WORKING GENIUS FOR LEADERSHIP TEAMS
UNDERSTAND WHERE YOUR TEAM DOES ITS BEST WORK
A leadership team can have highly capable people and still struggle with how work gets done. Some parts of the work move easily while others repeatedly stall. Certain leaders seem energized by particular challenges while others become frustrated by them.
Working Genius gives teams a practical way to understand where people naturally contribute their best work, where they can contribute when needed, and where work tends to drain their energy.
Athena uses Working Genius to help leadership teams apply those insights to how work actually moves through the team.
UNDERSTANDING HOW WORK GETS DONE
EVERY KIND OF WORK NEEDS DIFFERENT CONTRIBUTIONS
The Working Genius model identifies six different kinds of contribution involved in taking work from an initial idea through to completion. Most people have areas that give them energy, areas they can perform competently when needed, and areas that tend to create frustration.
Looking at those differences across an entire leadership team can reveal more than individual preferences. It can help explain why certain kinds of work come naturally to the team, why other work repeatedly gets stuck and why capable people may become frustrated with one another.
USE TALENT BETTER
Understand where individual leaders naturally bring energy and strength to the work.
SPOT TEAM GAPS
See where important kinds of contribution may be missing, overlooked or repeatedly falling to the same people.
REDUCE FRUSTRATION
Recognize when leaders are spending too much time in work that drains rather than energizes them.
MOVE WORK FORWARD
Understand what the team needs at different points to move ideas from possibility through implementation.
FROM INSIGHT TO APPLICATION
APPLY WORKING GENIUS TO THE REAL WORK OF THE TEAM
Knowing someone’s Working Genius is useful. The greater value comes from understanding what the pattern across the team means for the work the team is responsible for accomplishing.
Athena uses the assessment as a starting point for a practical conversation about how work moves through the leadership team. Where does momentum build? Where does it disappear? Who tends to step in? What kinds of contribution may be undervalued or missing?
The goal is not to redesign everyone’s job around an assessment. It is to give the team a better way to understand how people contribute and make practical adjustments to how work gets done.
A CUSTOMIZED TEAM EXPERIENCE
BUILT AROUND YOUR LEADERSHIP TEAM
Working Genius is most useful when the assessment is connected to the team’s actual responsibilities, challenges and ways of working. Athena designs the engagement around that context rather than delivering a standard workshop.
UNDERSTAND
A conversation with the team leader or sponsor establishes the team’s context, objectives and current challenges.
ASSESS
Team members complete the Working Genius assessment to identify their areas of Genius, Competency and Frustration.
APPLY
A facilitated team session connects the results to how the team generates ideas, makes progress and gets work across the finish line.
REINFORCE
A post-engagement conversation with the team leader identifies observations and opportunities to put the learning into practice.
START WITH THE NEED, NOT THE TOOL
IS WORKING GENIUS RIGHT FOR YOUR TEAM?
Working Genius can be particularly useful when a capable leadership team wants to understand why some parts of its work flow naturally while others create recurring frustration or lose momentum.
It isn’t the answer to every team problem. Athena begins by understanding what is happening and then determines whether Working Genius, Myers-Briggs or another approach would make the greatest difference.