Six Practical Ways to Make the Most of Your Working Genius Assessment
Self-awareness is not an end in itself. It’s a powerful tool for navigating your path more wisely.
— Tasha Eurich
You took the Working Genius assessment. You got your results, learned the lingo, and discussed briefly with your co-workers. You may have even had an “aha” moment reading through your Genius, Competency, and Frustration types.
And then… what?
If that powerful report is now collecting dust in your inbox, and the initially intriguing insights are forgotten underneath a growing task list, you’re not alone. In fact, this ‘test-and-forget’ experience is so common that organizational psychologists have studied it for decades. It’s known as a failure of ‘training’ (or ‘learning’) transfer.
The term describes the well-documented gap between learning something new (like your Genius types) and actually applying it to make a meaningful difference in your daily work. Research consistently shows that without a conscious plan and deliberate effort, this 'transfer' from knowing to doing rarely happens on its own. As a result, even the most powerful insights can end up feeling like simple “infotainment”—interesting to read, but not truly transformative.
Many people take an assessment like the Working Genius, reflect a bit on the results, but stop there. However, that approach leads to a major missed opportunity. The Working Genius framework isn’t meant to be a label you look at once; it’s a practical, flexible tool for redesigning the way you work, lead, and collaborate.
At its core, the Working Genius reveals where you bring the most natural energy — and where you’re most likely to feel stuck, drained, or overlooked. It’s not a personality label - it’s intended to be a lens to reflect on and reframe your work. And when you know how to apply it, it becomes a powerful guide for decision-making, team dynamics, and energy management.
Whether you're deep into your career or building a new team from scratch, here are six clear, actionable ways to put your Working Genius to work.
1. Stop Guessing — Is This Job Draining You or Just a Bad Fit?
Your Geniuses (the types of work that energize you) and Frustrations (the ones that drain you) are your personal roadmap to job satisfaction.
When your daily tasks don’t line up with your natural strengths, even a good job can feel like a slog. This isn't just a feeling; it's a well-documented concept in organizational psychology called Person-Job Fit. Research consistently shows that a strong match between an individual's abilities and their job demands is a key predictor of fulfillment and performance.
Conversely, a persistent mismatch is a primary driver of burnout. According to Gallup's extensive research, employees who get to use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged in their jobs.
Use your Working Genius results to conduct an energy audit to thoughtfully asses the overall fit.
Are you doing what energizes you… at least some of the time? A healthy target is spending at least 60% of your time in your Genius and Competency zones.
Is your current role all Frustration? Be honest about the balance. Honest self-assessment is the first step toward change.
What kind of shift could help rebalance things? This is the first step in what researchers Amy Wrzesniewski and Jane Dutton call "job crafting," where you proactively reshape your role to better suit you.
You don’t always need a new job — sometimes you just need to rework the one you have.
2. Prevent Burnout by Spending Less Time in Your Frustration Zone
Burnout doesn’t always come from doing too much — it often comes from doing too much of the wrong kind of work. If you're regularly spending time in your areas of Frustration, your energy will drain faster than you can recover it.
Burnout researcher Christina Maslach defines burnout not just by exhaustion, but by feelings of cynicism and a lack of professional efficacy. When your work constantly contradicts your natural wiring (your Genius), it drains your sense of effectiveness, making burnout almost inevitable. The solution, according to the well-known Job Demands-Resources model, is to increase your resources—the aspects of your job that are energizing or the tactile resources that can help to reduce frustrations.
Protect time to focus on your Geniuses. Block this time on your calendar and protect it like you would any other important meeting. This is a "resource-building" activity that actively counteracts the draining effects of your Frustration work.
Create buffers around Frustration-heavy tasks. When at all possible, don't schedule a task in your Frustration zone right before an important creative meeting. Give yourself a 15-minute break or switch to a Competency task to help yourself reset and be in your creativity zone.
Pair up with others whose Geniuses complement your gaps. Partnering with others isn't weakness; it's a core strategy for sustainable performance and team-based resilience.
When you reduce time in the wrong zones and proactively increase time in your Genius, burnout doesn’t just slow down — it often reverses.
3. Make Collaboration Way Less Exhausting (and actually Fun)
Tired of feeling like your team is going in different directions? Plotting everyone's Working Genius types on one team map can bring valuable clarity. This approach is a modern application of classic team-building research, like Dr. Meredith Belbin's renowned Team Roles theory, which found that the most successful teams have a balanced mix of behavioral types.
Research published in the Harvard Business Review on cognitive diversity shows that teams with a variety of thinking styles consistently outperform homogeneous teams in problem-solving. But this diversity can create friction if it's not understood. Taking time to discuss your unique team map can transform turns potential conflict into collaboration.
For example:
Are you missing Galvanizing? Without someone to gain buy-in, projects may start strong but fizzle before the finish line.
Do you have all the Enablement in the world, but no Invention? This explains why the team is supportive and happy, but the team stalls when new ideas are needed.
Is everyone high in Tenacity? This is why your team is amazing at finishing but tend to get stuck at the start, deliberating over the "right" way to begin.
Use your team map to identify these blind spots, build stronger pairings (like an Invention/Discernment duo), and ensure no one person carries the weight of the project alone.
4. Make Meetings Less Painful — and Way More Productive
Let’s be honest: many meetings could’ve been an email. A key reason, according to meeting science, is a lack of structure and clear roles. When you align meeting roles with Genius types, you create that structure more naturally.
This is similar in principle to Edward de Bono's famous "Six Thinking Hats" method, a tool designed to ensure all facets of a problem are considered by assigning different thinking "roles" to participants. Using the Working Genius model in this way ensures your meetings are comprehensive and that people contribute from their areas of natural energy.
Wonder: Invite this person to start with the big picture — Why are we meeting? What problem are we solving?
Invention: Ask them to generate creative solutions — even unconventional ones — to move the conversation forward.
Discernment: Have them evaluate ideas in real time — Does this make sense? What might we be missing?
Galvanizing: Put them in charge of energizing the group — rallying people around a decision and clarifying the next steps.
Enablement: Ask them to identify who needs support — and offer help to ensure everyone can contribute.
Tenacity: Assign them the task of closing the loop — confirming deliverables, deadlines, and accountability before the meeting ends.
A quick note: While it’s helpful to invite people to contribute in ways that align with their Geniuses, it’s equally important not to box anyone in.
Your Working Genius profile is a starting point — a tool for insight, not a fixed identity. People are more unique than the top two Geniuses on their profile, and how they engage at work may shift depending on context, season, or support. Honoring individuality means giving each person space to reflect on and articulate how they see themselves within the framework.
Use Working Genius to open up meaningful conversations, deepen self-awareness, and build stronger teams — not to assign rigid roles or limit potential.
5. Defuse Team Tension
Sometimes, what looks like a bad attitude between teammates is simply a Genius mismatch. Resolving this gracefully gets to the heart of what Amy Edmondson calls Psychological Safety—creating an environment where people feel safe to speak up, ask questions, and take interpersonal risks.
A shared language like Working Genius can be a powerful tool for building psychological safety because it gives the team a genuine way to explain their perspective without making it personal. This allows everyone to avoid the Fundamental Attribution Error: our tendency to believe others' actions are a result of their character ("They're being difficult") instead of their cognitive wiring ("They're seeing it from a Wonder perspective").
When you have a safe way to explain why you're pushing back or asking tough questions, the dynamic changes.
For example:
Perhaps the teammate who keeps asking “Do we really need to do this?” isn't being negative; they might have Wonder Genius and need to connect with the purpose.
Maybe your colleague who keeps reworking the plan isn't undermining the team; they might be strong in Invention and are trying to find a better way.
And the person who persistently just wants to check things off the list? Rather than being negligent of others’ feelings in the process, it may be that it is Tenacity in action, driving toward completion.
Using Working Genius as a shared language allows teams to ask better questions ("Help me understand what you're seeing") instead of making assumptions, turning what could lead to potential conflict into productive collaboration.
An important disclaimer: This approach is about decoding different work styles, not creating an excuse for bad behavior. A shared language builds empathy, but it doesn’t replace the need for mutual respect and professional accountability. The goal is to understand the “why” behind an action, not to ignore a negative impact on the team.
6. Design a Workday That Actually Works for You
Your calendar might be full, but is it energizing? In their influential book, The Power of Full Engagement, Tony Schwartz and Jim Loehr argue that managing energy, not time, is the key to high performance. Your Genius types are your personal guide to managing your energy.
This isn't just about feeling good; it's about producing your best work. Author Cal Newport’s concept of Deep Work emphasizes that focused, distraction-free concentration is what creates the most value. By scheduling your day around your Genius, you are creating the ideal conditions for that deep work to happen.
High in Discernment? Schedule 45 minutes of quiet focus time mid-morning to evaluate complex decisions, rather than trying to use your gut instinct on the fly between meetings.
Strong in Enablement? Front-load your day with 1:1s or supportive types of tasks when your relational energy is at its peak.
Thrive in Invention? Block off creative time when you’re least likely to be interrupted. Don’t expect a breakthrough idea to strike after five back-to-back meetings.
This isn’t just productivity hacking. It’s about aligning your day with how your brain naturally operates, so you’re not pushing uphill from 9 to 5.
Bonus: Try color-coding your calendar based on Genius/Frustration zones. You’ll quickly spot where your energy is going and what needs to shift.
And if you’re already using the Working Genius but want more support, check out the Working Genius Team Toolkit—a comprehensive guide filled with coaching questions, team exercises, workflow templates, and real-world tools to help you turn insight into action.
