Building Stronger Teams Through Working Genius
Meaningful and fulfilling work is a critical element to thriving as individuals and excelling as teams. At HopeSource, we have adopted Working Genius as a primary tool for discovering our natural gifts and identifying the essential elements of work that give us the most joy, energy, and fulfillment. When we enjoy the work we do, it energizes us and spurs us on to be as effective as we can be.
When our teams are operating in their genius, amazing things can happen. Our clients get the best service possible from care navigators. Our budgeting teams can make critical decisions that allow us to use funds efficiently. Our affordable housing teams can find unique solutions for long-term problems. Our drivers offer safe and friendly service every day on the road. Everyone on every team can operate in a way that moves our mission of seeing a world where every person thrives forward.
Within the Working Genius framework, there are six essential steps to any work that we do. Each person has two geniuses (steps they naturally thrive in), two competencies (steps they don’t mind doing for a while), and two frustrations (steps that drain them). While every job and every person still requires all six steps, we want to orient our hours, days, and ultimately lives toward the areas where we are fulfilled, energized, and thriving.
By recognizing that some work energizes us and other work drains us, we can alleviate the guilt that often accompanies disliking a task or project. We can acknowledge where we’re weak and lean on others’ strengths when we need them, and we can provide them with the same support when they need our strengths. This interdependence and collaboration are key to our success.
The six essential steps in the Working Genius model are:
Wonder: pondering the greater possibilities and opportunities in a given situation
Invention: creating original and novel ideas and solutions
Discernment: using intuition and instinct to evaluate and assess ideas and plans
Galvanizing: rallying people to new ideas and inspiring action
Enablement: provide others with encouragement and assistance for projects
Tenacity: pushing projects and tasks through to completion
Using Working Genius across our organization helps us to optimize individual roles so that each staff member can operate in their geniuses as much as possible. When individuals have the opportunity to leverage their geniuses to support their team, the team is equipped to handle each stage of its work with energy, enthusiasm, and excellence. Having a team operating in excellence ultimately means that our communities receive the best service possible.