My legal education and training did not involve any formal courses in leadership, organizational behaviour or supervisory management. This may very well be the case for other law students, young; or seasoned lawyers; unless they take it upon themselves to formally acquire this knowledge and put it into practice. My introduction to any concepts, in these areas, came through my pre-law politics major during which I also pursued two minors – human resource management and management information systems, or over time through the tech community, self-learning or reading.
I couldn’t help but think that in the absence of any relevant curriculum change to include leadership and management modules, to be better leaders or future leaders in the profession, it may be incumbent on us to personally engage in this type of knowledge and skills building, and putting the concepts and learning into practice in our career. So, how can we understand our gifts and frustrations, transform the way we see ourselves, and people we work with to find greater fulfillment in our work?
Leadership of One
I don’t believe that we can or should embark, or continue to embark on leading others unless we have engaged in improving the leadership of ourselves.
Leadership of one should begin or take place with or without a team, department, business or practice to lead. And yes, this could be boring because you’re training without a crowd, doing personal introspection and development work when no one is watching! But that’s how you acquire your edge for if/when you are called to lead a few; or many.
An insightful tool that I have been using in the course of leading myself better is Patrick Lencioni’s - The 6 Types of Working Genius developed in 2020. I was introduced to this assessment by Trinidad & Tobago Founder/Entrepreneur – Jarryon Paul.
Wonder - the natural gift of pondering the possibility of greater potential and opportunity in a given situation
Invention - The natural gift of creating original and novel ideas and solutions
Discernment - The natural gift of intuitively and instinctively evaluating ideas and situations.
Galvanizing - The natural gift of rallying, inspiring, and organizing others to take action.
Enablement - The natural gift of providing encouragement and assistance for an idea or project.
Tenacity - The natural gift of pushing projects or tasks to completion to achieve results.
Lencioni states that 2 of the aforementioned 6 types are our Working Genius—these activities give us joy, energy, and passion. Another two are what we call our Working Frustrations—these activities rob us of joy and energy, and most of us are not very skilled in these areas. While the final 2 are what he refers to as Working Competencies—activities that neither feed nor drain us but which we can do fairly well for only a limited period of time.
He advances that we waste immense energy trying to be competent at everything, instead of doubling down on the unique gifts that we already possess. Lencioni highlights that there’s a critical difference between enjoying an activity and being energized by it. It helps in the way you see yourself, your gifts and frustrations so you can find greater fulfillment in your work. Acknowledging, learning about and operating in this sphere can be career-defining for many of us. Lencioni has discussed the Working Genius in the context of families, marriage, church groups etc. There is also a Working Genius Discussion Guide which is geared towards students, guided by parents, coaches, and teachers, for students to engage in meaningful discussions about their geniuses and frustrations.
This tool has been helping me to navigate myself in my professional career (and business ventures) because it has helped me to identify what invigorates and energizes me. And as Lencioni sought to eliminate the drudgery and frustration from his job through the development of this tool, we can also eliminate; or at the very least, minimize the drudgery, frustration and burnout in our legal careers.
Outside of this tool, leading ourselves well first should also entail—building self-awareness, practicing discipline, managing our emotions, having a growth mindset, developing resilience, staying focused, acting with integrity and living out our values.
Leading a Team
Lencioni’s Working Genius Assessment is both a personality assessment and a productivity tool —as it is not only useful in fundamentally changing how we see and lead ourselves; but also how we lead a group; or team.
It can help us to build a team where everyone contributes their best and most authentic work as they are operating in their geniuses; and it recognizes that our greatest frustrations are likely to be someone else's greatest joys, while exploring the root cause of workplace frustration (Source).
For an effective team, each team member does not have to be good at everything; all 6 geniuses just need to be collectively covered i.e. identifying the collective "gaps" and "redundancies" is the key to unlocking a team's potential (Source).
For example in a group or team setting in a business - (i) Wonder (relates to ideation) (ii) Invention (relates to ideation) (iii) Discernment (assessing a nascent idea to determine if it’s really worth pursuing) (iv) Galvanizing and (v) Enablement (relates to implementation) and (vi)Tenacity (also relates to implementation, in particular the ability to meticulously following through on the details of an idea) (Source). For instance - Wonder and Invention team members who ask “What if?” and “Could we?”, provide teams with work to actually execute on. Without team members with the Enablement and Tenacity genius, the best ideas will die. And Tenacity is essential to mapping out the journey of any project, from the initial idea to its completion, as understanding this "workflow" allows a team to diagnose where projects tend to stall and ascertain why (Source).
Teams that understand and operate in their working geniuses can benefit from a positive shift in team dynamics, increased cohesiveness and productivity, a revitalized workplace, better meetings, improved hiring and boosted morale (Source).
Apart from this theory, leading others well should also encompass – building trust, listening actively, communicating clearly, showing empathy, coaching & mentoring, giving recognition, resolving conflicts and creating safety. And at the intersection of leading ourselves and others well involves—being authentic, taking accountability, leading with emotional intelligence, modeling excellence, practicing humility and continuous learning.
In Closing
According to Aristotle, "Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom." And the Working Genius tool can help us acquire that knowledge in order for us to sculpt our professional lives in a way that leverages, synthesizes and maximizes our gifts, and reduces unnecessary frustration, friction and dissonance. While this may not be (initially) embraced by all lawyers or law students, strongly consider that while you might be competent at a task and even find it pleasant, if it doesn't give you a palpable sense of fulfillment and energy, it isn’t your genius. And true effectiveness comes from embracing our natural talents and willingly ceding ground to others whose genius lies in our areas of weakness. So, consider learning about and operating in your working genius so you can unearth your unique purpose, and then let this flow and translate into your leadership, now or in the future, of more efficient, productive and fulfilled team members that are also operating in their working genius.
Resources:
To read more about and access the assessment - https://www.workinggenius.com/
To access the Book - https://www.amazon.com/Types-Working-Genius-Understand-Frustrations/dp/1637743297
Bellina Barrow is the Principal Attorney/Founder of Tenoreque Legal, a virtual legal practice based in Trinidad & Tobago since 2021. A former legal tutor and a dedicated mentor, Bellina is committed to fostering and contributing to thought leadership in law, fintech, tech, digital assets and sports by deconstructing and demystifying these areas via practical and digestible storytelling and writing. Outside of her technical and academic writing, Bellina is also a co-author of the books Soul of An Athlete (2023) and Women in Law: Discovering the True Meaning of Success (2022).
