starting place, but understanding the geniuses, competencies, and frustrations of those you work with takes the helpfulness and value of the Working Genius model to a whole other level. Whether it’s with your co-workers, your family, teams at church or other organizations you are involved in, knowing how each of you are wired for work will help you see where you might be able to maximize the potential of individuals, recognize gaps that exist in your work process, and identify areas in which certain team members may be at risk of burning out.

Last week I posted a quote from Patrick Lencioni that said: “People who utilize their natural, God-given talents are much more fulfilled and successful than those who don’t.” Can you imagine what it would be like if those you work with in any environment, yourself included, had the opportunity to to better utilize their “natural, God-given talents”?

Exploring the Working Genius model as a team or in the family, gives your team not just a common understanding, but it gives you a common language to communicate the ideas and feelings around different types of work that you may never have been able to clearly put words around before. Being able to say to someone, “I know that taking the time to make sure all the details are taken care of is draining for you because Tenacity is one of your areas of frustration, but thank you for pushing through to get that done” can go a long way in truly seeing, knowing, and expressing appreciation for your teammates. All of that helps to build a stronger team.

Knowing the working geniuses, competencies, and frustrations of those on your team also help you see aspects of work where your team might be struggling. If your team is great at coming up with ideas but doesn’t always do so great at following through, it might be that no one on your team has the genius of Enablement or Tenacity. This can be an ongoing issue and source of frustration for your entire team, but if you realize what is going on then you can begin to address it and look for people who do have those gifts to help your team out. In contrast, if no one on the team has the genius of Wonder or Invention, your team can easily find themselves stuck in a rut and losing momentum. All six of the geniuses are needed for work to be accomplished. If your team is missing certain geniuses, then a couple of things might be happening. Your team’s work is probably suffering on some level, or you may have teammates who are very frustrated and on the verge of burnout because they are being expected to “take one for the team” and spend most of their time functioning in an area that is not their area of genius.

Learning about the Working Genius model together helps you see both the individuals on your team better and the big picture of how your team is functioning. The insights that you can learn from diving into this together, can help individuals become more fulfilled and successful and can help your team as a whole become more effective at accomplishing your mission.

Again, like I’ve said before, please understand that I am just barely scratching the surface of the Working Genius model in these articles and there is so much more to it and so many more benefits that you can experience as you understand it better. As always, if you want to learn more about it you can check out the book, The 6 Types of Working Genius by Patrick Lencioni or the Working Genius podcast. I would also love to help walk you through the process of taking the assessment and understanding more about the model and what it means for you specifically or your team. If you would like to know more about the Working Genius model or have me work with you or your team as a Working Genius Facilitator, please reach out to me on the Contact page of this website.