Working Genius: Solving Disengagement by Tracking Energy
Tired of “fixing” motivation in yourself and others? Map energy instead
Often, we hear leaders complain that their teams have lost motivation. They are burning out, less productive, and growing more disengaged by the day. Adding to this difficulty, some of the factors driving this disengagement can feel frustratingly out of reach for leaders, particularly those in the middle layers. There may be priorities like AI adoption or a major restructuring effort that they did not get to choose, but they are responsible for delivering. All too often, while working through these initiatives, leaders are asked to push their teams forward and take the blame for productivity losses, which can feel like adding salt to the wound.
After all, how can you ask a drained team to do more? Especially when you don’t feel like you can fully control the demands on their time?
Luckily, there’s one tool we like to use that helps leaders restructure work in a productive way while reducing stress: the Six Types of Working Genius Assessment (developed by Pat Lencioni and The Table Group). We have used this framework with hundreds of people across dozens and dozens of teams to help them iron out the kinks in their energy and find greater satisfaction at work with minimal time investment.
Pitfalls of Common Approaches to Disengagement
Attentive leaders always have a pulse on their people, tracking habits, patterns, preferred communication modes, etc. When they work with disengaged employees, they may have a set of tools and support systems to suggest to help their people, but there are 2 potential flaws with these approaches.
The environment itself may be causing disengagement, in which case individual solutions will only provide temporary relief. Leaders may notice repeated disengagement and burnout in these scenarios.
The onus of addressing these problems lies with the leader and tends to work on a one-at-a-time basis. This can be tiring for the leader and particularly inefficient when the whole team may be feeling the stress (just in different ways).
The Working Genius helps address both of these issues, helping leaders in any industry and at any level more deeply understand the nature of work, how it impacts them and their people, and how tasks, roles, meetings, and initiatives can be restructured for optimal productivity and enjoyment.
What the Working Genius Does Instead
The assessment for the Working Genius does not measure personality, it does not measure strengths and weaknesses, and it does not foster shame and guilt about what people need to “correct” to work better. On the contrary, it creates a shared language for people to understand:
Where they naturally create value and feel fulfilled
Where they get stuck
Where the team is working against its more productive nature
This shared language allows work to feel easier — without losing standards and productivity. This is very powerful in the current era of intense work, high stress, and burnout.
Teams are already carrying enough stress, ambiguity, conflict, and workload. This approach addresses root issues in many of these challenges by aligning work and energy, helping people engage in ways they enjoy while boosting productivity and morale.
Want to see how this works in action? Check out our upcoming Leadership Conversation on May 29th!