The Working Genius You've Been Ignoring Is Probably Your Own

Over the last several weeks, we've been looking at Working Genius through the lens of your team.

You've thought about who's sitting around your table, which geniuses are present, and which are missing. You've started to see where the work breaks down—which phase of Ideation, Activation, or Implementation your team loses momentum. You've probably even started to see some of your people differently.

Good. That work matters.

But there's a harder version of this conversation that most leaders avoid. And I want to have it with you today.

What if part of what's keeping your team stuck isn't a gap in their genius, but an overcorrection in yours?

The thing about strong leaders

When you lead from your genius—and I mean really lead from it both consistently and naturally—it shapes the entire culture of your team.

That can be a powerful thing. A leader with strong Galvanizing energy creates momentum that's almost contagious. A leader with strong Discernment creates a culture of careful, thoughtful decision-making. A leader with strong Tenacity builds a team that finishes things.

But here's what I've watched happen over and over.

When a leader's genius is very strong and when it's the dominant energy in the room, it can quietly crowd out other geniuses on the team. Not intentionally. Not maliciously. Just naturally, the way water always finds the lowest point.

A leader with strong Invention energy will unconsciously generate so many ideas that the team never gets out of Ideation. The person who should be asking "but will this actually work?" never gets airtime—not because their Discernment isn't valuable, but because the room is already moving.

A leader with strong Tenacity will push so hard toward execution that Wonder and Invention get skipped entirely. The team stops asking "what if" because the answer is always "let's just get it done.

A leader with strong Discernment who can immediately sense what won't work can inadvertently create a culture where people stop bringing ideas forward. Not because the leader is critical. But because the ideas keep getting evaluated before they get explored.

None of this is weakness. All of it is worth understanding.

The question most leaders don't ask

I've sat across from a lot of smart, self-aware leaders who could describe their team's dynamics in real detail. They could tell me who's disengaged and why. They could name the friction points. They'd done the reading.

But very few of them had asked this question honestly:

How is my genius shaping, or limiting, what's possible for the people around me?

This was me. I was the one frustrating my team—not because I lacked commitment, but because I kept arriving with a great new idea before the last one had ever been implemented. 

A team member with Enablement and Tenacity as her geniuses had the courage to say it directly: "LB, I love your excitement and energy, and we need to deliver something to our clients." 

That stopped me cold. I was living in Ideation and Activation and was energized by what was possible while she was stuck in Implementation, doing work that never actually landed. My genius was crowding out hers, and I hadn't even seen it. 

Sound familiar? 

The leaders who grow the most aren't the ones who find and fix their weaknesses. They're the ones who understand their strengths well enough to see where those strengths have edges—and who build intentionally around those edges.

What to do with this

Start with honest reflection. Look back at the last few team interactions that felt off, like a meeting that didn't go anywhere, the project that stalled, the conversation that ended flat.

Now ask yourself: was my genius present in that moment? Was I unconsciously running the show in a way that didn't leave room for someone else's genius to show up?

This isn't about blame. It's about clarity. Because once you can see it, you can work with it. You can create space intentionally in a meeting, in a decision, or in a project for the genius that your own naturally crowds out.

That's not a small thing. That's often the thing that changes everything.

The ceiling of a business is almost always the ceiling of the person leading it. Not because leaders aren't talented enough—but because their genius, unchecked, becomes the invisible boundary of what's possible for everyone else.

What's coming next

I've been sitting on something for a few weeks—something I built specifically because of what I keep seeing in the businesses I work with. Leaders who have the insight but can't quite bridge the gap to action on their own.

Next week I'm going to share what it is.

If this series has been resonating—if you've recognized your team in these posts, or yourself in this one—I think it's going to feel like the right next step.

— LB

New to this series? Start at the beginning: You Don't Need Another Assessment — Or Do You?