EP 37: Build a Better Event Committee with the Working Genius Framework

Jeff: Welcome back to the Elevate Your Event Podcast, where we talk about all the various ways you can make your next fundraising event better. We are so excited today to introduce one of our behind-the-camera team members who has decided to come out in front of the camera and join us. We are super excited to welcome Stephanie Mason!

Stephanie: Happy to be here!

Jeff: Stephanie is our program manager, and she is just as much a nerd about today's topic as anyone. She decided she wanted to join us — instead of sitting behind the cameras making faces at us. And Elise Druckenmiller is joining us as well, head of client services at Handbid.

Elise: Hello! Happy to be back.

Jeff: Absolutely. And I'm Jeff Porter, CEO of Handbid. We have a really cool topic today. We're going to get a little nerdy — and by nerdy we're talking personalities: working styles and how they relate to the kind of team you want to put together for your auction, event, or fundraiser. Your event committee, specifically. People ask us all the time, how do you find people for your committee? In a lot of cases, it's whoever you can find. But it does matter the types of people you find.

Jeff: At Handbid we nerd out on personality tests — everybody knows each other's letters and numbers. But today we're talking about something a little different. This came up several years ago when Pat Lencioni introduced the Working Genius framework. He's with The Table Group and has written amazing books on leadership, organizational excellence, and teams. He came up with the Working Genius. Who doesn't want to be a working genius?

Stephanie: We all do!

Jeff: Exactly. So we're not going to give you a full training class on Working Genius, but we are going to walk through the six types and talk about how they apply to building your event team. And yes, this is a shameless plug for them — but it's been genuinely helpful for us at Handbid.

Jeff: So what is Working Genius? It describes six different work styles and classifies each of them as either a working genius, a working competency, or a working frustration. Two of the six types come naturally to you — they energize you and give you joy. Those are your working geniuses. Two types are draining and don't come naturally — those are your working frustrations. The remaining two are the middle ground: you can do them well, but they neither energize nor drain you. Those are your working competencies.

Jeff: Let's cover all six types. First: the Genius of Wonder. The natural gift of pondering the possibility of greater potential and opportunity in a given situation. These are your 'what if' and 'I wonder if we could' people. Visionaries.

Stephanie: Visionaries — yes.

Jeff: Then the Genius of Invention: the natural gift of creating original and novel ideas and solutions. These are your Rube Goldberg-type builders — people who can actually pull pieces together and figure out how to make something happen. Next: the Genius of Discernment. The natural gift of intuitively evaluating ideas and situations. They ask, is this actually a good idea? Is it workable?

Stephanie: A little bit of all of us.

Jeff: You absolutely need this person on your team — someone with the genius of discernment to make sure the ideas that wonder and invention come up with can actually be pulled off. Then the Genius of Galvanizing: the natural gift of rallying, inspiring, and organizing others to take action. These are your cheerleaders. The Genius of Enablement: the natural gift of providing encouragement and assistance. These are your helpers — customer service people in a business context. And finally: the Genius of Tenacity, the natural gift of pushing projects and tasks to completion and achieving results. These are the people who get it done.

Jeff: I'll cheat a little and tell you that tenacity is my working frustration. I really struggle with it.

Elise: He really does.

Jeff: Okay, let's do a reveal for our listeners. Stephanie, what are your working geniuses and frustrations?

Stephanie: My working geniuses are Discernment and Tenacity. My frustrations are Invention and Galvanizing.

Jeff: How about you, Elise? And this is where we have to have a little support session.

Elise: My working genius is Enablement. And this is where I failed the test — I actually got three competencies instead of two geniuses. My frustrations are Wonder and Invention.

Jeff: So if you've noticed, half my staff is frustrated with me — which is totally fine. My wife is also one of them. She is the one shooting down all of my amazing ideas. My working geniuses are Invention and Wonder, and my working frustrations are Enablement and Tenacity. That's why I have this team.

Stephanie: Exactly — fill in the gaps.

Jeff: So why are we talking about this, and what does it have to do with events? Whether you're talking about a commercial business or your event fundraising committee, you need all six types represented. You can be overloaded in a certain area, and we'll talk about where you want that for fundraisers. But you do need them all covered. What I recommend is having your team go through the assessment — it's about twenty dollars — and then map the results. That team map will show you where you have gaps.

Jeff: Let's go a bit deeper on each genius and how they apply to events. The Genius of Wonder: people with this genius naturally question why things shouldn't or couldn't be better. They're curious about unmet needs and unrealized potential. For your event, these are the people thinking about how to take it to the next level — how do you increase revenue, get more attendance, change the theme or venue? They bring a fresh set of eyes every time.

Elise: Having someone with this genius on your team is like having a fresh set of eyes, always asking why we do things the way we do.

Jeff: People with the Genius of Wonder say things like, 'I just don't think this is the way it should be' or 'Why couldn't this be better?' These are often the people who call Handbid saying they want to implement mobile bidding. They push the envelope. And if that terrifies you, this is probably not your genius — but that's okay, because your safety net is coming right up.

Jeff: The Genius of Invention: these people thrive on creativity. They naturally come up with ideas seemingly out of nowhere to solve problems. They're figuring out not just what to make better, but how to make it better. What I love about inventors in the event context is post-planning, the night of the event — this person is going to solve the problems that are guaranteed to come up, whether it's the Wi-Fi going down or running out of something. They're your 'I've got an idea' people. A lot of times, the genius of Wonder and genius of Invention go hand in hand, though not always.

Jeff: Moving on to the safety net: the Genius of Discernment. People with this genius have a knack for instinctive, intuitive judgment and evaluation of ideas. They discriminate naturally between good and bad ideas, plans, or advice. Every idea is a good idea, isn't it?

Stephanie: Well, we really don't think so. Usually, we're the ones saying, okay, we can get on board with this because of X, Y, and Z.

Jeff: We're joking around a little, but it is a good dynamic. You need checks and balances because if you don't have them, you'll implement some bad ideas. A lot of people with Wonder and Invention don't go through all the levels of how something is actually going to work. The genius of discernment is rightly recognized for its pattern recognition and trend identification — 'I've seen this movie before. Are we sure that's going to work?' One challenge: it's probably the hardest genius type to identify because everyone thinks they make good decisions. So a lot of people claim Discernment when they don't have it. And sometimes people with Wonder and Invention get so passionate about their idea they miss the nuances that need to be worked out.

Stephanie: And sometimes you still need to take risks and be courageous. It's about playing devil's advocate, presenting the other side, and then deciding: is the risk worth it?

Jeff: Exactly. We just had our first unofficial Kentucky Derby 2024 fundraiser planning meeting the other night. We had a great ideation session — coming up with ways to expand and take the event to the next level. And at the end, those with the Discernment gift were looking at costs, asking, 'Does the crowd really care about top-shelf vodka versus mid-shelf vodka?' These conversations really do happen, and you need them.

Stephanie: The Discernment in me is going to bring you back to the permit process.

Jeff: Exactly right. For those who don't know the inside joke — we had fireworks at our last Derby event, and we didn't realize until the day before that we needed a permit from South Metro Fire. We were scrambling. So yes, Discernment would have caught that. Let's keep moving.

Jeff: The Genius of Galvanizing: these people bring energy and movement to an idea, project, or function. They naturally rally others through inspiration, enthusiasm, and a call to action. Galvanizing often involves recruiting, selling, and instigating. Where does this apply to fundraising events?

Elise: If you need more volunteers — whether for the night of the event or for your committee — you need this person recruiting.

Jeff: One hundred percent. They're also great at soliciting auction items. They might not complete the whole process on their own, but they're the best person to go out, talk to businesses, and convince them to donate to your cause. And I would throw in there: running your check-in. You need someone with this genius to get your check-in crew rallied, energized, and ready to go. 'We've got six hundred people coming tonight. We're going to get them in the door, get a drink in their hand, show them their table, and it's going to run smoothly.' You need that energy up front.

Jeff: The Genius of Enablement: these people are naturally inclined to offer enthusiastic support to a person who needs assistance. They understand that nothing happens if people don't step up. These are your setup and take-down crew, your check-in volunteers. They're not reinventing the wheel — they're there to do it exactly how they were told. They'll show up the day before to help set up the venue and stay after it's done to take everything down.

Elise: That's why I end up at everybody's charity events.

Jeff: Yes it is! Elise is a workhorse — an amazing volunteer. The important thing for this role: when you're doing setup the day before, you don't need people walking in with new ideas. You just need to get it done. Don't put your Wonder and Invention people on the setup crew — they belong in your planning committee, not your setup crew.

Jeff: And last but not least: the Genius of Tenacity. These people are all about execution, making sure whatever they're working on is accomplished and achieves the desired results. They want to know they've met or exceeded standards and that the work had the expected impact. This genius is fairly easy to identify but not always recognized as a genius. Those who have it often see their tenacity as simple discipline and work ethic. Those who don't have it often feel guilty about it.

Jeff: In the event world, these are the people who will organize all your auction items — labeling them, writing descriptions, getting everything into a spreadsheet, resizing and uploading images. Someone with the gift of Tenacity is literally going to sit there and drag-and-drop images on every single item and be happy doing it. I, on the other hand, would spend time figuring out how to automate the resizing. These are also the people you want out there knocking on doors to get your auction items.

Stephanie: And change two hundred paddle numbers for you without complaint.

Jeff: Exactly. I recently had to move all our paddle numbers down by an order of ten — six hundred paddle numbers. what I would do: write a program to change them. But someone with the gift of Tenacity just clicks through every single one and gets it done. We love these people.

Jeff: So to summarize: Wonder and Invention think about how to take your event to the next level. Let them loose — don't hold them back. Discernment funnels those ideas down to what's actually possible and appropriate. Are we going to yield more revenue? Is it adding something our guests have been asking for? Once you've filtered the ideas, Galvanizing gets people excited and recruits your volunteers — put them in the check-in area as your volunteer trainer, because you need high positive energy there. Fill your check-in staff with Enablement — they'll do exactly what they're asked. And then Tenacity drives everything to the finish line, making sure all the little things actually get done.

Jeff: The point isn't to say 'I can only accept people who fit these criteria.' This is a tool to understand where your gaps are, put people in the right positions, and build a stronger committee. Maybe you realize a team member is in the wrong seat, or you're missing a type and need to go find that person. Check it out at workingenius.com — it's been genuinely helpful for us at Handbid. Until next time, find out what your working genius is and let us know!