Guest Blog: Applying Working Genius To Your Real Life
My daughter Natalie has been leaning into the Working Genius model and wrote this blog with a real-life story and application. If you are an inventor, galvanizer, or discerner this will be of special interest, but don't just think personally - you coach, work with, and have family members who are inventors, galvanizers, and discerners too! Hope you get as much out of it as I did!
[That's Natalie and her husband, Mike, in the picture.] Here's her blog:
Have you been reading the genius blogs and wondering how can this apply to real life? What if I am the only participant at my workplace or in my family who is interested in this topic? Especially if your genius is not galvanizing.
Fear not, I am a galvanizer. Wait discerners, don’t go anywhere… this blog is actually for you. As an inventor and galvanizer, I am attracted to discerners… my husband, several former bosses, and many of my closest friends. Often times I have felt that I cause them distress, sometimes communicated clearly and at times communicated through passive aggression.
My goal is to show you that you can single-handedly improve your relationships at work and at home by becoming more aware of where your geniuses lie and how to honor and celebrate those who are different from you.
Real-life example: the tenor of conversation suddenly changed, all of the sudden I felt I was in uncharted relational shark-infested waters… well what did they say at the professional development? What timeline did they give you? How much time will this take from you?
Yikes, what I thought was a great idea that everyone was on board with became a land mine. If there’s one thing I hate, it is relationship traps. In our house, we call them hidden information. It is when one party keeps something important from the other party and then unleashes it passively or aggressively under stress.
There I was wondering how I had gotten myself into this mess and how I would get out. Step one to honoring discerners…listen really well. I put on my active listening ears and paraphrased what my boss was saying…
“So you would like me to observe this meeting and take notes?”
When we originally discussed the idea of an advisory board, I heard “It would be great for someone else to take care of this. I am looking for someone to take over.”
However, once I sensed some friction from my boss after sending an email with a meeting time that was off by a half hour, I realized I needed to listen more and provide support the way that my boss wanted to receive it.
So the next time you feel caught or frustrated at work or at home, take a minute to think through your genius and theirs. How can you leverage what you know? What is in your control?
- I know I am a galvanizer and inventor
- I know that my boss often operates in discernment.
- I know that invention and discernment need each other
- I know that inventors often feel shut down by discerners
- I know that discerners feel inventors are not practical and have too many ideas.
Some questions I have learned to start asking for the inventor/discerner match up:
What do you think of that idea?
I value your discernment, how can we make this better?
What are your reservations?
I pray for you as you read this that your relationships grow deeper and stronger as you let the Holy Spirit guide the way.
Natalie signs off her emails with this quote:
"Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter." -Francis Chan
How could you use her thoughts and this quote in your coaching practice or your real life?