The 6 Types of Working Genius

Well, shoot, I'm just on a roll - this book was awesome too (third 5-star in a row, which is very unusual) — easy to digested great content intermixed with story, concept is really interesting (and applicable), plus Ray Porter kills it as the narrator! Well-worth the listen for anyone who looks at the title and is even just curious.

I've read a lot of productivity and self-help books through the years (I try to start my year off every year with such a book) and after a while you see the same themes repeated in most of those books. Maybe presented in different ways, but still same/similar.

This book was gifted to me by my boss, and I'm glad she gave it to me! It's awesome and is NOT the typical “same material rehashed” type of book. At least from the reading I've done.

Lencioni uses the first 3/4 of the book to create a story of an individual who advances through his career, with the frustrations and growth that that entails, and ends up running a company. At various stages, he experiences frustration and burnout and even after starting his own successful company, those issues return.

Then his team stumbles upon a system of strengths and weaknesses that they call working geniuses and frustrations. In between the geniuses and frustration are competencies. And the way those all interact can show strengths, weaknesses and needs within the team.

The way it's all explained is completely different from most books I've read. Using characters in a team really helps you identify with the process and hammers home the ideas in a way that I think I'll retain for life.

Highly recommend this for those who are members or leaders of a team!