36- Finding Your Genius
In this episode of Become the Leader, Jody Holland and Megan Slaughter explore Patrick Lencioni’s Six Types of Working Genius and how understanding the way you naturally work can improve performance, teamwork, and job satisfaction.
They break down the six geniuses—Wonder, Invention, Discernment, Galvanizing, Enablement, and Tenacity—and explain the difference between your areas of genius, competency, and frustration.
Jody and Megan also share their own Working Genius profiles and discuss how different strengths can either create conflict or become a powerful advantage when teams understand how each person contributes.
Key Takeaways
- Your Working Genius represents the kinds of work that naturally give you energy.
- Competencies are things you can do well, but they may drain you over time.
- Frustrations are areas that can become exhausting when you are required to operate in them continuously.
- Strong teams do not need everyone to think alike—they need the right mix of strengths.
- Understanding Working Genius can help leaders diagnose conflict, burnout, communication issues, and team gaps.
- The six geniuses align with three stages of work: Ideation, Activation, and Implementation.
- Leaders can use Working Genius to structure meetings, assign responsibilities, coach employees, and build stronger teams.
- The goal is not to eliminate your frustrations. It is to spend more time working where you naturally create the greatest value.
The episode also explores an important leadership question: Are people burning out because they are working too much—or because they are spending too much time doing work that drains them?
Understanding how you and your team naturally approach work can create a shared language for collaboration, reduce unnecessary friction, and help people spend more time doing the work they were built to do.
Become the leader you would follow.
