When I first sat down to write about author Patrick Lencioni’s book The 6 Types of Working Genius, I found myself overcome by very strong emotions. I decided not to publish my original article as it came across as rather angry and frustrated from past experiences. I believe I felt such strong emotions because the 6 Types of Genius model is so simple and clear as to why there has been conflict in some of my previous positions. As an individual contributor, I’ve struggled at times to find efficiency and a steady desire and motivation towards certain work tasks. We all have things we like and dislike about the work we do. This isn’t abnormal. It’s when a large portion of your day is spent doing tasks that are frustrating, challenging, and absolutely drains the life out of you that becomes a serious problem.
As a manager, I wish I had been taught this model previously. It’s easy to see why some people excelled in parts of their job responsibilities while others did not. We tried to have multiples of the same “position” but each person brought different skills and “genius” to the team. We would excel at identifying where there was a lack of efficiency and the team would fall behind. But we struggled to define why this was. We knew we didn’t have the right people in the right roles, but even after a carousel-style rotation it barely improved. Had I known then that some people had genius in various areas and frustration in other areas, I would not have made some of the same decisions I did. In fact, I am confident that I know now the strategy that would have worked best in my last management position.
In that position, we struggled with recruiting and retaining new team members. We had a very dedicated core of excellent people who were intelligent, experienced, and highly committed. However, it was a challenge to find a carbon copy of the same type of person as we looked to bring on new team members and acclimate them to the group. When new team members would leave early into their tenure with our group, we would always explain it away as a “poor culture fit.” In some cases, maybe that was correct. But in retrospect, I fully believe we weren’t setting them up for success based on what their geniuses were or how those geniuses interacted with others on the team to address gaps across the group. To be more direct, I wasn’t setting them up for success.
Fortunately, I’ve had the privilege to read The 6 Types of Working Genius and now have a simple model to leverage in understanding how team members interact with the work, what drives and motivates them, and how these geniuses interrelate within a team. But this is a very different way to think about how to define a job description and recruit for the needs of your team. I have worked in human resources and over a decade in a management position. This type of model has never been taught or discussed at any organization I have worked at. We’ve used things my Meyers Briggs and the Predictive Index surveys, which certainly help. But this model is so simple and explains people’s God-given talents so well with work and projects. I don’t know why it hasn’t been more widely adopted.
I guarantee I will come back to this book. I’d like to find a way to take the assessment at www.WorkingGenius.com myself to evaluate my own personal geniuses. Perhaps I’ll write another article about my results and insights I’ve gained about myself throughout that process. Who knows! Ultimately, I highly recommend this book and wish this was taught in every business, management, leadership, and organizational development program. More people need to know about this and find ways to incorporate it into our daily work.
