The 6 Types of Working Genius: A Better Way to Understand Your Gifts, Your Frustrations, and Your Team

The 6 Types of Working Genius: A Better Way to Understand Your Gifts, Your Frustrations, and Your Team

| Patrick Lencioni, 2022

What’s It All About?

We all have something at work that brings us joy and energy... and on the flip side, we all have work tasks that make us feel frustrated and burnt-out. In his book The 6 Types of Working Genius: A Better Way to Understand Your Gifts, Your Frustrations, and Your Team, author Patrick Lencioni explores how leaders can improve productivity and transform their workplaces by identifying their team member’s natural gifts.

Like he does in his other book The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick takes a storytelling approach to share his unique model. Through a story about a leader, husband, and father who searches for a way to reduce frustration in his work and personal life, Patrick creates a compelling read and presents a model that’s easy to learn and apply.

Through the story and model in the book, you’ll learn about six different types of Working Genius:

Wonder: identifies the need for improvement or change
Invention: confirms the importance of that need, and generates an idea or solution
Discernment: assesses the merit and workability of the idea or solution
Galvanizing: generates enthusiasm and action around the idea or solution
Enablement: initiates support and assists in the implementation of the idea or solution
Tenacity: commits to ensuring that the idea or solution gets completed and that desired results are achieved

Do any of these sound like your team members? In The 6 Types of Working Genius, learn how to identify your team’s natural gifts and how you can tap into their natural gifts to improve productivity.

Favorite Quote

“Often, they don’t do well in their new jobs because they were much better suited for their old jobs, and the people who would be great at the new jobs never get promoted because they were bad at the old jobs.”

Biggest Takeaway

Working with the Working Genius model has made me reflect on myself and the teams I’ve worked with. As someone with a working genius of enablement and tenacity, I understand why I’m great at driving teams into action, and why I love to see my goals accomplished. By identifying my working genius, I’ve also gained a greater understanding of why I’ve experienced frustrations in the past, and why people who work with me can potentially see me as a bull in a China shop!

Now, by tapping into both my strengths and causes of frustration through this model, I can put my Working Genius into action in a way that improves productivity and reduces frustration, both for myself and the people around me!

Bonus Information

Are you interested in learning more about how the Working Genius model could help your organization? If you want better meetings, increased moral, enhanced trust, and maximized productivity, reach out to us and we can facilitate a workshop for your company or team!

Reviewed by: Trevor Blondeel, August 4, 2024

At Manufacturing Greatness, Trevor Blondeel works with manufacturers to connect the top to the shop. If you’re ready to improve your own organization, contact Trevor to learn how Manufacturing Greatness can help you build stronger leaders and develop a dynamic, high-performing workplace.

Mindfulness Manufacturing

Our show is about providing listeners with real stories that come from a place of experience, transparency, and authenticity. Most importantly it’s about what we learn from these stories and applying Mindfulness in our everyday work and personal lives.
Our intention is to create an environment where people can learn through open honest discussions on how we apply Mindfulness. Although our experiences and stories come from time in a manufacturing environment hence the title “Mindfulness Manufacturing”, we still see our discussions and topics relatable to any organization or profession.

We all love giving advice! But when advice is your default as a leader, you can fall into an “advice trap” that actually crushes curiosity, creates disconnect, and prevents your team from finding productive outcomes.

Bestselling author Michael Bungay Stanier (MBS) tackles this subject in his newest book The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever. In this episode, MBS shares some of the key lessons from the advice trap and his other books, including lessons and insights leaders can use to change their mindset, grow their curiosity, and create great new habits for building curiosity.

2:17 – With more curiosity, you can engage your people, boost morale and retention, and create a thriving organization

3:31 – Slow down in your rush to provide immediate advice

4:16 – As a leader, shift away from making advice your default response

5:13 – With curiosity, you can become a more strategic leader

6:11 – Defaulting to giving advice is often an ingrained habit

6:48 – When you start being more curious, you let others shine

7:17 – Curiosity can also strengthen your relationship with your family and others outside of work

8:40 – Forming new curiosity habits can take time and practice

9:47 – If you always give answers and advice, your team can become over-dependent, more disconnected, and less productive

10:48 – Through more curiosity, you and your team can find the purpose of your work

12:22 – While practicing curiosity and other new skills, approach it with patience and grace for yourself

13:28 – Be specific and deliberate in building your coaching habit