University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
Is Your Genius At Work
Book

Is Your Genius At Work

4 Key Questions to ASk Before Your Next Career Move

Dick Richards
Davies-Black Publishing, 2005
Buy book or audiobook

Read or listen offline

Amazon Kindle
auto-generated audio
  • 0.5×
  • 0.75×
  • 1×
  • 1.25×
  • 1.5×
  • 1.75×
1×
auto-generated audio

Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

This is a serious self-help book which requires thoughtful effort on the reader’s part, but promises a concomitant reward. Dick Richards urges you to find your genuine inner talents and spiritual beliefs, your “genius,” and to pursue them to find your career, your purpose and true fulfillment. However, the quest for genius is difficult to execute, though many successful people may have already completed this internal search and made genius-based career decisions without even knowing it. Richards is writing for those who have not. His audience is people who hold jobs that don’t give them a sense of accomplishment or meaning. Richards spends a good bit of time explaining how people can find and name their genius, and perhaps not enough time telling them what they can do with it once that “eureka” moment has happened. As a result, getAbstract finds that he articulates a noble goal but may leave some of its realization up to you. Then again, that seems valid: After all, no one can activate your genius for you. This book is useful for counselors and therapists, as well as for spiritually oriented readers who are willing to undertake serious introspection to refocus on their true gifts and purpose.

Summary

Ready for a Change?

If you are restless for a change in your personal or professional life, you may not be using your genius – that innate inner ability that makes work effortless. Each person’s genius is unique. It is the natural flow of energy that aligns you with the outer world and leads you to your sense of purpose. When your career coincides with your destiny and your internal gifts, you are on the path to recognizing your own genius.

When the personal gifts that make people productive actually align with their work, they are much happier. People who are dissatisfied with their jobs most likely lack that connection with their inner genius. Genius is a spontaneous interest, a natural ability, a special power that comes to you very easily. Recognizing your genius will give you a feeling of accomplishment and joy. Everyone has a natural genius, but discovering and acknowledging it is often difficult. People frequently do not recognize their genius and, in fact, may even suppress it.

Recognizing your genius unleashes new power, enabling you to accomplish more because you have released your innate capabilities. If you fail to acknowledge your genius, you may...

About the Author

Coach and consultant Dick Richards led the renaissance of bringing spirit to the workplace with his 1995 book, Artful Work. He also wrote The Art of Winning Commitment.

Comment on this summary