Optimizing Your Team's Performance Through the 6 Types of Working Genius Assessment

Many managers expect their team members to be mature professionals who know how to collaborate effectively through a keen understanding of what genuine teamwork looks like. However, experience shows that’s often not the case. High performing teams don’t just happen. They are created over time by taking the right intentional actions. One such action is to channel the right task to the right person at the right time.

Now it may seem a simple matter to assign the right task to the right person. There are job descriptions after all, but it actually goes deeper than that. What if a person isn’t good at every aspect of their job description or doesn’t find everything sent their way to be fulfilling? What if someone else on the team absolutely loved and was talented at something you thought was someone else’s job?

Managers and teams need a pathway to guide them on how to do a better job at assigning work and project roles to be more satisfied and productive.

One of the most effective pathways is the 6 Types of Working Genius assessment developed in 2020 by American author, speaker, and management consultant Patrick Lencioni together with his team at the Table Group.

A Powerful Tool for Understanding and Assessing a Person’s Geniuses, Competencies, and Frustrations at Work

The 6 Types of Working Genius assessment is a simple but powerful assessment that identifies a person’s natural gifts across three phases of work.

Insights gained through the assessment helps individuals and teams understand where they find reward and fulfillment (geniuses) at work, where they may feel more neutral (competencies), and what drains them (frustrations).

The assessment maps to three distinct phases required to take any project from start to finish:

Ideation Stage (Figuring out what is possible)
Activation Stage (Deciding how to get going)
Implementation Stage (Getting it done)

To determine which phase or phases are a person’s best match, Lencioni defines six types of “working genius” which form the acronym WIDGET:

Wonder (W): Pondering the status quo and asking “what if” to spot new opportunities and problems.
Invention (I): Creating original and novel ideas or practical solutions from scratch.
Discernment (D): Intuitively evaluating, filtering, and assessing the quality or risks of ideas.
Galvanizing (G): Rallying, inspiring, and organizing people to take action on a plan.
Enablement (E): Offering support, resources, and immediate encouragement to help kickstart work.
Tenacity (T): Pushing tasks and projects across the finish line to drive concrete results.

How Insights Fuel Productivity

A “Working Genius” is the type of work that brings someone reward and fulfillment. Assessment results provide clarity about what each team member’s working geniuses are. Different geniuses lend themselves to different stages of work. That insight alone creates immediate alignment as to who should be doing what on the team.

What happens on a lot of teams is every team member is expected to be great at every stage of work. Experience shows that’s rarely true. Some people are adept at coming up with new ideas, whereas other people are better at filtering those ideas, and yet other people are better at supporting others. And then there are those who are excellent at getting assigned tasks done.What happens on a lot of teams is every team member is expected to be great at every stage of work. Experience shows that’s rarely true. Some people are adept at coming up with new ideas, whereas other people are better at filtering those ideas, and yet other people are better at supporting others. And then there are those who are excellent at getting assigned tasks done.

The 6 Types of Working Genius assessment reveals who has a stronger aptitude for each particular stage of work. Conversely, the assessment also reveals a person’s areas of frustrations plus the competencies they possess that don’t deliver reward and fulfillment. This information is equally valuable to the manager because it circumvents the guilt and shame someone may experience from failing at an assigned task that isn’t suited for them.

Rather than judging someone harshly (“Why can’t you do this right? Why do you have such a hard time getting work done? Why don’t you ever contribute to brainstorming sessions?) the manager can instead realign that person into a better role where they can contribute effectively and with genuine enthusiasm.

Knowing this, a manager can pull someone into a discussion at the right time. For example, a team member who has the genius of wonder or invention should be a part of a brainstorming session whereas a team member with the genius of tenacity probably shouldn’t be invited.

In between geniuses and frustrations lies the category Lencioni calls the “working competencies.” The 6 Types of Working Genius assessment identifies these areas as well. Working competencies are areas that a person might actually be good at but they don’t particularly enjoy. These kinds of tasks, when repeated over a long enough period of time, can lead to burnout. So, it may not be that a person is working too hard but rather they’re being asked to do too much in their areas of competency.

Once each team member has taken The 6 Types of Working Genius assessment a team map can be created. This team map will indicate the team’s strengths. For example, if most of the team are geniuses in the wonder and invention categories, then the team’s strengths are likely rooted in ideation and developing innovative approaches. In a similar way, if working geniuses predominate in galvanizing and enablement, the team may be defined by a “let’s move” approach as opposed to “what might we be doing?”

The team map also opens up awareness of where gaps exist within a team. If a team lacks a team member with the discernment working genius, the team may start running with ideas that are half baked or not fully considered. In a more extreme case, a manager could come to realize that the desired tasks simply can’t be accomplished with the current roster of people. They may then want to pull people from other teams to bolster the needed phase of work.

While other team assessments may bring out what a team member’s behavioral style is or their behavioral tendencies, The 6 Types of Working Genius assessment focuses on how a team can be more productive, better organized, and more fulfilled. This assessment can immediately impact a team’s performance productivity.

We’re a Certified Facilitator of the 6 Types of Working Genius Assessment

Bay Area Executive Coach is proud to be an experienced and certified facilitator of The 6 Types of Working Genius assessment and we offer workshops and 1-on-1 coaching for teams and leaders who want to avail themselves of the insight and value offered by this assessment.

Now’s the time to get a firm grip on the makeup of your team to ensure the right people are doing the right task at the right time. And we can help. Schedule a conversation or complete our Contact Form to discuss how you and your team can benefit from this assessment.

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