21 Practical Working Genius Tips for Leaders (2026)
- Jonno White
- Mar 24
- 11 min read
If you lead a team, you have probably noticed that some people light up during brainstorming sessions while others seem to come alive only when a project nears the finish line. That difference is not random. It is a reflection of how each person is wired to contribute, and understanding it can transform the way you lead.
Patrick Lencioni created the Working Genius model to help leaders understand the six fundamental types of work that every team needs. The assessment has now been completed by over 1.3 million people worldwide, making it one of the fastest growing productivity and teamwork tools available. Each person has two areas of Working Genius (where they thrive), two areas of Working Competency (where they can contribute but without the same energy), and two areas of Working Frustration (where effort feels draining).
For leaders, the implications are enormous. When you align people with work that energises them, engagement rises, burnout drops, and results improve. In this guide, you will find 21 practical working genius tips for leaders that you can start applying today, whether you are leading a corporate team, a school staff, or a nonprofit board.
The six types of Working Genius are Wonder, Invention, Discernment, Galvanising, Enablement, and Tenacity. Together, they form the acronym WIDGET, representing the complete cycle of work from ideation through to implementation.
Understanding the Six Types of Working Genius
Before diving into specific tips, it helps to have a clear picture of what each genius looks like in action. Leaders who understand all six types are better equipped to recognise strengths, address gaps, and build teams that perform at their best.
1. Learn What Each Genius Actually Looks Like
Wonder is the genius of pondering and questioning. People with this genius love sitting in ambiguity, asking "what if" and "why" questions, and identifying problems or opportunities that others overlook. Invention is the genius of creating original solutions. These team members thrive with a blank whiteboard and get energy from designing new approaches. Discernment is the genius of intuitive evaluation. People with this gift have a natural ability to assess ideas, spot patterns, and provide wise feedback across a range of topics. Galvanising is the genius of rallying and inspiring others to act. These individuals bring momentum and enthusiasm, turning ideas into action by getting people on board. Enablement is the genius of providing support and responsiveness. People with Enablement are adaptable, people oriented, and willing to flex to whatever a situation demands. Tenacity is the genius of pushing work across the finish line. These team members love completing tasks, meeting deadlines, and ensuring quality standards are met.
2. Recognise the Three Phases of Work
The six geniuses pair naturally into three phases. Ideation (Wonder and Invention) is where new ideas are born. Activation (Discernment and Galvanising) is where ideas are evaluated and momentum builds. Implementation (Enablement and Tenacity) is where plans become reality. Leaders who understand these phases can structure projects and meetings to flow through each stage intentionally, rather than jumping straight from idea to execution and wondering why things stall.
3. Know Your Own Genius Profile First
Before you can lead others effectively using Working Genius, you need to understand your own profile. Take the assessment and reflect honestly on which types of work give you energy and which drain you. When leaders model this kind of self awareness, it gives permission for the whole team to be transparent about their own strengths and frustrations.
Building Your Team Around Working Genius
Once you understand the model, the next step is applying it to how you build, structure, and support your team. These tips will help you move from knowledge to action.
4. Create a Team Map
A Working Genius team map is one of the most powerful tools available to leaders. It provides a visual overview of where your team's collective strengths lie and where gaps exist. When everyone can see the map, conversations about workload, delegation, and collaboration become far more productive.
5. Identify and Address Genius Gaps
If your team map reveals that nobody has a particular genius, you have found a vulnerability. For example, a team with no Wonder may struggle to spot emerging problems. A team with no Tenacity may generate brilliant ideas that never get finished. Once you see the gap, you can either recruit for it, redistribute responsibilities, or consciously build processes that compensate.
6. Hire for Missing Geniuses
When building or expanding a team, consider Working Genius profiles alongside skills and experience. If your team already has strong Invention and Wonder but lacks Enablement and Tenacity, hiring someone who thrives in implementation can transform your output without changing your strategy.
7. Pair Complementary Geniuses on Projects
Intentional pairing is one of the simplest ways to apply Working Genius. When assigning projects, match people whose geniuses complement each other across the stages of work. A Wonder paired with a Discernment can refine ideas faster. A Galvaniser paired with someone strong in Tenacity ensures momentum carries all the way to completion.
Working Genius Tips for Leaders: Running Better Meetings
Meetings are where working genius tips for leaders make an immediate, visible difference. Most meeting frustration comes from a mismatch between what the meeting requires and what the participants are wired to contribute.
8. Label Your Meetings by Elevation
Lencioni uses the concept of "altitude" or elevation to describe different types of meeting work. A high altitude meeting (30,000 feet) is about wondering and inventing. A mid altitude meeting is about discerning and galvanising. A low altitude meeting is about enabling and executing. Label each meeting so that participants know what type of contribution is needed before they walk in. This simple step reduces confusion and frustration dramatically.
9. Match Meeting Participants to the Meeting Type
Not everyone needs to be at every meeting. If a meeting is focused on brainstorming (Wonder and Invention), your strongest implementers may not need to attend, and they will probably thank you for protecting their time. Conversely, if a meeting is about execution planning, your big picture thinkers can contribute more effectively elsewhere.
10. Protect Space for Wonder
Many leadership teams skip the Wonder phase entirely, rushing straight to solutions. But Wonder is where the best questions get asked, problems get properly defined, and opportunities get surfaced. As a leader, build time into your meeting rhythms specifically for wondering. Ask open ended questions like "What are we not seeing?" or "What should we be questioning right now?" and resist the urge to jump to answers.
11. Give Galvanisers a Platform
People with the genius of Galvanising need moments to rally the team. If your meetings are purely operational, your galvanisers have nowhere to channel their energy. Build in time for inspiration, celebration, and casting vision. Let galvanisers open meetings, lead team updates, or facilitate kickoff sessions for new initiatives.
Delegation and Task Assignment
Getting delegation right is one of the most impactful working genius tips for leaders. When you delegate based on genius rather than just availability, the quality and speed of work improves significantly.
12. Delegate Based on Genius, Not Just Skill
A person might be skilled at a task and still find it draining. Working Genius helps you see the difference between competency and genius. Whenever possible, delegate tasks to people who are not only capable but also energised by that type of work. The result is better output with less burnout.
13. Stop Asking Frustration Work of Your Team
Every person has two areas of Working Frustration. When leaders repeatedly assign frustration work, even to capable people, it leads to disengagement, resentment, and eventually turnover. Review your team map and check whether anyone is consistently stuck doing work that falls in their frustration zone. If so, find ways to redistribute or redesign the work.
14. Use the 60 Percent Rule
A healthy target, according to Working Genius practitioners, is for each team member to spend at least 60 percent of their time in their Genius and Competency zones. This does not mean eliminating frustration work entirely, as that is rarely possible, but it does mean being intentional about protecting the balance. Leaders who track this, even informally, see noticeable improvements in morale and productivity.
Communication and Team Culture
Working Genius is not just a tool for task assignment. It can reshape how your team communicates, resolves conflict, and builds trust.
15. Normalise Talking About Frustrations
One of the most freeing aspects of Working Genius is giving people language to say "this type of work drains me" without it sounding like a complaint. As a leader, model this openness by sharing your own frustrations. When the whole team can talk about frustrations without judgment, you reduce hidden resentment and create space for honest problem solving.
16. Reduce Unnecessary Guilt
Many high performers feel guilty when they struggle with certain types of work. A person with the genius of Invention may feel bad about their lack of follow through. Someone with Tenacity may feel inadequate because they are not "creative." Working Genius helps leaders reframe these feelings. Nobody has all six geniuses, and that is by design. Help your team understand that needing others is not weakness. It is the whole point of teamwork.
17. Use Working Genius Language in Feedback
Instead of generic praise or criticism, use Working Genius language in your feedback conversations. Rather than saying "great job on that project," try "your Discernment really shone through when you spotted the gap in our strategy." Rather than saying "you need to be more proactive," explore whether the person is being asked to operate in their frustration zone. This specificity makes feedback more accurate and less personal.
18. Build Psychological Safety Around the Model
Working Genius only works if people feel safe being honest about their profiles. If team members fear that admitting a frustration will lead to judgment or career consequences, they will mask their true profile. Leaders need to actively protect the space for honesty by celebrating all six geniuses equally and showing that every type of contribution matters.
Sustaining Working Genius Over Time
Many teams take the assessment, have an energising workshop, and then forget about it within weeks. These final tips help you avoid the "test and forget" trap and make Working Genius part of your ongoing leadership rhythm.
19. Revisit the Team Map Quarterly
Teams change. People join, people leave, and projects shift. Make it a habit to revisit your Working Genius team map at least once a quarter. This keeps the model alive in your team's consciousness and ensures that new hires or role changes are reflected in how you allocate work.
20. Integrate Working Genius into Onboarding
When new team members join, have them take the assessment as part of onboarding. Share their results with the team (with their permission) and update your team map. This accelerates trust, helps the new person understand how to contribute most effectively, and signals that your team takes strengths based leadership seriously.
21. Bring in a Certified Facilitator for Deeper Work
While the assessment itself is straightforward, the deeper application of Working Genius, including team mapping, conflict resolution, and strategic alignment, benefits enormously from expert facilitation. A Certified Working Genius Facilitator can guide your team through a structured session that surfaces insights you would miss on your own, and helps translate those insights into lasting changes in how you work together.
How to Get Started with Working Genius
Getting started does not need to be complicated. Here is a simple path forward for any leader who wants to bring Working Genius into their team.
First, take the assessment yourself at workinggenius.com. Reflect on what resonates and what surprises you. Then, invite your team to take the assessment. Once everyone has their results, build a team map and schedule a dedicated session to discuss what you discover together. Focus the conversation on three questions: Where are our collective strengths? Where are our gaps? And what changes can we make this week to better align people with the work that energises them?
If you want to go deeper, consider booking a facilitated Working Genius session. Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator based in Brisbane, Australia who works with corporate teams, schools, and nonprofits around the world. As the bestselling author of "Step Up or Step Out" (with over 10,000 copies sold), host of the Leadership Conversations Podcast (230+ episodes reaching 150+ countries), and founder of the 7 Questions Movement connecting over 6,000 leaders, Jonno brings deep experience in helping leadership teams unlock their collective potential through Working Genius workshops, executive team offsites, and keynote presentations.
Whether you are leading a team of five or fifty, the principles behind Working Genius offer a practical, research backed path to better performance, less burnout, and a more engaged team. The key is not just knowing the model, but living it daily in how you delegate, communicate, and build your team.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Working Genius and how does it help leaders?
Working Genius is a productivity and teamwork model created by Patrick Lencioni that identifies six fundamental types of work: Wonder, Invention, Discernment, Galvanising, Enablement, and Tenacity. Each person has two geniuses (areas of natural energy and strength), two competencies, and two frustrations. For leaders, it provides a practical framework for understanding why certain tasks energise some team members while draining others, enabling better delegation, meeting design, and team composition. Over 1.3 million people have completed the assessment worldwide.
How long does the Working Genius assessment take?
The Working Genius assessment typically takes about 10 minutes to complete. It is one of the fastest personality and productivity assessments available, which makes it practical for busy leadership teams. Despite its brevity, the insights it provides about how people are wired to contribute are remarkably accurate and immediately actionable.
Can Working Genius be used alongside other assessments like DISC or StrengthsFinder?
Yes, Working Genius complements other assessments rather than replacing them. While tools like DISC focus on communication style and StrengthsFinder identifies broad talent themes, Working Genius specifically addresses the type of work that gives people energy. Many leaders find that using Working Genius alongside other tools provides a more complete picture of their team's dynamics.
What should a leader do after everyone on the team takes the assessment?
The most important first step is building a team map that shows everyone's genius, competency, and frustration profiles side by side. Then, schedule a dedicated team session to discuss the results together. Focus on identifying collective strengths, addressing gaps, and making practical changes to how work is assigned and meetings are run. Avoid the common mistake of treating the assessment as a one time event. Instead, integrate Working Genius language into your regular team rhythms.
How much does the Working Genius assessment cost?
The individual Working Genius assessment is available at workinggenius.com at an affordable price point. Team packages are also available for organisations looking to assess multiple people. For a facilitated team session that includes assessments, team mapping, and expert guidance on applying the results, reach out to a Certified Working Genius Facilitator like Jonno White at Consult Clarity for pricing tailored to your team's needs.
Conclusion
Working Genius gives leaders a simple, practical framework for getting the best out of their teams. When you understand the six types, build a team map, and apply these 21 tips in your daily leadership, the results speak for themselves: less frustration, more energy, and stronger performance across the board.
The key is to move beyond the assessment and weave Working Genius into how you hire, delegate, run meetings, give feedback, and build culture. It is not a one time exercise. It is a leadership operating system that keeps your team aligned with the work that brings out their best.
If you are ready to take the next step, book a Working Genius session with Jonno White and discover how a facilitated experience can accelerate your team's growth. With his experience as a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, bestselling author, and leadership consultant serving organisations across the globe, Jonno can help your team move from understanding their geniuses to truly living them every day.