Is Your Team Struggling? It’s Time To Tap Into Their Genius

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Even though your team members are bright and capable, are there times when they just don’t seem to “click” in producing the results you want?

Welcome to the reality of working with people, including smart ones.

Sometimes the real challenge is figuring out how to take best advantage of the unique “orientation” that each team member brings to the table.

An excellent guide can be found in The 6 Types of Working Genius: A Better Way to Understand Your Gifts, Your Frustrations, and Your Team. The book is by Patrick Lencioni, founder and president of The Table Group, a firm dedicated to helping leaders improve their organizations’ health. Lencioni is author of several bestselling books, including The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.

With what he calls the WIDGET Model, Lencioni describes the types of “Working Genius” that enable teams to produce a quality of results that they previously thought unlikely if not impossible.

The model can help you reframe your perception of the effectiveness of your team, understand the contributions each individual can bring to the table, and help your people find fulfillment in their work.

Rodger Dean Duncan: In a nutshell, how does your “working genius” system help people leverage their passions and natural talents to find success?

Patrick Lencioni: Working Genius is a ridiculously fast and simple model for people to identify which of the six types of work give them joy and energy, because those are the two most important predictors of sustainable success. Some people are stuck doing work that they are fairly good at, but it doesn’t feed them, so they will eventually burn out. Everyone who wants to maximize their success—and satisfaction—over the long term needs to know what their geniuses are.

Duncan: How does genius relate to competency or skill?

Patrick Lencioni

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Lencioni: Genius is about more than competency and skill. It’s really about joy and energy. This is critical because so many of us, over time, can become quite good at doing work that we don’t enjoy. Eventually, we find ourselves experiencing burnout and frustration even though people are telling us, “But you’re so good at that.”

Sustainable success requires that we do the kind of work we are meant to do, even if it means walking away from roles where we are merely competent. It’s important to understand that among the Six Types of Working Genius, each of us has two that give us joy and energy, which we call our unique Working Geniuses. Two others are areas that we can do for a while and be pretty good at but which don’t give us joy and energy. These are our Working Competencies. And finally, the last two are activities that drain us of joy and energy, even if we have to do them for limited periods of time. We call these our Working Frustrations. There are people in the world who are so driven to succeed that they can actually become adept in their areas of frustration. That’s a tragedy because they can find themselves trapped doing work reasonably well, but that makes them miserable.

Duncan: With disciplined practice, people can improve and enhance a competency. What’s required for doing the same with a genius?

Lencioni: The beauty of our geniuses is that we will naturally improve in these areas because we derive joy and energy from that work. Practicing a sport that we love doesn’t feel like practice at all. There’s no grinding or misery. Improvement often feels like drudgery when it comes to doing work that we don’t particularly enjoy. That’s not to say we don’t have to do work that we don’t enjoy from time to time, but rather that we should be spending most of our time in our areas of genius. And though it might sound counterintuitive, spending a lot of time trying to improve in areas we don’t enjoy is often a waste of time.

Duncan: You distinguish between “responsive” and “disruptive” geniuses. Tell us about that.

Lencioni: People with responsive geniuses—Wonder, Discernment, Enablement—tend to respond to external stimuli. They don’t generally initiate action on people or projects. They react to others who make the first move. This tends toward activities like observing, listening, evaluating, or supporting people and projects. On the other hand, people with disruptive geniuses—Invention, Galvanizing, Tenacity—impose their will in a given situation.

Whether it’s through inventing a new idea or galvanizing others to take action or overcoming obstacles to get things done, disruptive geniuses call for the initiation of action or taking the first step. Both categories are critical.

Duncan: What sets the Six Types of Working Genius apart from other tools?

Lencioni: There are two important differences between Working Genius and other tools. And by the way, I love many of those others tools and have been using them throughout my career. But Working Genius is focused on the tasks of getting work done, which means it’s ridiculously easy and quick to apply.

It’s amazing to watch someone take our assessment, get their results, and right away they’re coming to realizations about their past successes and failures and making simple adjustments to their work and life.

The other important distinction or characteristic of Working Genius is its team application. See, all six geniuses are required for any type of project, program, or endeavor. Teams can review their collective Working Genius map or profile and immediately identify what genius they’re missing or why they are, for example, putting too much pressure or responsibility on one member of their team. So, it’s the application to specific, task-oriented work and the speed of applying it to an entire team that sets it apart.

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Duncan: Using a common workplace challenge as an example, please explain how each of the six geniuses “fits” into the general flow of work.

Lencioni: Okay, imagine the leadership team of a medium-sized consulting firm that has been experiencing less-than-stellar results. The first genius comes into play when someone with the Genius of Wonder asks the open-ended question, “Do you guys think our clients are truly transformed with what we’re doing for them? Has the market changed? Maybe it’s time to change our focus.”

The next genius comes into play later when someone with the Genius of Invention says, “I’ve been thinking about that question, and I think I’ve come up with a new set of services we could offer and a new way to package them so clients receive more value from us.”

The next genius occurs when someone with the Genius of Discernment replies, “My gut tells me you’re right about the new service opportunities, but I think something is missing in the packaging part of it. I just don’t think that will make sense the way you described it. Can you make it simpler?”

The person with Invention comes up with an alternative idea, and after a few conversations, the person with Discernment says, “Okay, now that makes sense. I think we’re ready.”

The next genius comes into play when someone with the Genius of Galvanizing says, “Okay, let’s get everyone together for a meeting tomorrow so we can begin socializing this and getting people on board. I’ll put together a presentation.”

After the presentation, the next genius arises when someone with the Genius of Enablement says, “I get it. I can help with that. Let me know when you want to get started and what you’d like me to focus on first.”

The final genius comes into play when someone with the Genius of Tenacity says, “Okay, we need to wrestle this to the ground and get it done by next week. I’ll lock myself in my office for a few days and push until it’s finished. I won’t let you down.”

Each of the geniuses plays a critical role in taking an idea from conception to completion. If even one of the geniuses is under-represented or missing on a team, it can lead to frustration, burnout, and possible failure. Wonder is about identifying potential. Invention is about coming up with an original idea or solution. Discernment is about evaluating and providing feedback on the idea until it is ready. Galvanizing is about rallying people around the idea. Enablement is about responding to the project or program and providing the initial support to get it off the ground. And, finally, Tenacity is about executing and finishing it, even when there are obstacles.

Duncan: Because people bring different mindsets and skills to the table, what can a leader do to help team members collaborate most effectively in using the Six Types of Working Genius?

Lencioni: The best way for a leader to help team members use Working Genius to collaborate is to simply have them assess themselves and then look at the collective results in their team map or profile. The ramifications of their respective Geniuses, Competencies, and Frustrations become immediately clear.

Sometimes there’s a serious gap because no one on the team has a given genius: “We better figure out how to do more Invention because no one here is naturally gifted in this area.” Sometimes there’s only one person with a given genius, and they’re on the verge of utter exhaustion: “No wonder you’re always fatigued, Mary. You’re the only one with Tenacity, and we’re all coming to you to get things done.” Whatever the case, interpreting the team map is almost always easy and clear. And beyond that, making adjustments to how a team is organized and how people’s roles can be adjusted for greater productivity and engagement becomes obvious.

Duncan: How can leaders identify what geniuses are missing in their teams, and how can they best fill those gaps?

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Lencioni: Not every leader or team is in a position to immediately go out and hire someone when they discover they are missing a genius. The first step for filling gaps on a team is looking at team members who have geniuses that aren’t being tapped into. On my own team, I was frustrated that I was spending too much of my time Galvanizing, which prevented me from inventing and discerning. I found someone who had the Genius of Galvanizing, but who didn’t feel experienced enough or senior enough to do that for the team. I gave him permission—and responsibility—for doing much of the Galvanizing on the team. His joy and enthusiasm at work went up. Mine did, too, as I was freed up to do more of my genius. And most important of all, the team started getting much more work done in less time. It seems simple, but we couldn’t see it clearly until we applied the Working Genius.

If you are, in fact, able to hire, when interviewing a potential candidate, the first and most important filter is determining if they are a cultural fit. Once you’ve established that they fit your company’s values and “belong on the bus,” as Jim Collins says, then the next thing you are looking to do is ensure that they have the appropriate Working Geniuses for the role and the team. Beyond technical skills and a resume, determining a person’s Working Genius can be a great predictor of their success and enjoyment of a particular role.

Duncan: What specific dialogue skills are most critical in putting the geniuses to best use in a team?

Lencioni: One of the things I love about how people discuss and use the Working Genius tool is the sudden lack of defensiveness around their strengths and weaknesses. When people identify their geniuses, they are so glad to have them confirmed by others. And when they identify their frustrations, they are relieved to be able to say, “I’ve always known I was not great at those things, but I never knew why.” Suddenly, people are discussing one another’s deficiencies openly and without hesitation because they have vocabulary and permission.

I’ve spent my career helping teams understand that the very foundation of teamwork is vulnerability-based trust. It’s the ability for team members to openly admit what they are not good at and where they need help. With the Working Genius, we’re finding that teams are quickly and matter-of-factly sharing their deficiencies without fear because they are spelled out in black and white.

Duncan: What have been the most powerful reactions of people who have put the Working Genius into practice?”

Lencioni: My favorite stories came from leaders who were considering firing an employee and then, after discovering their Working Geniuses, realized that they simply needed to adjust their roles. We’ve heard from multiple CEOs who experienced this—and within minutes of seeing the results of someone’s assessment.

I also love hearing from people who felt like they were a fraud or who felt unnecessary guilt because they weren’t good at or didn’t enjoy one particular part of their job. After seeing their results, they realized it’s simply a matter of how they are wired and that it’s great to be able to lean on peers who have different talents than they do. Heck, we even had a guy tell us he suspected that his wife didn’t like him—really—because every time he came up with a new idea (one of his geniuses is Invention), she would point out the flaws and why it might not work (her genius is Discernment). When they took the assessment, they realized that it was simply a matter of her exercising her genius to help him, and it changed his attitude toward her.