“Why do we keep having the same conversation?”
I hear some version of that from leaders more than almost anything else. A team member seems disengaged, so the leader offers encouragement. Nothing changes. They check in again, try to be more positive, offer more support. Still nothing changes.
The fix usually isn’t more encouragement. It’s a different question. Not “how do I motivate this person,” but “what kind of work actually gives this person energy, and what kind drains it.”
That second question is the Genius of Wonder, the instinct to pause and notice what’s really going on before reaching for a fix. It’s the gift some people carry naturally: they look at a repeated frustration and wonder if the real issue isn’t performance, but expectations that were never quite clear. They look at a drained employee and wonder if the problem isn’t attitude, but fit.
Most leaders are good problem-solvers. They respond fast, adjust on the fly, keep people moving. That’s a real strength, right up until it becomes the only move available. Without Wonder, a leader keeps adding solutions to a problem they haven’t actually diagnosed yet: more structure when the team needed clarity, more accountability when the real issue was confusion. Everyone’s trying hard. Nobody’s aimed at the right target.
Wonder is what gets you aimed correctly before you spend the effort.
It doesn’t always look productive in the moment. It can look like a pause in a meeting, a question that doesn’t have an immediate answer, a leader taking a beat before responding to a frustration instead of jumping straight to a fix. In a fast-moving room, that pause can even feel like hesitation. It isn’t. It’s the difference between solving the visible problem and solving the actual one.
If your team has talent but still feels stuck, or you keep having the same conversation with the same person about the same thing, that’s usually the signal. Not a motivation problem. A question you haven’t asked yet:
What kind of work is this person naturally drawn to? Where do they come alive, and where do they go flat? What have I asked them to carry that may not fit how they’re wired?
Your team probably doesn’t need more talent. They need someone who’s paused long enough to notice how the talent they already have actually works.
That’s what the 6 Working Genius assessment gives you a language for, not just for your team, but for the questions you ask before you respond to them. The workshop with Ann Hunter at Designing Grace Leadership Development turns that into something you can use in your very next conversation.
Wondering about the next steps? Let’s talk about it. ann@designinggrace.com
About Ann Hunter
Ann Hunter helps leaders build stronger teams through leadership development, Working Genius workshops, and Maxwell Leadership programs.
Throughout her career, she has worked with organizations that wanted to improve communication, strengthen collaboration, and create healthier workplace cultures. Her approach is practical, conversational, and focused on helping leaders understand the people they lead.
If this article raised questions about your team, your culture, or the way work gets done in your organization, that may be a conversation worth having.
Continue the conversation with Ann at ann@designinggrace.com.