Working Genius

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Opinions expressed in this episode are personal. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this streaming platform. [00:00:09] Speaker B: Good day, everyone, and welcome to another edition of let's be diverse. I am your host, Andrew Stout. This episode is dedicated to all my loved ones who supported me through this journey. We talk about many ways of leaders or being a leader. Something that came across my computer and something that I've been looking into a little bit recently is working genius. It's something that was kind of interesting to me, so I thought I'd delve into it a little bit, and I thought I'd bring on somebody who has a little bit experience in this and be able to guide us through. And her name is Christina Schmidt. Christina is one of those unbelievable individuals. She's so sociable, friendly, and super knowledgeable. So we're super happy to have her on today. Welcome to the show, christina. Thank you so much for coming on. [00:00:59] Speaker C: Hi, andrea. Thanks for having me. [00:01:02] Speaker B: You're very welcome. Thank you for taking the time for us today. How are things going in your neighborhood? What's going on? What's new? Give us the goodies. [00:01:11] Speaker C: Well, pretty good. It's getting close to summer, so kiddos are almost done with school, so that's always fun. And I've got about halfway through one of my new programs that I just rolled out at the end of May. So very exciting there. So lots of exciting things going on. [00:01:28] Speaker B: Wonderful. How's that program going so far? [00:01:31] Speaker C: Really good. It's first time running it, so it's been a learning curve, we'll say. But the participants are getting so much out of it, and it's great to see their transformation. It's great to see them grabbing a, holding information, using it, and working to make their leadership even stronger. [00:01:51] Speaker B: That's all about training. That's where training comes from, is, like you said, using it. Where can they use it? How do they use it? And like you said, it's kind of like your own. You talk about your children, but it's kind of like, this is your baby. So you want us, you know, you want to see how your students or the people are taking a course, how they're doing, and as they gradually get through it, it's kind of like a gift to you just to see them grow through it and transform. [00:02:19] Speaker C: Exactly. And as we'll get into a little bit later today, I'm a very high enablement genius, so it makes me very happy to see them do well. [00:02:27] Speaker B: Oh, well, that's awesome. That's awesome. Well, I'm super glad to hear that. The program is going well. Super happy to hear that things are going well. I'm sure the kids are excited about the end of school and summertime and kind of activities that they're going to do, so I'm sure they're excited about that. They're probably, they're all both a ball full of energy, and it's excitement for mom to have them around the house all the time. I'm sure it's exciting for you. [00:02:55] Speaker C: Yeah, very exciting. Yes. [00:03:01] Speaker B: She says that with a little bit of fear and nervousness. Well, before we begin, I always have a fun, thought provoking question to get, give to my guests to get things going. Are you ready for yours today? [00:03:19] Speaker C: Sure. [00:03:21] Speaker B: So. And I love these questions because these are just the first thing that pops into your head. So there's never any right or wrong answer. It's always for fun. So my question for you is, should you wash dishes before putting them in the dishwasher? [00:03:38] Speaker C: Oh, easy one. Easy one. I do a rinse, but if you get them too clean, the dishwasher doesn't do its job, so you've gotta. You gotta leave them a little bit dirty. So definitely not washing them. Rinse, though. Yes. Get all the crap off, otherwise you get a clogged dishwasher. [00:03:58] Speaker B: That was the mom coming out there in that answer. But I do. But I do agree with you. Dishwasher is for dishwasher. Absolutely. I am one as well. That just rinses it off a little bit. Sometimes I will wash, and because there's only two of us at the house and because you just don't want to just keep running that thing all the time. I just. Sometimes I will wash because it's pretty much the routine here. My wife is the one that does most of the cooking, but we have a routine. I clean, I do the cleanup. So she clean, she cooks, and I do the cleanup. So I'll kind of. I will wash some of the plates just to kind of sort of. They're not in a dishwasher. And, you know, it doesn't fill up so quickly. So you're not using it, but it doesn't fit. So it doesn't fill up as quickly for two because, I mean, even two people can fill up pretty fast. So especially if you're, you're home on a Saturday and you're having breakfast, lunch and supper, their plates can fill up pretty fast. So that's what we do here. But I do agree with you. The rinsing is probably a good idea. [00:05:04] Speaker C: Yes. Yes, definitely. Yeah. We're once a day, run the dishwasher every day, and if I have to hand wash stuff, I will. But sometimes I just run it a second time in the morning if I don't feel I like watching them. [00:05:15] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, thank you so much for having fun with me. I appreciate that. It's great to hear your answer, and you were pretty quick on it, so I love it. Why don't we start off with you telling us a little bit about you, your story, and of course, your why. [00:05:33] Speaker C: All right. Well, I am a business and leadership coach. I started my career in the manufacturing industry, and I moved my way up there pretty quickly. I did a lot of what's called lean manufacturing, spent very little time in quality. And so for those people who are in quality, I'm sorry, it's been a stint of time. Most of my time was in operations and moved into plant management. So I was running large facilities for automotive manufacturing. At some point in there, I realized, especially when I started having my kids, I was like, this just. It wasn't fulfilling for me, and I wasn't feeling like I was doing my best. And I'll get into a little bit of how that now that I have the language of geniuses working, genius. It makes sense now. But I wasn't able to use my geniuses. And I was working a lot in my competencies and frustrations, which just led me to a lot of burnout, basically. And I moved into doing some consulting. I started doing lean consulting, but I very quickly realized that it wasn't lean tools that people needed to learn. It was how to lead. So instead of lean l e a n, they needed to learn how to lead, l E A D. So I started doing leadership training, and I started with a franchise. And about a year ago, I moved into just on my own as Christina Schmidt development. And so I work a bit with another colleague, and we deliver the same leadership program. But I also have the course that I mentioned earlier that is specifically for catholic leaders, actually. And so it's a way to integrate faith and business so that you can kind of, you can get your life balanced in both places. So that's the what I do and the why. My big motivation, I guess, short answer would be my kids. So, I mean, I want to be there for them. And they are my most important job. And so having this ability to do what I love lets me come home and still have energy for them. And that's why I do what I do. And I love to help businesses. I love to help people be successful. And that's really, that's my why. [00:07:54] Speaker B: So a few things that resonated with me that you had said. First of all, when someone's passionate about what they do, I could just tell that you're passionate about what you do. For those who are listening on audio, I believe that you can pretty much hear somebody's passion, whether you're on the phone, over the phone with them, or sitting in front of them in person or in. On a video, you could just tell, you could feel when somebody is passionate, and that means that the smile is coming out. So I could definitely hear, and, you know, I can see the passion, and I could definitely hear the passion in your voice of what you're doing and what you love and what you enjoyed. The second thing is absolutely 100% we're in it for our families. We're in it to do stuff for our families and provide for our families and give our families a good life. And I think a lot of things changed through the pandemic. I feel a lot of people, they knew, but I think they understood a little bit better, more what was important to them, because they were around people more than they would normally be. So I think we realized that very much so. I know for myself, I'm someone who cares a lot about people, and I just found myself, like, even, like, concerned and worried about even about everybody, because I just. That's just my nature. And during the pandemic, it was, I was concerned about a lot of people and what was going on and what was happening. And if everybody was okay, and I knew I was okay, I knew my family was okay, so that was the main concern. But then I would worry about everybody. So I could definitely see when you say your kids as your why? I could definitely see that. So why don't we start off and get into this discussion and. And why don't you tell us what is the working genius? [00:09:52] Speaker C: So the working genius is an assessment, but it's about 80% of a productivity tool and 20% personality assessment. And it sounds strange to say that an assessment is a productivity tool, but you can get almost instant, instant understanding of what you can do and how you can make an improvement and almost instantly make an improvement based on what you get from this. It's based on how work is done. And it's called the six types of working genius. Because there are six steps in work, and there are three stages of work. Most of us think of the ideation, so you come up with the idea and implementation, so you go get it done. But there's actually a center one, which is activation, where you decide on the right idea and then get people excited about it. And so that helps translate your idea to the doers. And so there are the six steps of work, which then correspond to the six geniuses. And we all have two geniuses, two competencies, and two frustrations. And what's wonderful about that is everybody's a genius, but it really proves how we're just meant to work together, how we need other people to really move work smoothly through a system. Because when you're missing one of these steps or when somebody isn't great at them, then it falls flat, you miss something and work doesn't move as smoothly. So if you can get somebody in all six of the geniuses helping to move work through, you can get a much more efficient workflow and much more engaged and happy and joyful employees, which joyful employees want to work harder. That is really the meaning behind that buzzword of empowerment and empowered employees. So to just quickly describe the geniuses. So the first stage of work is genius of wonder. So that's somebody who's kind of asking the question. Second one is invention. So that person comes up with the idea or creates something from nothing. Essentially, discernment is the third genius. So that person tends to have a great gut feel. So it's going to work or it's not going to work. They might not be able to tell you why, but they have that gut that can say, yep, that's going to work. Next. Once you've kind of got the idea, you move it over to galvanizing, which is the person who's going to say, all right, everybody, let's get on board. You're going to do this. You're going to do this. And then they really get joy from pushing people, from pushing people to get things done. Your next step is enablement. So these people, they love to help. They love to help others, and specifically, they like helping the person. And that's, that's the key difference between them and the next stage. But typically, they're your first volunteers. So somebody says, hey, I got this great idea. And they're going, oh, that's me. I'd like to help. How can I help in any way? And then the last stage is tenacity. And these people love to bring it across the finish line. They see an action that's open and they'll be. They'll push and they'll make sure it all gets done. [00:13:14] Speaker B: So the one thing that kind of jumped out as me, at me, as you're kind of explaining it is that I'm guessing that when you're doing this assessment that you have to be a little bit. The vulnerability has to come out. Because if you're not being truthful and honest in your responses and not saying exactly or afraid to say something or answer it a certain way, I could see it kind of being a kind of not. Not equaling out, if you get my drift. [00:13:52] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, it's like any, any of those self assessment type things, whether it's the Myers Briggs disc, any of those, you're basically attesting to how you act in a situation or how you feel about a situation. And so either if you're afraid to share how you feel and you don't want to answer honestly, there might be. There's usually a reason for that, and that's probably not great. The other thing is, if you're not self aware enough to actually see what you're good at or not good at, that's another thing that can be addressed through other coaching type work or 360s, if you like those, that sort of a activity. But ultimately, because all six geniuses are needed, all six geniuses are as equally important. Otherwise the work will fall flat. There's no reason to hide what you're doing because all you're going to do is put yourself in misery. So because to have a genius is to say that that type of work brings you joy. It brings you joy, gives you more energy, and really just wants want you to make it kind of keep going. Like me, for example, this enablement thing, I love it. I was tired coming in here. Now I'm so energized because I'm getting to talk about it. So it's energizing me to get to use my genius, and now I'm less tired. [00:15:18] Speaker B: You were tired when you started. I can't tell. That is good. And so you kind of fooled us all today that you were tired before we started. Before we started. Because we. I could not tell at all. So that's. That's good. [00:15:33] Speaker C: I think my low energy is kind of normal for everybody else. [00:15:41] Speaker B: So now that we know what the working genius is, what are the benefits of it? [00:15:48] Speaker C: So the biggest benefit is just the, well, there's so many benefits, but just the joy that you're going to be able to feel in contributing something that is, that you're good at. So one of the key things when you're trying to measure an empowered or an engaged workforce is do the employees feel that they're contributing at their best? Like, do they. Are they giving their best? And are people appreciating their best? And this is one way to make sure that people are able to contribute their best. And when you get to work in your geniuses more, you. You don't get burnt out as much. So a lot of times, burnout can be caused by working outside of our geniuses or in. In areas where our energy is drained. So in our frustrations, our energy is drained quite quickly. Our competencies, it'll take a bit longer, but you're still going to burn out if you're functioning in those areas more than you're functioning in your geniuses. And some of the ones you might not realize is the amount of guilt that can be relieved from knowing this. Speaking personally, you know, I mentioned that I was very burnt out from my leadership role, and I realized I was spending so much time in galvanizing and tenacity, and so galvanizing is one of my competencies, and tenacity is, like, my lowest frustration. So there is an order to these things, and it is low, and I can attest to it. It is low. But when I realized that, like, for years, I was saying, gosh, I'm bad at this, and I felt guilty because I wasn't good at those things. And when you know what your genius is, you don't have to feel guilty about it anymore. You say, I'm good at these things, and these are the things that don't bring me joy. And that's the stuff I get to outsource or I should outsource, or I can ask for some support. Like, I know when I do tenacity work, I ask for people to galvanize me a little bit so I get people to kind of check in or I do some self galvanizing with, like, a timer or something, because I know I need support in that style of work. So I don't have to feel guilty about feeling lazy or whatever it is anymore because I'm not good at that style of work. I just know I need to do something to make sure I can get it done. Hopefully don't spend all my day in it. [00:18:16] Speaker B: We're not good at everything, so. And I was talking to somebody about this this week, and they were. We were talking about the fact that a lot of leaders or people in leadership, they, if they don't know something, a lot of them will maybe come off that they do know and answer it incorrectly. [00:18:40] Speaker C: Hmm. [00:18:41] Speaker B: That's not the right thing to do. In my books, like, first of all, we don't know what, we don't know everything. I think a good leader will, like you said, will realize that. And when they do, they will reach out for help or assistance in those areas. So you just said it there. If you need help with certain things, you'll reach out to people and ask them, hey, can you, you know, can you give me a hand with this or can you give me a hand with that? And they will, they will help out. That's great. When you have those type of people that will help out because then you'll do that for them and intern. So it's absolutely great. But when you, if you were to say that you know everything and you're good at everything, well, then that's where, I think that's where you start to stumble a bit. [00:19:31] Speaker C: Well, it definitely is. As a leader, it's so important to build trust with your team. And when you're, when you're pretending to know something that you don't, a, it breaks trust, but b, there's a level of vulnerability that a leader needs to show to build trust with their team as well. So if, if I'm a leader and I say, yes, I know everything, and when someone starts to tell me the answer, I talk over them to make sure that they know I know it, too. That insults everybody else, and that does not build trust and it doesn't build teamwork. And when we don't have high functioning teams, we don't get good results. There's tons of science around that. [00:20:18] Speaker B: Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure there is. So do you think that most leaders are aware of working genius? And if so, like, if they're not aware of it, why wouldn't they be? [00:20:31] Speaker C: So it's relatively new. It, I want to say it was 20. I don't know what year it is now. It's probably 2021 or 22 when it really was officially launched. I think the book came out in 22. And so if they don't know about it, it's because it is relatively new as far as assessments go, I think there is a growing number of leaders who are knowing about it. But there's still the point when I, if you say it, people are, like, thinking you're meaning something else because there's people like, you talk about your zone of genius and that sort of thing, so they think I'm talking about that. So there is still quite a bit of education needed for people to understand what it is and understand that it's such an easy way to get quick benefits. [00:21:16] Speaker B: So, like, could you see that leaders, like, not wanting to look at it. Like, are not wanting to research or do it or find more information on it. Like, could you. Like, have you seen it? Or could you see that? [00:21:31] Speaker C: I could. Like, I had. I mean, I've proposed it to a few clients who've been like, well, I don't wanna. You know, for whatever reason it is, they think they've got it already. They think they've got, you know, that, because there's so many different assessments. But I've taken. I don't even know how many assessments. This is the one that I was like, it's so simple, and I just love the fact that it's so easy, and it's easy to apply. Like, you get these Meyer Briggs, Myers Briggs things that you get these four letters, and then every. So there's, like, 16 different combinations of four letters, and nobody remembers what any of the letters stand for, what they mean, and so you can't practically apply it, whereas this one is so easily applicable that it's. It's just. I don't know. It meets all my. As a leader, if I had this back then, I would have loved it because it would have given me such a great tool to understand how to best utilize my team, how to best get me working at my highest level, and to really make the whole team function more effectively. I could see judgments that were made towards others because, you know, we were asking them to do a lot of frustration work. So as far as leaders not wanting to do it, I think it's that they don't understand what they're gonna get from it, because it feels like just another assessment, just another thing, and they don't want to add to it. So there is reason to. To educate or to, like, I'm a certified facilitator, so just bring a certified facilitator in, run a workshop, because they're easy and they're quick, and you're gonna get huge benefits just from the one, you know, two to four hour workshop. [00:23:15] Speaker B: Because I could definitely see, like, resistance of it. And, like, the resistance that I see is that they. Like you said, they think that they know it, or a lot of them, they just don't think that they have the time. But one of the things that when things are busy or when. So when. So as an example, when someone loses their job and they were a member of a fitness club, well, the first thing that they would do is they probably quit the fitness club because they wouldn't be able, you know, because they're kind of looking at things that they can afford. And they would be sure they would get rid of the fitness club when it's probably one of the most important things for them to keep because you're exercising, you're training, you're working your mind, you're working your body. So it's probably the most important thing to do. But they would probably leave that. So I could see them looking at that and saying, well, I don't really have the time and I don't really have the pain. You know, I just don't have the time to look at that. You know, I have friends of mine who send documents to, throughout their companies and to different managers. And a lot of these managers don't look at these things because they have so much stuff other than that to do, but that, you know, the things that they're sending them is important stuff. So that's actually going to bring in money to the company because it's going to be helping their employees be more productive. So it's just interesting to me how we kind of, you know, as leaders, we kind of say we're replacing what we think is important, but the things that might be really important to help us be more successful as a leader or as a manager of a company. It's a, it's amazing to see what they, what people dump and what they, what they don't. [00:25:24] Speaker C: Yeah. And that, you see that everywhere and there. It's always the challenge as a leader. It's trying to make that choice. Like, if you're trying to cost cut, like, say you lose a program and you've got a cost cut, you've got to understand which money is going to make you more money. So investing in your people, if it's the right program or the right training or the right thing to be doing, is going to make you more money in, you know, spending something like, you know, your gym example, you could say, well, I don't need to spend money at the gym. I can go walk outside or I can, you know, work out at home. All right. You know what I mean? So there's an alternative. So you, you've got to kind of take these balances to say, what's going to make me money? This is, this is a wise investment of my money. This is a wise investment of my time because I'm going to get back two to three times what I've spent pretty quickly. So. [00:26:23] Speaker B: Absolutely. Absolutely. What would, what is your favorite story from your career? [00:26:31] Speaker C: So my strong e comes out and I think my favorite story, one of my earliest clients that I had when I started with the leadership training he has, he started just taking some leadership courses with me. Then I kept coaching him. I kept training his other leaders. And we were just, we were working the culture at his business. And he came to me recently and he's saying, my culture is writing itself now. It's like, it's when the bad eggs come in, the people, like, they kind of work themselves out because the team, they love the culture and the way it is and they want to keep it that way. So anybody who's not fitting or not, you know, rising to the occasion of the challenges of the work, people don't want them there because that wrecks the culture and they know it, and it wrecks their productivity and they know it. And I love that it's trickled through the whole place. And so that is just one of my favorite ones. And he know, like, he's even said to me, he's like, well, it's because we're training all the leaders that that's happening. And I'm like, I know. So it's so cool. So I love to hear that because it's, he's taken something and he's applied it and his team is loving it and they're seeing the fruits of it everywhere and it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. [00:27:52] Speaker B: Well, for sure. And I think they're seeing the fruits of the labor. So they're seeing how successful it is, how well it's run. People are seeing that underneath them and they're buying into it. So once you get that buy in from everybody, then, yes, it makes it all worthwhile. And like you said, when someone comes in and doesn't buy in, well, it's better to have everybody that's, you know, buying in and, you know, they're able to manage the one rather than having it the opposite, where there's only a couple of people buying in and everyone else is not. So that's a really good situation for them to have and, or to be in. And I'm sure there's a lot of companies that would love to be in that scenario. For sure. [00:28:39] Speaker C: I think so. It's definitely a good measure of your culture. [00:28:43] Speaker B: Oh, it definitely, definitely is. This has been such a good conversation. I really enjoyed it. Do you have any final thoughts today? [00:28:53] Speaker C: You know, if somebody is wondering about working genius or just wondering, you know, is this going to work? I'm going to tell you, yes, it will. Yes, you will have impact. It's quick, it's easy. It's very affordable to do. So it's definitely worth the time. So if you're welcome to reach out to me and I can go through some stuff with it, or they can hop on the work ingenious website and check it out themselves, whatever works for them. But it is fantastic tool. [00:29:26] Speaker B: It sounds like it's something that people should look into even just to check it out. I'm someone who likes to. As for anything that has to do with leadership and learning and stuff like that, I'm always willing to look at stuff like that. So suggest to to check it out as well. [00:29:43] Speaker C: So as long as I know it, it works at home, too. [00:29:47] Speaker B: Oh, that. Well, there you go. There you go. Listen, I wanted to take the time to thank you for coming on today. You're a phenomenal individual. I know we connected pretty quickly, and I think we connected and just the connection was pretty strong right away. And I think it's just because we both see stuff similar ways and it's been a joy to connect with you and it was a joy to have you on today. So thank you so much. [00:30:17] Speaker C: Thanks, Andrew. [00:30:18] Speaker B: You're very welcome. On behalf of myself and my guest Christina, I'd like to thank you all for taking the time to listen to us today. And until next time, be safe and remember that if we all work together, we can accomplish anything you have been listening to. [00:30:34] Speaker A: Let's be diverse with Andrew Stout. To stay up to date with future content, hit subscribe.