I have had the privilege of facilitating Working Genius across many, many teams. While very often the conversation focuses on what Genius is missing in a team, I’ve seen instances where the proliferation of one Genius is just as much a cause for concern.
Why teams end up thinking alike
In recruiting teams there can be a tendency to repeat what ‘works’:
- Managers recruit others who work in similar ways
- Recruiters who repeat the ‘typically’ successful profile of a candidate
- HR teams looking for harmony within a team are guided by what the Manager is looking for
So, if you have been recruiting for team cohesiveness then it is not uncommon for teams to be dominated by pairings of Genius. I worked with one team where six of the seven members had the same pairing of Genius – Enablement and Tenacity (ET or TE) – heavily skewed to ‘getting things done’.
Great at getting things done, slower at deciding
As a team, the ET or TE aligned with the ‘get things done’ nature of the work they were doing. But coming to a decision could be challenging; if they were able to come to a decision at all. Without Discernment, ideas are often deferred or cut into tinier and tinier more palatable pieces until everyone can agree to it.
Competencies to the rescue
In teams where there is a dominance of a Genius – their Competencies should come into play. A competency, being a learned way of working that brings you some joy versus a frustration.
In recognising the first Competency everyone in the team holds - we are able to lean into them and consciously make sure a missing Genius is compensated for. It means those competencies are proactively called on to help lead the team through a particular stage of work or discussion where it was needed. It creates more interesting debates and better outcomes as a result.
It also can start an interesting recruitment discussion. When looking at growing the team preference was given to candidates who were able to fill the gap where the greatest lack of the missing Genius was being felt. They still had the same skills and drive the other team members had – it just presented in a different (and much needed way) in how they worked.
Too much of one Genius or too little of another?
So how does this differ from teams where there is simply a lack of a Genius – versus a dominance of one?
In my experience so far, teams with a dominance of a Genius are generally working very happily and the lack of a Genius isn’t necessarily being felt. That is until it is called out. One of the leadership teams I worked on had a dominance of Galvanizing. There was good spread of other Genius but everyone around the table had Galvanizing present as a Genius.
Good decisions were made. Everyone was rallying to the cause and highly energized in meetings. But that is where it seemed to stop. When we called out the proliferation of Galvanizing the team identified any number of projects that were enthusiastically identified and rallied around…that never actually got to ‘done’.
It wasn’t until we looked at the team map it was realized that in the surfeit of enthusiasm there was also inertia. Everyone assumed everyone else was getting it done.
The one person with Enablement was being overlooked in the tidal wave of enthusiastic galvanizing. The person with Tenacity was seen as the party-killer for trying to call out the failure to close things off – and realised they had given up on fighting that battle in the strong wave to get behind the next new initiative being committed to.
While some things got done, it was nowhere near what the productivity should have been given the skills and level of experience around the table. In just recognising that fact, things became a lot more deliberate in setting a plan and assigning responsibilities to ensure things got done.
While this probably seems very obvious – it wasn’t – particularly when everyone was loving the meetings as everyone was leaning into what excited them the most; galvanising each other.
Signs a Genius is being overused
One of the learnings we get as a Working Genius facilitator is around what happens when a Genius is ‘overused’ some of the telling signs are:
Wonder: Re- opens conversations and decisions that were previously closed.
Invention: Bringing up new ideas or solutions when the team really should have moved on to implementation.
Discernment: Getting caught in analysis paralysis and can be slow to make decisions.
Galvanising: Spins up energy and momentum around ideas or initiatives (not necessarily the right ones) – and keeps spinning.
Enablement: Overcommits saying ‘yes’ to too many projects or people.
Tenacity: Over-focuses on completing projects at the expense of the team.
Getting the balance right
So, if you are considering Working Genius for your team it is a good reminder that it can be just as much about the Genius you have present versus the Genius you are missing. Getting that balance right through leaning into your Competencies and recognizing all the skills your team brings to the table is one of the most obvious outcomes in adopting Working Genius.
How to start? We get everyone in the team to complete an assessment (takes about 10 mins to complete) and then generate a team map. I then work through this with you in a Working Genius proven workshop to identify where your team has gaps (or not) and how to use this knowledge to work more effectively together. It is a couple of hours investment that makes an exponential difference…and that truly is genius.
Get in touch if you want to know more about how Working genius can benefit your team – I’m happy to chat.