Summary:
- about 70% of an instructive story and 30% the true content. The story is really cringe/cheesy but helps introduce the ideas.
- Back 30% presents the concrete definitions. It lays out how a team can truly work together as a team to complement each other’s strengths.
2024-03-11
The 6 Types of Working Genius: Book Overview | Shortform Books
We all have things that either energize or drain us. If we’re aware, we can complement each other.
Three phases of work/a task: ideation, activation, and implementation. Each task requires two types of genius.
- Ideation
- Wonder: Ask why? Ask “is there a better way?”
- Innovation: figure out solutions.
- Activation
- Discernment: use intuition and judgment in figuring out good/bad ideas
- Galvanize/rally people/buy-in
- implementation
- Enable: volunteer. Help people. Empower.
- Tenacity: cross the finish line. Execute. Pound obstacles.
Six type of genius more concretely defined:
- Wonder: Involved the ability to ponder, speculate, and question the state of things. Asking the questions that provoke answer and action. People with this genius are naturally inclined to do these things, to lose themselves in observing the world around them and wondering if things shouldn’t be different or untapped potential that should be tapped.
- Innovation: come up with new ideas or solutions. They’re drawn to origination, creativity and ingenuity, even with little context or directions. Though every type is a genius, these are the people who are most often referred to as geniuses because many of their ideas seem to come out of thin air.
- Discernment: related to sanctity, intuition, and uncanny judgment. People with this genius have the natural ability to assess an idea or situation even without a lot of data or expertises. Using pattern recognition and gut feel they’re able to provide valuable advice and feedback around most subjects in a way that transcends their levels of specific knowledge or information.
- Galvanizing: is about rallying, motivating, or provoking people to take action around an idea or an initiative. People with this genius are naturally inclined to inspire or enlist people to get involved in an endeavor. They don’t mind persuading people to rethink or change their plans to embark on something worthwhile.
- Enabling: providing people with support and assistance in a way that it is needed. People with this genius are adept at responding to the needs of others without conditions or restrictions. They’re naturally inclined to help others accomplish their goals and can often anticipate what people might need before they ask. Individuals with this genius are frequently unaware that this is a genius at all.
- Tenacity: is about the satisfaction of pushing things across the finish line to completion. They’re not only capable of and naturally inclined to finish projects to ensure they’re completed to specification. They gain energy by pushing through obstacles and seeing the impact of their work and they find joy from crossing tasks off their list and getting closure.
Categories of genius - each person has two geniuses, two competencies, and two frustrations. (Per their research)
- Genius: it energizes you. Joy, energy, and passion.
- Competency: it neither energizes nor drains you. Can do fairly well. But we will eventually grow weary if we can do our geniuses.
- Frustration: it drains you. Struggle. Hate it. You can spent a ton of time here without getting to burnout, or failure.
Genius activation modes: you’ll probably have two responsive and two disruptive geniuses.
- Responsive: respond to an external stimulus to be put into action. Need to be activated by an event.
- Disruptive: initiate or provoke change when they see a need for it. More proactive.
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Bryan lives somewhere at the intersection of faith, fatherhood, and futurism and writes about tech, books, Christianity, gratitude, and whatever’s on his mind. If you liked reading, perhaps you’ll also like subscribing: