Part 1 of 7 By Al Mills
A short while ago, I had the privilege of working with an Operations Team leader named Jean. Jean and I had a fantastic rapport and she did a superb job of leading a team of 12 diverse people responsible for various aspects of a conference during which we would host 400 to 600 people. This included food, refreshments, registrations, technical requirements, IT, facility, and serving guests. The event was a great success because Jean led the team so well. When I have a good working relationship with people, I often come up with a nickname for them that compliments their strengths and successes…Jean’s nickname was Jeanius. And to this day when we have the opportunity to work together, I still refer to her as Jeanius.
When we think of a genius, we usually get a mental image of Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, or Katherine Johnson (the underdog mathematician featured in the 2016 movie Hidden Figures). On some level, many of us wish we could be considered a genius, and each of us has our moments, though genius is often a sarcastic crack at someone who has messed up!
Patrick Lencioni and the team at The Table Group have developed an assessment system called The Six Types of Working Genius. The system has been out for a couple years, and its accuracy and validity are demonstrating the value of helping team members reach more of their potential, and organizational performance. The Six Types of Working Genius could revolutionize your team and provide incredible insight into the best ways to value team members, increase their performance, and create a cooperative culture in your organization.
The Table Group team has discovered that with any project, or endeavour, six categories of work are pretty much universally applied. Each of us is usually motivated by, and energized by two of these categories, while two of these categories are neither energizing or motivating to us, and two categories are demotivating and de-energizing to us. There are a lot of variables here for how each of us responds to these types of work, yet the underlying discovery can be applied to each of us. The categories are:
Wonder – I’m motivated by considering the big picture of the organization and asking if we can do something better or new.
Invention – I’m motivated by creating tools and paths for accomplishment of the mission.
Discernment – I’m motivated by evaluating the new ideas and plans and then providing improvements
Galvanizing – I’m motivated by rallying the team around this and enthusing them to pursue this with energy.
Enablement – I’m motivated by providing tools and opportunities for the team to get the job done.
Tenacity – I’m motivated by organizing the project and making sure it gets done on time, on budget, and on spec.
Stay tuned for more detailed explanations of the Six Types of Working Genius, and how understanding motivations and strengths will benefit your team and organization.
Next: Wonder
Al Mills is the lead consultant and founder of The Advantage Mill, a company dedicated to bringing out the best in the workplace. You can find the website at theadvantagemill.com.