Our 49th year is off to an excellent start. One reason for this is that our staff met with Kevin Bender (Mindy’s uncle) to learn about The Six Types of Working Genius. The Working Genius website describes the approach in this way: “The 6 types of Working Genius is a new model that helps people discover their natural gifts and thrive in their work and life. When people are able to better understand the types of work that bring them more energy and fulfillment and avoid work that leads to frustration and failure, they can be more self-aware, more productive and more successful.”
Each staff member completed an assessment to determine their areas of working genius. The six areas (with their descriptions drawn from Working Genius materials) are:
- wonderment – identifies need for improvement/change
- invention – confirms importance of need, generates idea or solution
- discernment – assess merit /workability of idea or solution
- galvanizing – generates enthusiasm/action around idea or solution
- enablement – initiates support/assists in implementation of idea or solution
- tenacity – commits to completion/desired results of idea or solution
Everyone has all of these forms of genius in varying degrees, and the assessment sorts out each person’s Working Genius (gifts that bring joy, energy, passion), Working Frustrations (activities that drain energy and joy), and Working Competencies (neutral for a limited time). During our session with Kevin we learned each other’s two areas of genius, then heard the description of each combination. For example, my two areas of Working Genius are Enablement and Invention. This indicates that my joy and energy come from encouraging and assisting others with projects and tasks, as well as from creating original ideas and solutions. Areas of frustration for me are galvanizing and discernment, so as I engage in projects that require those geniuses, it’s beneficial for me to draw on other staff members who are particularly adept at generating enthusiasm and assessing the workability of an idea.
It was interesting to hear the descriptions of others’ Working Genius combinations, and many of them were spot on with what we’ve observed as their typical approach to work. Already as we’ve used the approach to solve problems (e.g. implementation of brightwheel student information system), knowing each other’s Working Genius combination has helped us move more fluidly through situations, drawing on the strengths that each staff member has to offer. We’re still learning about the Working Genius approach, and are excited to see how it will inspire our community to function in a more harmonious way. We are confident that as we become more familiar with the talents each person brings to the table, the quality of our program will flourish in new ways.