Will Power
Being a physical therapy entrepreneur can be unbelievably challenging at times. From patient care, to running the businesses, to balancing a family, it’s no wonder many entrepreneurs feel overwhelmed and burned out. Each Tuesday, join Will Humphreys, a retired private practice owner and medical entrepreneur, as he introduces game-changing leadership concepts and interviews other successful leaders in healthcare. If you want to start, scale, or sell your outpatient physical therapy business, this is for you. Together not only can we increase our income, impact and freedom, we can build the largest network of healthcare leaders in the world at the Will Power Podcast.
Will Power
Unlocking Team Potential with the Six Working Geniuses with Michelle Bambenek
Harnessing Team Strengths with Michelle Bambenek: Insights from Patrick Lencioni's Six Working Geniuses Framework
In this episode, we explore how to revolutionize your leadership dynamics and boost team productivity with Michelle Bambenek, PT entrepreneur and clinic director expert. Together, we dissect Patrick Lencioni's Six Working Geniuses framework and uncover how understanding the six types of work—wonder, invention, discernment, galvanizing, enablement, and tenacity—can create more cohesive and effective teams. By recognizing each team member's strengths, you'll learn how to build a balanced and efficient workflow.
Key Takeaways:
- Discover the Six Working Geniuses framework to enhance team collaboration and productivity
- Learn how every individual has two geniuses, two competencies, and two frustrations
- Leverage each team member's strengths to maintain a balanced workflow
- Apply real-life examples to understand team dynamics in practice
- Actionable strategies for fostering a high-performing, purpose-driven team environment
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Welcome back to another episode of the Willpower Podcast, rockstars. Thank you so much for tuning in. Today we have Michelle Bambinek. She's a PT entrepreneur, but really she's the clinic director whisperer. This leader knows how to take teams of people and create layers of leadership that are bought in to the company culture and each other in a way that frees owners up. Is that something you'd like to learn more about? Well, michelle and I have worked together as partners in multiple businesses, but we started in my old PT practice that she later became a partner of, and the reason we partnered together was because we had this magic formula that we couldn't put into words, that our team saw and later we discovered through this process called the six working geniuses, exactly why our magic was so powerful.
Speaker 1:We're going to teach that to you today in this very special episode, because if you're a clinical owner who never quite feels that the leadership is taking over, or if you're a leader who never quite feels that the owner or your team are fully supporting you, a lot of it just comes from not understanding this concept that she is gonna beautifully show you as a clinic director whisperer. She has a way of being able to bring teams together, and this is one of her primary tools that she's gonna teach you. But it's not just transforming PT businesses. This is transforming industries across the country in helping build better teams. So buckle in. It's going to be a powerful episode. We're going to kick it off with her teaching what it is, why you should care about it, how you can develop it within your own team so that you can create rocket fuel in your business. All right, guys, enjoy the show. Michelle, I'm so excited to talk to you because we just did the six working genius test at home with Alex, so excited yeah.
Speaker 1:It was wild because you know he's leaving for two years to go on his mission and so before he left, we were talking about it, heather, ethan and I as a family we're just talking about how we get energy when we work and all these things and because he's the fourth member of our family to take this task, we were all taking guesses as to what we thought he was. And then Ethan, our producer, is my oldest son. He was do you remember what you guessed? I was the closest he was the closest, which he guessed.
Speaker 1:What was it that you guessed? I don't remember. I was like two or three off, though I think we should.
Speaker 2:yeah, in the future we should probably have a microphone.
Speaker 1:Live for you. Yeah, for sure you. But yeah, it was funny because Alex is one of those kids where early on I thought he was being defiant. Oh sure, he was just like why is it this way and why is it that way? And I thought he was questioning authority. But he was just wondering why things were the way they were. So it's so anyway, because I just love that.
Speaker 2:I I am on fire about the six types of working geniuses, as you know. So, um, but it's just so interesting because of what you just said about him just seemingly being defiant, and it's truly just like not really understanding where his genius lies, right, and then having judgment because it may not align with our own or that it just doesn't seem to like fit the mold of how we need it to fit in that specific moment. I think there's so much freedom in knowing, like what your geniuses are, what your competencies, as well as like your frustrations, simply because you can relieve yourself of judgment, right? I think you and I talked about this around when you and I strategize, we always knew that we had this beautiful magic like coupling of, like work and how we were able to seamlessly go through things together. And then, once we took the test, it was like, oh, there's actually words and vernacular to why this works, because invention, to discernment, to galvanizing, to enablement, we just were able to work through that flow.
Speaker 2:Now we miss on the other opposite ends, where we had team members to help bring in some tenacity, and you have some wonder in you and I do too. But, that being said, we get a better understanding of what really brings us joy and energy, but also the capability just naturally right. And so that doesn't excuse the way, the fact that, like I have my least is tenacity. It doesn't mean I don't get to do that right, like it doesn't mean that I just get absolved from ever carrying out the process, but it also realizes why I don't have so much energy there, right, yeah, totally.
Speaker 1:So, for those people who are tuning in, what is the six working geniuses? What is it?
Speaker 2:It's a concept from the book by Patrick Lencioni, and it's a framework of just understanding how everything that we encounter throughout the day, right, whether it's cleaning up the kitchen or putting together a PowerPoint presentation, or whatever you have to do in front of you that it could be qualified as work, how there is a certain framework that all of these things have to go through. So it starts with wonder, right, this idea of understanding, like, oh, could this be better? Is this the best way that we have to attack this, or what is the thing that's causing this that I need to, like, put some attention on. And then it drives into invention, which is like coming up with the idea based off of the question that was presented. This idea is like oh well, I think this is a way to attack it, this is a proposed way of handling that situation or washing that dish, whatever you have in front of you. And so then it goes into discernment, which is teasing out the most appropriate way to address that particular work. So it's like is this the best idea possible? Is there a next? Is it yes, and or how can we better this to then move into action. So then, from wonder to invention, to discernment. Now you've got this working idea of how to attack this thing in front of you and now we have to rally the troops, and that's when it goes into galvanizing.
Speaker 2:This is an individual who just loves to get inspiration through people right. They're just presenting this situation, this way of addressing this problem, this work, this project, and they just engage the team. It's like show them the possibilities of what's in front of them and then, off of the heels of a galvanizer, goes into enablement, which is that individual that packages the situation, has the policy procedure, the workability of how to get that thing tackled right, it sets up the scene for someone to tackle the work and then it moves into tenacity, which is what we consider boots on the ground, those people that are actually carrying out the work to completion. So it's this beautiful framework of how things work together and the beauty is like it's particular to work. It doesn't mean it can't be used, as for families or in the student situation, but it is a way of understanding where you fit into that puzzle piece.
Speaker 2:But then also, how do I leverage the strength of others, how do I infuse what I do well and make the thing go really great? So I really should back up a little bit. In terms of what I mean by genius. There's three breakouts, right? So it's geniuses, competencies and frustrations. The geniuses being the thing that naturally gives you energy that doesn't feel like work right. The thing that's just like I love doing this and nothing can stop me from it. The competencies are like it doesn't really necessarily draw from your energy, but it doesn't necessarily mean like you get all of your energy.
Speaker 1:So you can do it, but it doesn't necessarily feed your soul. So you're capable of doing it. Well, but it's not like this thing that you get excited about, like the green or the ones that energize you, light you up. This doesn't light you up or take you down, but it does take time, correct? So the only negative thing there would be that it, like takes away from time that you could be spending doing something that you are a genius about.
Speaker 2:Correct, correct, but it is one of those that's like, eh, I could take it or leave it, kind of situation. And then the frustrations are those that we would rather not do right, those things that actually pull energy from us, that actually results in, you know, maybe some procrastination or just an inability to confront it or attack it and so to speak.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so this is all about team dynamics, right, like you're talking about, because other personality tests there's a lot out there. There's Myers-Briggs. We've done all of them in our different businesses that we've been in together. Why does this one stand out to you Like, why is this one energizing you so much compared to other ones that you've done historically?
Speaker 2:I think it's the workability of it, and then the understanding how it's not just a personality, it's like oh, that's who I am, I'm a feeler. Yeah, I'm a feeler, I'm a thinker.
Speaker 2:Right, right, it shows you, I think, more of like the practicality of how this works within a teamwork framework, not just honoring you for a human, who you are, which we always want to do, right, so honoring the humanity in front of us for being a feeler, a thinker, a mover, however you're labeled but also how do I fit within the network of people that I work with on a day-to-day basis, that I do life with at work or at home? Right, and seeing how I can complement that but then also helps you just thrive in areas that you naturally have those geniuses, those God-given abilities. But then recognizing where you can lean on others, right, for what they do well, and saying, hey, I need somebody to like really rally the troops around this, or I need an idea, right, I think there's just a workability around it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. It's so cool because this has lit up our world and is changing and revolutionizing businesses across the country. So, as our listeners are hearing this, I really want to highlight the fact that what we love about this is that it's so applicable to any business or organization. Like I was saying at the beginning of this podcast, we're doing it within our family, yeah, and learning why certain people fit the company or business or family in a way that's synergistic or not Right, because you and I you mentioned this you and I have always had this really powerful partnership.
Speaker 1:You and I, and people outside would just say, wow, it's magic. You know there's a book called Rocket Fuel that talks about ideal partnerships, without getting into detail, but when we took the six working geniuses, that's when I think you and I really understood what makes our connection so powerful. So, to go through those six working geniuses, I think it's a good illustration for people who are learning about this for the first time. So, what are your two geniuses? Because that's what Patrick Lencioni says that we all have two geniuses, two neutrals, competencies, competencies and then two detractors or Frustrations.
Speaker 2:Frustrations.
Speaker 1:Frustrations, yeah, okay. So let's talk about your geniuses. Yeah, let's give it what are you?
Speaker 2:Sure, I am an ED, so an enablement discerner. So enablement is the part of the workflow that packages things together. This is pretty quintessential to an operations coach kind of mentality, yeah.
Speaker 1:So like someone who's coaching someone, or like a trainer, right, okay.
Speaker 2:Putting things in a way that makes it workable for people to carry out the task, so it's setting up the scene for success. Yeah, policies, procedures, workflows, all that type of thing, but also tandemly working with a galvanizer feeding off the energy that you bring from one of your geniuses Got it Got it.
Speaker 1:So there's a flow, and that's why I love about those six geniuses. It's cyclic, it's like a cycle of action. It starts with wondering why things are the way they are creating ideas, deciding if those ideas are good, getting people excited about it, coaching and training them, and then there's the tease that's nasty, where people get it done In our case. Neither one of us are green or have a genius in wonder, correct, but we both have the capability or is that me?
Speaker 2:No, we're both have wonder, as a Competency. Competency, so a yellow.
Speaker 1:Yes, we can do it, but we don't like live in it and love it.
Speaker 2:Yeah and wonder really pulls from the universe right Like the outside perspective of these are the like. I wonder how that like plane is in the air right, Right.
Speaker 1:Why do we? Why do we have to use stairs? Why can't we figure out a machine that carries us up that kind of thing?
Speaker 2:But then it tends to land there, right, they're like huh, good thought, right, Like it's the inventor. That then's like well, yeah, like, let's look at that. Does that have to be the way where they start to bring in ideas? Which is one of your geniuses? The invention?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's my first. My top green is the ideas person, so for me, the way that it looks is that I can't stop thinking about ideas. My favorite thing in the world is to have a whiteboard and for someone to present either a problem or an opportunity, and then for someone to present either a problem or an opportunity, and then for me to just come up with like 30 different solutions. The problem with being an idea or an inventor is that half of my ideas aren't any use and the other half are incredibly genius. Yes, but I don't know the difference Right, which is where, like, so we both go from a competency of wondering why things are the way they are. I love coming up with the ideas, but once I have the idea, then I go to you. That's right. Your biggest genius is discernment isn't it?
Speaker 2:That's right? Yes, well, I'm actually enablement discernment. That makes more sense. Yeah, so, but discernment is high. It's one of my geniuses as well. I love it when you start through I, I'm like, give me more, give me more say more, say more, and I feel selfish the whole time we're working together.
Speaker 1:I feel selfish because I'm doing the thing that I love, and me too, and I'm like well, surely Michelle wants to come up with some more ideas around it, but you don't care about that.
Speaker 2:No, I actually would sit in judgment over myself. Earlier I was speaking about this judgment, I was like, why me some ideas and I think that was your way of like trying to pull me in to the idea and I'm like I don't know, you know, you know.
Speaker 1:Well, half of you knows Half of the ideas are going to be off, but you loved and see, you loved discerning those things and being like well, that was genius.
Speaker 2:This one. But you have a kind way of just saying, well, let's kind of, you know which is an important point, right, so we can settle into our geniuses, but also have to recognize that of others. So I can quickly shut you down if I'm like that's terrible, no, uh-uh right, and really just minimize or detract from your genius by settling too firmly into mine. Right of discernment. Or if I'm a tenacity person, I'm like that's never going to work. Right, it's like whoa, like we have to let the ideas flow and hit the table and really go through like yes, that's, you know, always acknowledging right, never invalidating an idea that comes across until we tease them out right, because maybe it's not applicable for this workflow or this particular situation, but it can be for a future one. So it's this beautiful give and take of acknowledging what you do well but then also sharing in with others. But, like I said, as a discerner I have to be cautious not to shut you down because sometimes the flow of ideas can be very difficult, very full right.
Speaker 1:And you don't want to shut that source off by causing a sense of invalidation.
Speaker 1:But I do love the fact that you are able, though, to highlight the ones that work really well, because what happens is when you discern, you're able to explain to me why it's a good idea.
Speaker 1:Ethan, my son, who's producing this, he is a discerner as well as one of his strengths, and earlier today I was presenting a problem about an event that I'm speaking at this weekend one of his strengths, and earlier today I was presenting a problem about an event that I'm speaking at this weekend, and he discerned it. He said well, no, it's actually that problem that you're concerned about is actually beneficial, and here's why and it just opened my mind up. So it's like the inventor of the idea has opportunity, but the discerner can actually not only almost intuitively sense which ones are better, but, like you, like he did, can go almost intuitively sense which ones are better, but, like you, like he did, can go. Here's why that's such a good idea, and it gives, it feeds, the it like it validates it, and it becomes more real and like more exciting, because you can see why it's going to actually make the difference you want it to make Right.
Speaker 2:Well, the why always like precedes the how right, and so in that moment it becomes a catalyst to an inventor like yourself or anybody else to be like. Oh, I see why you can start to picture out what the how is, and you start inventing micro invention around that as well. There's nobody that loves an inventor more than a discerner.
Speaker 1:It's a powerful combination, for sure, but what's really neat is what goes beyond that for us, because many of us we're competent at wondering I do the ideas, you filter them and make them better or eliminate the ones that would have wasted time and money, right. And then it goes back to me right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, baton toss right back to you.
Speaker 1:So once you and I come up with this we've done this for years in multiple companies Once we both are like that's the idea, right, and the end product is a byproduct of both of our efforts. So it's not like one person owns it, it's this two, one plus one equals five, right? This idea is 10 times better than it would have ever been without the other person. But then it comes back to me and my job is then to go take it to a group of people, a team, and say hey, guys, michelle and I have talked it through. This is the thing we're going to do. It could be a new concept, a new business, a solution to a problem, but what I love and this is this is funny because I my second favorite thing to do in the world is to be in front of people. Oh yeah, and it's not because I'm like a public motivational speaker type. I love being with people to help facilitate group solutions around problems, knowing where I'd like it to go. Because, like part of what I do in galvanization is I don't just say, hey, michelle and I are doing this, hip, hip, hooray, yeah, is I paint the picture and I set the table and let them come to it, that's right. And when everyone's all excited about it, that is literally where I want to walk away forever.
Speaker 1:Because at that point I am in my reds, because I'm a yellow discerner, so I can competently discern some ideas. But my two reds and this used to really bother me, because I used to look at coaches and be like I want to be a coach, right, I started a coaching business and I wanted to jump off a bridge. I was able to do it even, but it drained my soul in a way that I still I used to invalidate myself. But then, when I realized about this process, I'm like I used to invalidate myself, right, but then, when I realized about this process, I'm like I don't need to be invalidated by it, I just need to not do it. And back into our when we were partners in a PT practice. This is where, once the team was on board, you'd step in. So talk about how you'd step in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's essentially building off of what you again, like a discerner, loves an inventor, a galvanizer, really appreciates an enabler. There's nothing worse for you, I would imagine, than standing in front of people trying to get them rallied around an idea or a thought or whatever have you, and like crickets and just like nothing's moving right. That is what brings you joy and energy, is seeing people buy into the concept of what's been such work to like get to right Like all the genius like coming to this idea and now like let's rally the troops around this.
Speaker 2:So that's where an enabler is really beneficial, because they can feed off of that energy and see and start to figure out how that starts to get to the ground level of workability. Yeah, you can see how this starts to picture out into okay, this division needs to do this, that division needs to do this, we need to gauge this. People maybe I need to meet with a marketer in this area to start moving this concept, this big rock or this big boulder of an idea, through towards workability. So they start to create, we start to create a path of getting it done.
Speaker 1:You help people understand, learn. It's one part training, one part motivational coach, like ethereal, I mean, it's an art. I appreciate it. I've always had a coach myself, so I've been a participant of it and watching you do it's one of my favorite things, and I always tell people that you're a clinic director, whisperer, because that's what you were in our business. Right, you'd go with the director, you'd help them see the why you would enable them. Yeah, I would say the one compliment. The only thing I've ever changed in this process is I'd rather use the word empower than enabler, but Patrick Lencioni is dead set on that word. Yeah, but you, you enable them to take over their own power and be successful. And then both of us this last thing, this last step in this six working geniuses both of us lose our energy and tenacity. What's tenacity again? And how does that fall into our world?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So tenacity simply is getting the thing done right, so it's actually completing the work, so the production side of anything, any idea that comes to fruition, and so what it looks like for us is engaging with team members who love to do that stuff right. So it's really making sure that in this beautiful workability of this framework that we are surrounded by people who love to tick the boxes and cross the finish line and get like a completion like nobody better than that on our team to tick the boxes and cross the finish line and get like a completion like nobody better than that on our team to do the work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so in my world that would be my wife. My wife is a discerner, tenacity, okay, okay. So she loves well, I don't know if she loves listening to me talk, but she's patient enough. She's the type where, like, we'll go on a walk and I will talk for 30 minutes and then she'll just say one thing at the end. That is the most profound discernment of what I was thinking. That brings it all together. But then she also just likes to get it done. She'll tell me I don't want to think about why we should get it done or how to get it done. She's like if we can figure out the eight steps, I will get it done, but I will move mountains to get those things done.
Speaker 2:Yeah, beautiful point that is. Those are the ones that are in a meeting and they're like just tell me what I need to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't care about this stuff. Just tell me the eight things I gotta do today.
Speaker 2:So it's really those people are better served doing the work and not in that particular meeting.
Speaker 2:Now there are certain meetings and structures that everyone needs to be involved to see how this thing paints out. But sometimes it's like, hey, this is an invention discernment meeting. We don't need tenacity until we get to that point, right, yeah, because then they're just sitting there wasting their time feeling drained by this whole idea share and teasing out when they're just like there's actual work to be done. Yeah, I need to go get some work done, and so that's where our tenacity people like to live.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we get this, we get the workflow. Every to live. Okay, so we get this, we get the workflow. Every team needs this. Again, this is less about like personality and more about like understanding, where people get energy. And just a little background Patrick Lencioni, obviously one of the best selling business authors of all time Five dysfunctions of a team. This is his latest work. It came from his coaching group, the table group the table group and he has worked with thousands and thousands of people for decades.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1:And so he came up with this, based on this idea of like oh, I've observed this for so long. This is what I wish people would know about how teams work. So how do you take the six working genius model with PT practices that you coach? Because one of the main things you do at Rockstar Director is you are helping create leadership teams where they run the business as entrepreneurs. That's right. So how do you leverage the six working geniuses in this model?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so well. First of all, it's a great awareness, right. So awareness for a leader is paramount, right. In order for us to be able to lead efficiently, we have to first know thyself and understand what makes us an effective leader. How are we being perceived, how are we being received by the people that we're working with, and how are we training other people to receive us and so understanding that? This is one of those component parts of knowing where your energy lies. I think it's pretty often in the world of physical therapy that sometimes the highest producer becomes your director.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you promote the person who's like the biggest team player, who produces the most.
Speaker 2:Who produces the most. Well, I think it's a step back that we have to evaluate. Where is it that they're bringing? Do they love enabling people? Or are they the type of people that just like to wonder about an idea and get things done? Because sometimes our highest producer isn't the best leader? Maybe they don't have the skills, the competencies in which to be patient and tease out ideas and go through those, you know, enablement pieces that are going to get people to cross the finish line and get production down the line. So this framework is really helpful in just understanding where you lie within that model and seeing, hey, it doesn't negate you from promotion into the clinical directorship, but it also helps you settle into the areas that you are best served on that team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because maybe their strength is tenacity and wonder, and that might be a harder director to train than someone who's naturally into enablement or discernment or invention. So is there a combination that you see as ideal or is it really varied?
Speaker 2:It really varies because it just will tailor the way that I approach that coaching session right, like if they're a wonder or an inventor or a tenacity sorry, then in that moment I know that they have an ability to get work done. So their tendency might be like why aren't these people just getting the job done Right? Why aren't they finishing their notes? I can't get it Like, I don't understand. And it's then like really helping them understand their other teammates and like where they might be, and so they have to build and strengthen the other component parts of this framework in order to better be able to serve them. They've got that down.
Speaker 2:We can cross the line on statistics, but how are we introducing them into crucial conversations? How are you going to be leveling with them on a personal level to see their hopes, needs, wants and desires as a human being just like your own right, and then really taking into consideration where they have their strengths, then nurturing those, but then also building up those other component parts of tenacity. That just needs to get done right. We need to do our notes, we need to bill appropriately, we need to get our billing across the finish line so that the revenue cycle can take place. So it's marrying that with all the other areas and just it's nice to see what the whole team has to offer and then you can just lean into each one of them.
Speaker 1:But for me specifically, it helps me understand their baseline and then determine where we need to do our coaching, where they need strength, and I'm guessing where you need to hire for others, because that's the cool thing as a director or an owner if they know what their six working geniuses are and where their energy drains are, they could build and hire a team based on that. So, in real life, for one of my companies we were. When this concept came out, we were just building our leadership team for one of my companies, and so it was time for me to hire an executive assistant. So I wanted tenacity. I wanted someone who was going to call if I was a tenacity-based owner. Maybe I'd want an executive assistant to be more of an ideas person or a wonderer, but I already kind of have that covered.
Speaker 1:The tenacity is what I stink at and I hate. So I needed someone with a great attention to detail, with a high degree of tenacity, and so we found Kim and she just hit a year last week with us and I can't live without Kim. Kim is the type where I can invent ideas, discern enough a little bit on my own or with one of the other discerners in my leadership team, right, and then go to Kim and say, hey, kim, this is the idea. Here's about the 12 steps I think you need to do, but figure it out. Sure, kim's the type that will see the product, the finish line, and just get it done. So, to your point, I think that the key to this is the idea of just knowing where the teamwork is, where the dream works. So if we know where the owner is and what their strengths are and what they want to do, and the director what their strengths are, you can either train or hire to those other missing geniuses to complete the cycle. And yeah, Absolutely.
Speaker 2:I think it's a beautiful tool to utilize and leverage for recruiting so knowing where your gaps are and seeing who you need to bring onto the team. Like in a hiring situation. Real life for me in a leadership position, but was removed from the weekly calls because that was not something that served them.
Speaker 1:They weren't contributing, they weren't getting anything out of it.
Speaker 2:They were like, oh, they'd rather go do the work. So the leadership transitioned to putting some of the global responsibilities on one of them, and then some of those like more moving the needle on like diagnostics and running that part of like the actual doing of work and provision of care moved to that particular provider, and so it's just nice to see that they can use that to still strengthen their individual leadership without creating well, you're a bad leader, blanket statement. Right, it's just like you just don't do well in this area. But you excel beyond my understanding in this one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that's something I've seen and heard so many times over the years with owners. Owners who are like oh, why can't my director just get it? And they don't realize that maybe what they're doing is they're comparing their working genius that they had as the leader in that role, against someone who gets an energy drain from it and they're not able to support them. Because all leaders who ultimately are frustrated with their directors or any other mid-level leaders they feel like they're failing. They're like well, clearly I stink. They may blame them when they're frustrated, but it's more of this like invalidation of self, of like I can't even build a team. Why do these other people figure it out? But this is the missing information, because without this figured out, people aren't able to figure. They're never going to be set up for success with all the right policies and procedures and all the right steps if they don't understand this concept.
Speaker 2:Well, I agree. I mean it can occur, right, it can magically occur, like it did for us. But now that we have verbiage to it, you can seek that out and leverage those people that you're going to connect with and naturally vibe off of, just because of where you lie within your genius. So I think it's imperative for everyone to take this test. I'm getting certified in it. I'm so excited about it. I think it's a beautiful way to leverage some behind-the-scenes understanding of who we are to a workability in our clinics.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. It's kind of funny. I was having lunch last week with James from ShowIt. Oh, okay, yeah, so this is a company that I was renting space out of. They're a marketing company and they're very successful. Well, they're not a marketing company, they're a SaaS.
Speaker 1:Okay, so they build websites for people, specifically in the photography space, but they can do it for anybody, but they're massive, like they're growing like crazy. So James is the director of marketing, okay, and he and I were sitting down having lunch on Friday and we're talking and he's talking and talking and talking. It wasn't like an over-talker, sure, I was engaged the whole time. I was fascinated with him and usually I'm that guy, sure, I'm the one who's over-talking and steamrolling a little, but he was just going off and I was fascinated with what he was saying, I was rolled into it.
Speaker 1:And then he was talking about his world and I just said you know, there's this concept called the six working geniuses. He goes, shut up, he goes. I am a IG. Oh, stop, he goes, I am an IG. And he went through my exact geniuses in order. And it was so funny because. So we started talking about him being an inventor of ideas and galvanizer and we were talking about his world. It's amazing to me because this concept has only been out officially for a year or two, but it it's amazing to me because this concept has only been out officially for a year or two, but it is taking storm. It's a simple test. I think it costs $25.
Speaker 2:$25, yeah.
Speaker 1:We'll put that in the link. Rockstars. Go down to the bottom, click on the link. Take the test. We get nothing out of it financially. We just want you to make sure you take this test because it begins, like Michelle said, in understanding who you are in this world of geniuses, and it's going to open doors of like. No wonder I suck or hate doing X, y and Z and all that self-invalidation goes away. And then I've been building my world around getting into those geniuses ever since and it's just been like this superpower.
Speaker 1:But going back to James, we were talking about the power of this in their company, of how they've been able to build teams based on this concept of like. What do they have and what are they missing? It's almost like they're shortcutting what you and I had to do at Rise Rehab, which is like gosh, why isn't this working with this person? And an inexperienced leader takes it personal. Either they judge themselves or, more than often, they'll judge the other person and then like be tempted to like complain at least to their spouse about them later at night, of course, yeah, if not other team members. Is it just me, or is Rick not really figuring this out? Well, rick may not have the genius in what we've hired him or her to do. Right, it's a game changer in that regard. So you're getting certified in it. What's your vision for it? What do you want to be doing long-term?
Speaker 2:Oh man, I would love to be able to utilize this and leverage this tool to help other teams get there faster, right Like what we created at Rise was something of magic. Yeah, and to get people to-.
Speaker 1:Tell them about the magic? I don't think, because people who are listening are like what does that even mean?
Speaker 2:Yeah, what does that even mean? So there's so much to that magic. But essentially it was just building a team, a team that was so self-accountable to each other that we would try and move mountains for each other. So it was a highly productive, highly cultural alignment group of individuals. But it came with work right. It was struggling, it was sometimes taking clinics down to the studs to make sure that we had the right team behind us that was purpose-driven and value-aligned and really working towards the same unified goal.
Speaker 2:But I mean, it was just a team that took accountability to the next level. You know this idea and this concept that some people shy away from of like, oh man, you're going to hold me accountable. I don't want to have that conversation to hey, I know my impact in this team and it's valuable at any level, from CEO down right and up again, that idea of like I care and love about you enough that we're going to hold each other accountable to this target, to this goal, to this statistic, to this metric, to this value, to our purpose. And when you have everyone beating at that same drum, it's just incredible. And it was a machine that just started moving itself because every individual was like doing their part.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're doing their part. They were bought in. They cared about the collective more than themselves.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's the biggest thing is just, you know, understanding their 360 degree view around themselves that in so, by doing this, I'm impacting all these other areas, and that understanding, that awareness of their involvement in the greater, like a part of something bigger than themselves, was where the magic came.
Speaker 1:It's hard not to think about like because, for me, I remember the days of like and you've heard me share the story of where I was. I came back into the clinic once when I had a different team to pick up something from my office that I'd forgotten and my team was having their own meeting after the meeting, talking about how horrible. I was Right and it was amazing to me years later, when we had those multiple locations going into a town hall that we did once a quarter we would shut down the practices and bring everyone together, how we would walk in. They were so thrilled to see us but they were that excited to see everybody. Absolutely.
Speaker 1:There was no like favoritism. People were all about the collective, like something, a movement, and it was so magical. We had that one to two years, maybe more, of this experience and that's when you and I were like we've had to share this with others and take this out to the world. So it sounds like you're on a mission to help other companies create their work, families, using this as one of the many tools that you bring to the table One of the tools to leverage to just fast track that right.
Speaker 2:It's one of those things that you've heard me say this before turn decades into days. If this is a tool that they can leverage to better understand the makeup of their teams so that they can fill in the gaps of the missing pieces, strengthen the ones that are a little bit deficient and or live in the spaces that really bring joy and energy, so that people are excited about the work that they're doing and creating together and everybody has this energy right, I mean at the top of this time together. I'm not usually the one that speaks on end, but like I'm lit up about that.
Speaker 1:I don't think I even gave you an edge word. It's a podcast. I think this is what you're supposed to do. You're doing fantastic.
Speaker 2:I was like I probably should let him talk here, but it was just going on because of the fact that how much power I think this has for teams as a whole, and that's my E coming out right, you know, is really just wanting to disseminate this to others. And you know, it's funny because we became risers right, like all of us were risers, and it's that collective, that part of something bigger than ourselves. And sharing that you mentioned, sharing that we have a number of people that you and I are still in communication with from those times and you know there's just a certain standard of operating that they all have and carry and they take that to their next location.
Speaker 1:Or business. How many of them have opened their own practices or own businesses?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, or standing in leadership positions in new ones, and it's this like domino effect of this idea of leadership at any level that I really just can't get enough of, because they hold their new teams, their new employees to a standard that I think everyone would benefit from.
Speaker 1:Oh, my gosh To have that experience of going to work like it was back in those days and, by the way, I feel it now I don't. I didn't say what's really cool is, once it's learned, we can reproduce that. Obviously, you and I are helping companies in our own different ways and related ways. The first time was the most significant because I never thought it was possible. I never believed I could love a group of people and consider them like family to me. I could love a group of people and consider them like family to me and like have 98% of our discussions be about work.
Speaker 1:So it's not that we avoided the personal stuff. We actually leaned into that, like when people in our town halls were suffering through trials or people needed help. We have that safety and trust where we could say, hey, I'm having a hard time and I can't tell you why, or I am having a hard time and I've lost something or someone that we really rallied for them in a very personal way. But that wasn't. Our focus was still what was best for the company Always, and the reason being is because the company was us. That's right, just to encourage people to trust that they can experience that in their lifetime, absolutely, and ironically, that's when your company is the most profitable, yep, and when everyone's the happiest and you're helping more people and all of that.
Speaker 1:So I love that you're out there doing this. I think it's been fun to watch you work with other companies now across the country. I mean, you've worked with companies for the last number of years now sharing this, and the Six Working Geniuses is just one of the tools in your arsenal to get there to be effective for you. But if people wanted to get help from you on the Six Working Geniuses or they wanted to talk to you about how they could develop their teams, how can they get a hold of you?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. We'll put it in the show notes, but you can also reach me on my email, michelle at unlockhbacom Okay, h-b-a. H-b-acom.
Speaker 1:Well, awesome. Michelle. Thank you so much for being on the show. Obviously, you're going to be a repeat guest. I can't wait, Because people aren't going to get enough of you.
Speaker 2:And I'm Thank you for spending some time with me. Thank you for having me All right guys.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to today's episode. As a thank you, I have a gift. In today's show notes there's a link for you to join the Stress-Free PT newsletter. This is a comedy newsletter for anyone who works in healthcare and of course, we're going to have comedy bits. We're going to have inspirational stories, leadership bits. We're going to have inspirational stories, leadership bits. It's going to be a weekly newsletter just to lighten your week, to help you do what you love with more passion. So click that link below and join that newsletter and we'll see you in our next episode.
