The GForce team kicked off the new year by reading “The 6 Types of Working Genius,” by Patrick Lencioni. The book explores different skills that make up a team in the workplace, and how identifying an individual’s strengths can lead to more success and harmony within the organization.
Along with reading the book, our company took the working genius assessment and saw what two geniuses each person aligned with most in the report. The 6 types of Working Genius are as listed:
- Wonder: The natural gift of pondering the possibility of greater potential and opportunity in a given situation.
- Invention: The natural gift of creating original and novel ideas and solutions
- Discernment: The natural gift of intuitively and instinctively evaluating ideas and situations.
- Galvanizing: The natural gift of rallying, inspiring, and organizing others to take action.
- Enablement: The natural gift of providing encouragement and assistance for an idea or project.
- Tenacity: The natural gift of pushing projects or tasks to completion to achieve results.
The report showed that my areas of working genius are invention and discernment. I was surprised by these results, as I always thought my biggest strengths were Galvanizing and Enablement. I was eager to apply these strengths to my day-to-day work at GForce and had the opportunity to do this by working on continuous training activities for the recruiting team. I have found that I am able to naturally come up with new ideas for our team to engage in as well as evaluate how these may be beneficial for our team moving forward. This assessment has allowed me to take the initiative within the organization in areas I may have otherwise taken a back seat on.
Understanding ourselves and our peers through assessments like the Working Genius can bring massive benefits to a company. Leadership can utilize the information to optimize productivity and communication. Teams can operate in a way that allows each member to play to their own strengths. Individuals can gain insight into what type of work energizes them.
Work done with intention is done well. In this book, Patrick Lencioni teaches that discovering one’s working geniuses allows individuals, coworkers, and teams, to thrive as a whole.