Why Is Joy and Fulfillment Elusive in Our Professional Roles?

Uncovering your team’s Working Genius will solve this problem.  Understanding your working Genius improves retention; increases productivity; makes meetings better instantly and allows the team to be more effective.  

One of the big problems in life is that people get into their jobs and discover that they’re not happy.  So, what do you think their reaction is? “I need more work/life balance.”  “I should work less.”  “I will find another job.”

But if they don’t understand what type of work brings them joy, they are solving the wrong problem.  They will be unfulfilled.  

As a business owner, you experience the same frustrations that your team feels.  There are aspects of your role that you dread certain types of meetings that suck the energy out of you.  Yes?  

What if you could understand the type of work that you love, and your team felt fulfilled doing?  You could eliminate the guilt of not being better at something and the judgement of others for not being better at something that they are not wired to do. I am not suggesting that a utopia of perfect harmony is possible or should be a goal.  We are humans after all.  However, knowing how we are wired and what type of work we desire allows us to be fulfilled more consistently in the workplace and home. 

It is possible to be more fulfilled running your company and working with your leadership team!

I am a huge fan of Patrick Lencioni’s books.  They are practical and meant to serve entrepreneurs and leaders of teams.  In the last 45-days while working from Florida, I have read two for the first or re-read six of them.  Well, listening to them is more accurate. 

The 6 Types of Working Genius was impactful. So much so that I have completed the Working Genius Certification Training offered through the Table Group. If you have reached a point in scaling your business where some of the shine has come off the apple and you need to find that energy and passion, the working genius model provides insights necessary to do just that. 

The 6 working geniuses are illustrated above.  Each genius is necessary for any type of work.  Everyone has two geniuses that bring them fulfillment.  Each individual has two geniuses that are frustrations and will always suck the energy out of them.  Everyone has two geniuses that are competencies. The person can do this type of work, but eventually they cause burnout. 

When you are working in your genius, there is energy abound.  You can do the work for longer periods of time without feeling a struggle because you are doing what you were meant to do.  

There are two scenarios I have seen impact, the first involved a client’s leadership team at a $10M a year commercial security company.  The team consisted of six people who have worked together for five years.  Their meetings often felt like an airplane dropping 10,000 feet in altitude in a few seconds – turbulent and unproductive.  

Once they gained an understanding of the Working Genius model, team members understood how they could focus and have the greatest impact, but also understood how to stay on task in a meeting.  If they needed to talk about strategy, but slid into tactics, the meeting went off the rails.  The working genius model helped the team identify the type of work they needed to do; the impact was immediate.

The other scenario was in my own family.  My wife, 20-year-old daughter and I used the model to improve how we operate as a unit from planning trips to making decisions. 

The biggest affect is with my daughter who is beginning to look at entering the workforce.  She understands her working geniuses which will help her avoid all of the jobs that my wife and I had early in our career that were unfulfilling.  What a gift!

As a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, I have received hands-on training from the Table Group team and been equipped with the tools and resources to help people leverage the Working Genius model with individuals, teams and organizations.  Typically, it takes 20 minutes to explain the model to someone who has not read Lencioni’s book.  It is simple. 

Go grab the book or schedule an intro call to discuss here.  I am happy to share ideas.