Earlier this year, I got to experience Ramsey's Entreleadership Summit.
Pat Lencioni was there and he talked about a new framework he and his team at The Table Group developed called Working Genius.
He describes the framework as 20% personality assessment and 80% productivity tool - and let me tell you something... it's incredible!
The framework describes the 6 types of working genius that fit together to form the acronym WIDGET.
(sidebar: Did you know that not every abbreviation is considered an acronym? For instance, IBM and FBI are not acronyms but NASA and NATO are. It has to be pronounceable as a word to be considered an acronym... but I digress.)
Back to WIDGET.
Here's what the acronym stands for:
W - Wonder
I - Invention
D - Discernment
G - Galvanizing
E - Enabling
T - Tenacity
Let's take a quick look at each of these.
Wonder
The genius of wonder has to do with asking questions. Is this the best solution we can come up with? Why are we doing it this way? Is there anyone who's not here who should be involved?
You get the picture.
People with the genius of wonder are comfortable in their own heads and spend a lot of time contemplating... everything.
Invention
People with the genius of invention love to come up with new ideas. They love to brainstorm and come up with solutions, often to problems that their "Wonder" counterparts have surfaced.
Discernment
While people with the genius of invention love to come up with ideas, those with the genius of discernment love to evaluate ideas.
They have great instincts and can often determine relatively quickly whether an idea is going to work or not, regardless of whether it's in their field of expertise.
Galvanizing
Galvanizers get people moving. They love to take an idea and rally people around it. They are the motivators, getting others to take action.
They love to turn ideas into activity.
Enabling
No, not that kind of enabling.
This is a good thing.
People with the genius of enabling are eager to help in any way they can. They are the first to volunteer and care deeply about people.
They are the 'glue' that keeps the team together.
Tenacity
Last but not least, people with the genius of tenacity are the finishers.
They get things done.
Without them, nothing would ever ship, get accomplished, or see the light of day.
Once they have decided they're going to do something, they do whatever is needed to clear the way and make sure it gets done.
Ok, so those are the 6 types of working genius.
Did you find your genius in there?
Every person has 2 areas of working genius.
In fact, every person has
• 2 areas of working genius
• 2 areas of working competency
• 2 areas of working frustration
Working Genius
These are the areas that bring you joy and energy. When working in an area of genius, time flies, you're deeply engaged, and when you're done you feel energized and replenished.
Working Competency
Your areas of working competency are areas that you're probably pretty good at and are often relied on to use, but don't necessarily energize you.
You can do them for a while but if you do them long enough, you can grow discouraged or even resentful.
These are the areas that left unchecked can lead to burnout.
Working Frustration
Your areas of working frustration are just that. These are the areas that suck the joy, energy, and life out of you.
It takes very little time for most people working in their area of frustration to grow irritated and miserable.
We all have to work in these areas from time to time but ideally we're not spending the bulk of our time working in our areas of frustration.
So obviously it helps to know what your areas of working genius, working competency, and working frustration are!
The folks at The Table Group have put together an assessment that can help you determine which of the 6 types of working genius are your areas of genius, competency, and frustration.
You can find the assessment here.
There are many more facets to the framework.
This is just the tip of the iceberg.
There are ways to use it to make sure you have the right people in the right meetings or conversations.
There are ways to structure your teams to take advantage of everyone's genius.
There are helpful insights to improve your interactions with others, and opportunities to lean into your own areas of working genius.
Maybe even figure out if you're in the right job!
I'll dive into more of those in future posts, but for now thanks for reading and I hope you found this interesting and helpful.
If you did, share it with a friend!
So long for now...
