Finding Your Genius Zone

//As we celebrate 4 years on the Voice of Influence podcast, Andrea discusses the six elements of a Voice of Influence and how they intersect with the grind, greatness, and genius ratio of our work. 

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Transcript

Hey there!  Welcome to the Voice of Influence podcast.  I’m Andrea Wenburg, Founder and CEO of the consulting firm Voice of Influence.  You know how sometimes you realize that you need to give constructive feedback or to lead a change that people are resisting, maybe just resigned or complacent?  We utilize tools and methodologies in our team performance system combined with our expertise in psychology and emotional intelligence to really help leaders and teams to live fully alive, engaged, and with great purpose as they pursue their organization’s strategic mission and vision.

And today, we celebrate four years on the Voice of Influence podcast.  I have to say, I’m going to own this milestone right now.  It’s a big deal to get to four years, especially for me when I don’t really love routine and doing something on a regular basis.  But man, we’ve really done it!

And I want to give special thanks to our team who makes sure that this show gets off the ground every week.  Rosanne, Danielle, Cecilia, Anita Grace, thank you for all that you do.  We wouldn’t be here and functioning well without you.  And thanks also to my family, our kids; Amelia and Grant, who just willingly let me use their stories, our family stories as examples and share their own talents to help out in different ways.  And definitely to Aaron, whose belief in me and our mission makes it all possible.

And finally, thank you to you, the listener or transcript reader.  Your feedback, your questions, your support make our show better all the time.  And you remind me on a regular basis that even when coming up with content and executing on details is hard, it’s totally worth it.  You’re worth it.  You have an important contribution to make to this world.  And if we can support you in some small way, it is our honor to do so.

When you listen to the show, when you share it with a friend, or comment on social media, or leave a review in your podcast player, thank you, thank you, thank you!  You help lift the work that we’re doing and make it possible to get amazing guests.  And you help us connect with other people who really do want to have a Voice of Influence just like you, who want ethical influence that helps other people believe in their own Voice of Influence.  So, thank you so much, and happy birthday to the Voice of Influence podcast!

All right.  So, today, we’re going to reflect on my interview from last week with Darren Virassammy and Brandon Miller.  One of the things that they talk about is what they call the grind, greatness, genius ratio, and I found this really interesting.  So, on their website, they share a little bit more about it.

I think they originally got the grinding and greatness thing from Marcus Buckingham, who was one of the first writers about StrengthsFinder.  So, the grind zone is sort of those tasks that you just have to get done.  They may not be something that you love or that makes you feel strong or that helps you act strong, but they’re part of your job.  We got to do them.  And then there’s the greatness zone.  The greatness zone is awesome because these are activities that do make you feel strong.

They mentioned the five E’s of strengths.  So, enthusiastic, easy, excellence, energy, and enjoyment.  These are the things that really kind of… you feel those ease as you are doing them.  And then there’s the genius zone.  So, this is best of the best, prolific, what you are really known for, your personal brand, and your maybe 10,000 hours that it takes to get to greatness in something.  This is just sort of… it’s what they say.  It’s the genius zone.  It’s when you are really there, and it’s really hard to get there.

They talked about the grind zone and the greatness zone kind of having different percentages in your work life.  And it really makes a lot of sense to try to shoot for 30% grind, 70% greatness, and if you can get there, go to the genius zone as well.  But yet most people, they kind of tend to have to do more like 60% of the grind zone and 40% greatness.  But the problem with that is that in our greatness zone, that’s where we really do great work.  It’s where we’re engaged, and energetic, and we move forward.

So, I’ve certainly noticed these zones in myself.  Have you noticed them in yourself?  When you think about your work…  Oh, this is something else that they do that I loved!  At every… or at least at the beginning of this year, they were taking their whole team through this process of kind of calculating where they’re at, each individual, in terms of their grind, greatness, and genius zones, because they really want people to move toward their genius zones and make movement in that direction.

It’s not always possible you have 100%.  But it’s good to make movement, and they said they’ve had a lot of success in actually helping their team to be able to move to that place where they’re in their greatness or genius zones.  So, what about you?  When you look at your week, maybe your week last week, how much of your time and energy was spent in the grind zone?  You’re doing things, just got to do them, but it doesn’t get you going.

How many of your hours last week or what percentage of your time was spent in the greatness zone where you really did feel like it was easy, and effortless, and fun?  How much of your time was spent in the genius zone where you are hitting on all cylinders?  Which tasks fall into which zones for you?  This would be a great thing to do with your team or to present to your manager as an opportunity to do a little exercise with your team, and maybe be able to think more about how you can operate more fully in greatness, maybe even genius.

One thing that I was thinking about this that I think, actually… I don’t know how Darren and Brandon talk about this in other contexts.  So, all I know is what I’ve seen and what we heard last week.  But one other thing that I feel like is really important is understanding that our energy is also based on our belief in what we’re doing.

So, how much do I care about what I’m doing and the mission that I’m trying to accomplish with my team?  That’s another area I think we need to look at when we’re thinking about grind, and greatness, and genius.  Even though they’re talking about strengths,  I think, when it comes to the energy and engagement that we’re talking about that come with those things, it’s not just about what we’re doing.  It’s also why we’re doing it.

So, in our Voice of Influence personal brand strategy program for message driven leaders, this is something that we do individually as a coaching program.  And it’s something that we do with corporate teams or leaders who are going through a leadership program, and then they can go through this as well.  But we take an approach that looks at each of these six elements of a Voice of Influence.

So, first, purpose or passion.  “What purpose do I feel behind the work that I do or the work that I want to do?  Where does that purpose and passion come from?”  We do a deep dive to help people see the connection behind their personal pain, the good that they want to do in the world, and how it impacts others.  So, that purpose and passion.

Then we take a look at your style.  “What is the tone and the advantage of my particular voice?  How does the world actually see me?  What is my style of influence that’s kind of based on my personality, and how do I adjust for what others need from me?  Because it’s not always about me, and my voice, and what I want to say.  It’s also about what do other people need me to say or how they need to say it.”

Then we look at message.  “So, what are my core values?  As I grow in my communication skills, you know, what do I need to understand about others and how they receive my message, my message of change or of constructive feedback?  How can my life and my leadership just really ring with a message that is true to who I am?”

And then, offering.  “What can I offer my organization and the world that is really a good fit for my talents, my expertise, my experience?  This could be the actual role that I play, or it could be how I bring something to the table and how I solve problems ⎼ if I’m part of solving problems ⎼ and how I approach things.  How do I organize and deliver my thought leadership, and make sure that it gets to the people who need it?”

Then we look at plan or strategy.  “What are my priorities, and why are these my priorities?  Why do I care?  How do I make decisions about what I do with my time and energy?  Or in Greg McKeown’s terms, what are the most essential and effortless activities that make sense for me to act on?  How can I think strategically when I’m planning for my future or the future of my team?”

And then, community.  “What roles do different people play in my life, and what role do I play in theirs?  Do I need to adjust how I interact with certain people, rather than expecting them to sort of be something for me or support me in a way that they just simply can’t or choose not to do?  And who is my ideal customer avatar or ICA for my message, for my offering?”

So, these are those things that I feel like once people really get a hand on these things, these elements have a Voice of Influence, they sort of lay out this personal brand strategy and say for themselves, you know, “These are my values.  This is my story.  These are the things that matter to me.  This is how I connect with people.”  And they get such a strong sense of identity, personal identity, that now they’re not asking all of those questions and dealing with all of this uncertainty inside of themselves.  Instead, they’re able to move into the world in a way that is about offering the best of who they are rather than needing to figure themselves out, if you will.

So, one of the things that we can offer at Voice of Influence – we love you.  We just do.  I know that probably sounds a little crazy, but I love our clients.  I love you as the listener, and I’m so grateful, grateful for you!

It’s true, we really do have a zone of genius.  We really do have a Voice of Influence.  And it’s worth going through the work of learning, and growing, and refining, and getting things wrong for a while before we get them right.  It’s worth putting ourselves out there and maybe failing quite a few times before, boom, we hit the thing on the mark.  It’s worth it because what you have to offer is so needed in the world.  There are people who are hungry for what you have to offer.  Would you do the work?  Would you be willing to offer who you are?  Because your voice matters.

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