The morning news cycle was filled with devastating weather, discovery of unimaginable atrocities of a war that wages on, a political landscape filled with lying, cheating, stealing with use of humans as pawns, and an extremely volatile economy. All of this could be cause for a deep sense of vacillating between despair and full on numbness.
Just a short time later, still carrying the heaviness of the morning “window on the world” like a soaked rain jacket, I encountered a small opening in the stormy skies as I found myself surrounded by a group of incredible young people.
Well known leadership expert Patrick Lencioni in discussing 6 Types of Working Genius suggests that doing tasks in our “areas of working genius” brings us joy and energy:
The genius of wonder – the natural gift of pondering the greater potential and opportunity in any given situation.
The genius of invention – the natural gift of creating original and novel ideas and solutions.
The genius of discernment – the natural gift of intuitively and instinctively evaluating ideas and situations.
The genius of galvanizing – the natural gift of rallying, inspiring and organizing others to take action.
The genius of enablement – the natural gift of providing encouragement and assistance for an idea or project.
The genius of tenacity – the natural gift of pushing projects or tasks to completion to achieve results.
The joy and energy of the working genius turned a single ray of sunshine into a full on blue sky day as the conversation unfolded with the aforementioned young people. Each one of them displayed with exuberant enthusiasm multiple geniuses. Wonder, innovation, tenacity were on full display. Their unabashed hopefulness was the redemptive rainbow I so needed on this day – it was pure genius!
Gratitude prayer has opened me to these ideas over the years, especially to discernment. Thank you. Phyllis B