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topicnews · September 19, 2024

How to find your Zone of Genius at work

How to find your Zone of Genius at work

If you want to know how to access your Zone of Genius, read on (Image: Getty Images)

Have you ever been in a meeting and been confused by the language your colleagues use? From claims that it’s “not worth” selling to a particular customer, to conversations about turnover, to arguments about crossing boundaries, corporate jargon can be a minefield.

As confusing as it may be, the reality is that business language is supposedly designed to save time, so instead of saying, “Let’s look at this again sometime in the future – I’ll send you a calendar invite,” you can simply say, “Let’s come back next week.”

While this makes sense, business jargon is often used as a weapon by people who either want to sound smarter than they are, hide behind flowery, often opaque phrases, or silence others by using the best buzzwords.

This can be common in companies as people compete to square the circle or grab the low-hanging fruit. The result? No one is quite sure what is actually being said or what they are supposed to do.

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Every industry has its own jargon, but those who work in technology or marketing are often the ones most responsible for downloading, interrupting, and influencing thinking.

If all of this is beyond your pay grade and you’d rather do it offline, consider another element of corporate life: the workplace trend.

Fads in the workplace

British workers have been exposed to a bewildering array of workplace trends in recent years, cleverly mixing a particular behaviour with a brand new buzzword. Recently, for example, there has been a rise in ‘office peacocking’, where people get their jobs done by being so busy 24/7 that they are never asked to do anything extra.

Or how about “quiet quitting,” a 2022 phenomenon in which workers stressed out by the pandemic simply did their jobs and nothing more. British workers have also seen the rise of “Bare Minimum Mondays,” which are all about—you guessed it—doing as little as possible to ease into the workweek.

“Act Your Pay” is another variation of quiet quitting, where burned-out and stressed-out workers decide to do exactly what their job description says and nothing more. Or you may suffer from “tiara syndrome,” where you sit around waiting for praise and a pat on the head from your boss instead of making your accomplishments known.

One of the main drivers of recent workplace trends is TikTok. With its young target audience, the app has more Gen Z users than Instagram, with the majority of creators aged between 18 and 24. The UK is the nation that spends the most time on TikTok each month, and as such, this younger demographic has a significant influence on how we think about work today.

Discover the zone of genius

One of the most recent workplace trends the platform has popularized is the “Zone of Genius.” This isn’t a new idea, but the app’s developers have a particularly good sense of remixing older concepts for a new audience.

Sounds great – so what is it about?

According to experts, people tend to operate in four different zones at work: the zone of incompetence, when you do things you are not good at while others can do them better.

Businesswoman explains new project plan to her team in the office.

Use your strengths in the workplace (Image: Getty Images)

Next comes the competency area. This is where you are quite good at what you do, but your colleagues are just as good.

In your area of ​​excellence, you excel at special tasks and are praised or rewarded for doing them, but here’s the catch: you don’t like doing those things.

So the zone of genius is the ultimate goal. This is where your greatest strengths lie and where you can reach your highest potential. Your zone of genius is the interface between your talents, passions and strengths.

To identify your problem, you need to consider the activities that make you feel both highly effective and fulfilled. Think about what comes naturally to you at work – things that you do easily but that others find challenging, like quick thinking or creative problem solving.

Maybe you’re really good at simplifying complex concepts or explaining ideas to others. This could suggest that your talent lies in teaching, mentoring, or communicating complex information in a simple way.

You also need to ask yourself if the things you’re good at actually energize you. Identify the tasks that make you lose track of time because you’re so involved, because the ultimate goal is to find tasks and activities that combine your passions and strengths, because your zone of genius is where your passion meets your skills.

So if you’re passionate about storytelling and also have a knack for data analysis, your talent might lie in translating data into compelling narratives for decision-making. Or, if you work in sales, you might be a “customer whisperer” who instinctively and entertainingly knows what their customer wants and uses that to close high-profile deals on a regular basis.

Ultimately, finding your own zone of genius is about creating a work life that you enjoy and that allows you to express your unique skills and passions. If that doesn’t sound like your current workplace, it might be time to look for something new.

Find your zone of genius in a new job. Visit the Metro Job Board today for hundreds of positions across the UK

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