If you’ve been talking with me at all in the last year, you have probably noticed that I can’t stop talking about the 6 Types of Working Genius. Since I refer to it almost constantly, I figured that I should share a bit more about what it is and why I love it.
The Working Genius is an assessment tool that is about 20% personality assessment and 80% productivity tool. It can be utilized by individuals and teams to understand what type of work brings people joy.
What does joy have to do with productivity? EVERYTHING! When people are happy in their work, then they are more productive, more engaged, face less burnout, and, most importantly, bring their best selves to all aspects of their lives.
There are 6 types of work that are each described by a letter. Using the acronym of WIDGET, we all have two geniuses, two competencies, and two frustrations. We tend to be very skilled at and find joy when doing work in our geniuses, whereas we may be good at but don’t find joy performing work in our competencies, and we’ll typically find our frustrations frustrating or draining even though we may or may not be skilled in them.
The geniuses are as follows:
W: All work starts with a question. People with the genius of Wonder will find questions in the world. You may hear them ask, “Are we doing the best we can be doing?” “Is there a better way?” Why do we do it this way?”
I: This genius is the most obvious one. People with the genius of Invention love to create something out of nothing. Their favourite thing is to have a blank slate and no boundaries where they can create something new.
D: People with the genius of Discernment have what most people call “a good gut.” They are actually good at recognizing patterns in the world and will instinctively know when something will work or when it won’t. Just don’t ask them to prove it because they can’t!
G: People with the genius of Galvanizing love to get others on board with whatever idea they are galvanizing. They’ll generate excitement at the beginning of a project and sustain the enthusiasm and push for it to finish.
E: The word enablement gets a bad rap. People with the Genius of Enablement will be ready to jump on board to help. They are so critical on a team because they are the ones that bring the team together. They are absolutely key when a change is happening because they will typically be your early adopters of the idea and will help get others on board with their commitment.
T: People with the genius of Tenacity love to complete projects and tasks. They are critical in making sure projects are finished with the details correct and all tasks properly closed out. They are the key to getting things done.
Channeling my inner David Letterman, I’ve put together my top 5 (I’m a bit shorter than he is) reasons why I love the Working Genius.
5. It is sooooooooo simple! I love simplicity. With the working genius, you don’t have dozens of letter combinations that you have to remember. You have 6 words / letters that directly relate to how work is done. The beauty of that is that if you forget the geniuses, you just have to think how a project is completed and then you can remember. It’s so easy to learn and apply to any team or couple and get instant improvement.
4. Less annoying conversations. You can create more meaningful and less annoying conversations by understanding what each genius craves and what each genius hates. For example, being a Discerner, I tend to edit everything. An inventor may love it because I’m helping them make their invention better, but a Wonderer typically gets very frustrated with me because what they want me to say is, “Hmm….yeah, that’s interesting,” but what I want to say is, “That’s crazy, it’ll never work!” Likewise, having a language to clearly state, “I’m inventing, not galvanizing right now,” can really clear up a lot of confusion.
3. Guilt-be-gone! I used to feel guilty because I hated continuing to push my team through to the end of a project, and I felt lazy because I would avoid doing my expense reports as well as my laundry. I don’t have to feel guilty anymore because I know I don’t have the geniuses of galvanizing and tenacity. I know what I’m good at, and I know where I need help. No guilt required.
2. Burnout Recovery! Burnout is real, but what causes it isn’t too much work, but it’s too much work outside of your genius. As someone with a frustration in tenacity, when I have too much “boring paperwork” to do, what I think I want to do is to take a nap or scroll social media, but what actually helps me get through it is scheduling something inside of my genius to break it up. Yes, there are still times when a nap or a brain break is needed, but when you have prolonged time periods of work outside of your genius, focusing on doing work in your genius will speed up the recovery process.
And finally….the number one reason…
1. Show me the joy!! It’s all about bringing joy into your life. My entire mission in life is about bringing joy into the lives of others. We spend so much of our lives doing work (both at home and work outside of the home), that what better way to add joy than to understand how we can find it through our work. Many people tend to think of your working genius as only something they are very good at doing, but it’s more than that. It’s about what type of activities bring you joy, make you feel energized, and bring fulfillment into your life. We were designed to find that fulfillment through our work.
Our Working Geniuses are our natural gifts from God. They’re inherent in us and are intended to be utilized to achieve our life goals. Find out what yours are today!
Listen to the podcast that goes with this post here!
Subscribe to our email list before Nov 14, 2023 and have a chance to win a free Working Genius Assessment and 30-min session with me!
Comments