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5. Why use the Enneagram at work?
Episode 5 • 6th February 2024 • Upleveling Work • Michelle Kay Anderson
00:00:00 00:20:05

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Have you ever wondered if an issue you were facing at work was related to the task or could be related to personality styles? Do you long to feel more confident in your ability to be a great leader? What if I could share data that could give you x-ray vision into your team dynamics?

In this episode, I share why I use the Enneagram personality system to help teams reach their full potential.

Episode Contents:

[00:04:38] What the Enneagram is great at

[00:05:48] The business case for working with the Enneagram 


[00:06:48] The Enneagram helps you see your default mode 

[00:09:42] The Enneagram helps us understand each other 


[00:11:09] The ripple effect of working with the Enneagram 


[00:13:54] The Enneagram can help teams work together more effectively 


[00:16:08] Companies use the Enneagram for organizational development and to support diversity and inclusion efforts 


[00:16:31] Coming up next

🔗 This episode is packed with tools and resources to help you uplevel work. You'll find everything mentioned in the complete show notes at https://uplevelingwork.com/5

Connect with Michelle:

Instagram | Free ebooks | Website

Transcripts

Michelle:

Hello, and welcome to Upleveling Work, a podcast about the strategies

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and solutions that real people are using

for improving their work life so they

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can make a bigger impact and find more

connection and fulfillment along the way.

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I'm your host, Michelle Kay Anderson, and

I'm an executive coach and the creator

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of the Conscious Leadership Framework.

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I'm on a mission to increase the

diversity of leadership at organizations.

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And the work that I do as a coach is

all about empowering women and other

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marginalized people to become leaders

who gracefully navigate complex

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work environments with confidence.

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Join me here each week to learn

how to create high performing teams

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without working more or burning out.

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This is episode four, how I

use the Enneagram at work.

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This is episode five : why

use the Enneagram at work?

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In the last episode, we talked a

little bit about how I discovered the

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Enneagram and some of the personal

benefits that I've seen in my life.

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Today, I'd like to focus on why I think

the Enneagram can really help at work and

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share some of the benefits the teams that

I'm working with see as we work together.

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And then in the next two episodes, I'm

going to share four specific ways that

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I help teams achieve higher performance.

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That is where we will get into the, how

to apply the insights of the Enneagram.

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But first, I want to make the

case that this is worth your time.

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Most people assume that building

a successful team is about finding

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a group of people with the right

mix of professional skills.

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Like, "if you hire a bunch of

A-players, then you'll have A team."

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So you go and hire some really smart

people who have impressive resumes

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and hope that they can pick things

up quickly and start to produce.

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But often you find yourself with a group

of smart and capable employees that

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struggle to work together or accomplish

the results that you're hoping for.

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In an attempt to fix this, you may

fire people prematurely, believing

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that you have to 'cut the fat'

to get to higher performance.

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You end up spending more time

and energy finding the right

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person that's just the right fit.

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And because it can take a long

time to hire, it puts pressure

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on the existing employees and

performance can slip even further.

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The whole thing becomes this

perfectionistic fantasy that has

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you holding people accountable

for things that are outside their

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capability or control, or enforcing

unrealistically high standards.

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Instead of just addressing the root

cause of performance issues or staying

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open and letting something new emerge.

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This is what frustrated and overworked

managers struggle with all the time.

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They know there's more potential on the

team, but they just aren't sure how to

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tap in to that next level of performance.

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Think about it: if high-performance was

caused by hiring a bunch of superstars,

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then the New York Yankees would

have won the world series each year

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that they had a star-studded roster.

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But they only won one world series

title between:

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stars like Derek Jeter, Alex

Rodriguez, Mariano Rivera on the team.

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Or think about a team of players who

aren't stars individually, but who

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took home the championship , like

the:

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The "miracle on ice" team made

up of amateur and college players

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defeated the heavily favored Soviet

union in the:

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This victory is one of the most

famous examples of teamwork

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overcoming individual talent.

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And the research backs us up.

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It shows individual excellence doesn't

necessarily translate to team excellence.

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Factors like alignment on shared

purpose, trust, and the nature of

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the teams interactions make a team

more than the sum of its parts.

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It is possible to build a high-performing

team by creating a foundation of

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trust, building genuine comradery,

and acknowledging and aligning work

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with each person's unique gifts.

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Getting your team into alignment on the

project and mission and then intentionally

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focusing on key tasks are more impactful

drivers of growth than raw talent.

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You're better off hiring for a growth

mindset and finding people who are

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coachable and willing to learn, then

just hiring for the skills you think

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are needed to execute the role.

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This is what empowering and

conscious leaders know: it is often

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possible to go farther, faster

with the team you already have.

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And you can find more ease and flow

when you let go of control and trust

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something more innovative can emerge.

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And I think this is what the

Enneagram is particularly good at...

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it can help you value and support the

unique contribution of each team member.

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And then it also helps you

to notice any significant

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imbalances in the team profile.

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It's an invitation to ask,

what does a team lose by paying

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attention to these specific areas?

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When I run the team report from

integrative Enneagram for the teams that

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I work with, it generates a team style,

which is kind of like a compilation of how

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all the individual styles come together

on your team and how you're operating.

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Sometimes a style is aligned with the

other styles on your team, but other times

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it can be a completely different style.

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So you each have your individual

Enneagram styles, and then we can

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also look at how those styles come

together to form a team style.

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And you can discuss points of inefficiency

or friction in the team and the patterns

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or assumptions that are underlying them.

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It's like as a team we have this new

language to start to name certain dynamics

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with more specificity so that we can start

to talk about them and work with them.

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The Enneagram can help you understand

your collective social and conflict

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styles and develop processes to

harness healthy conflict as a driver

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of performance, not a barrier.

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It is becoming increasingly clear

that businesses need to invest

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in leadership development for

both team members and managers.

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Did you know that 75 percent

of long term success in a job

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role comes from soft skills?

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The remaining 25 percent

are from technical skills.

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You would think it would be the reverse,

but it's the soft skills that separate

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high performers from average performers,

according to the Stanford Research

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Institute, and 21 percent of profitability

increases come from highly engaged teams.

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Engagement looks like employees

showing up every day with passion

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and purpose, presence and energy.

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However, 53 percent of workers

report not feeling engaged

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at work, according to Gallup.

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94 percent of employees would

prolong their stay in an organization

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who invests in their development.

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And 96 percent of employees believe

that showing empathy is one of the most

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important ways we can improve retention.

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That's according to LinkedIn's

Workplace Learning Report.

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However, 69 percent of managers

express feeling uncomfortable

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communicating with their employees.

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Businesses with highly effective

communicators have a 47 percent higher

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total return to shareholders compared

to companies with the least effective

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communicators, according to the Harvard

Business Review and Towers Watson.

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What it tells us is that communication

has a direct link to both engagement

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in employees and retention of workers.

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And that soft skills are the things

that are going to help you translate

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mediocre performance into high performance

at the individual and team level.

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But the thing is, most of us

are operating on autopilot.

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This is a common mistake I see with

clients as they start coaching with me.

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It's true of everyone, really.

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The thing is, we don't know that we're

operating on autopilot most of the

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time, but most of us stay asleep to

our blind spots and the unconscious

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tendencies that are no longer serving us.

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This might look like doing the

same things over and over again,

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hoping something will change.

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Or not making progress in your

career or business for reasons

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you don't totally understand.

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Or maybe surrendering to the hustle,

working harder or longer, but not

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making a material difference and finding

yourself on a fast track to burnout.

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Maybe you're staying in a job

longer than you should, or you're

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waiting around for the right

opportunities to fall in your lap.

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I talk to a lot of people in career

crisis who are tired of playing office

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politics, or chasing the next client

or new job opportunity in the hopes of

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feeling more fulfilled or successful.

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And because they're asleep to their

own blind spots, and the ways that

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they might be preventing the very

thing that they want, they feel

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frustrated and insecure, believing

that they can't catch a break, or that

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maybe they aren't cut out for this.

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It is hard not to think that you

aren't enough when you get passed

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over for a promotion again and again.

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Using the Enneagram system at work

allows you to more clearly see the

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areas where you're strong and have

something unique to contribute and

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what work might not be meant for you.

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In other words, where are you trying

to fit a square peg in a round hole,

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when instead you could be embracing

and celebrating what makes you unique

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or communicating in a way that it

will land better with your audience.

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That way you can more confidently go

after those dream projects or clients,

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say no to the things that aren't

helping you get where you want to go,

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and find a little more ease and flow.

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Think about it, managing a team

when you're operating on autopilot

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is like traveling around the

world without navigation or sonar.

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You might see what is immediately

in front of you and try to navigate

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what comes up in the moment.

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If you hit an iceberg or something

under the surface, it's because

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you didn't see it or anticipate it.

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And so you have no way of what

is really lurking under there.

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If you run into something, you

might take on water and start to

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bail and try to patch things up

in order to keep moving forward.

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You have a choice.

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Either you do what you need to do to

move forward in these situations, or

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you turn your engines off and drift.

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Either way, it tends to be

a super inefficient way to

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get where you want to go.

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This is kind of how we're

living on the daily.

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Your conscious mind deals with

the immediate demands, but the

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subconscious is what is determining

your course and influencing the results

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that you're seeing in your life.

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But what if you could install

a navigation and sonar system?

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Would you invest the time

to learn how to use it and

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practice your navigation skills?

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Of course you Would the truth is, success

isn't about how hard you're working

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or how long you've been at the job.

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It's all about charting your course,

using the resources available to

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you, and being strategic about

avoiding the obstacles in your way.

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What if you didn't have to work

any harder to get what you want?

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While many people are familiar

with the Enneagram as a framework

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for working with individuals, the

Enneagram also offers insight into

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what drives the behavior of teams,

groups, organizations, and communities,

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as well as providing practical

ways to improve the effectiveness.

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Most of us think of business

like a machine, where you have

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people or resources as inputs

that produce a product or service.

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And managers think about pulling

different levers or trying to

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optimize the performance of this

machine in order to produce the most

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products in the most efficient way.

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But human systems and organizations

operate more like an ecosystem or

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a living community than a machine.

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The people and teams that

make up organizations have an

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undeniably powerful effect on

the systems that they act within.

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So as each individual takes action and

then interacts with the other people

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that they work with, individuals and

the groups are making sense of the world

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and learning and adapting as they go.

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The Enneagram helps us decode and make

sense of the dynamic relationships between

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people and the systems that they form

as groups, teams, and organizations.

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So as we operate within teams and

organizations, the individuals

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influence each other, and then

the collective is also influencing

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individuals in very complex ways.

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The challenges often lie in the

relationship between individuals,

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or between the individual and

the system, and the Enneagram can

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help highlight both tensions and

possibilities in these relationships.

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Okay, so this next section draws on a

lot of the training materials that I

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received from the Integrative Enneagram

when I learned how to administer the

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team report and interpret the results.

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I really like the way they use

this model of concentric circles to

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describe the ripple effect that this

work can have within an organization.

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In the middle of this...

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model, if you can imagine, uh, the

little circle in the middle is the

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individual and then the next largest

circle that is around it is the team.

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And then the biggest circle on

the outside is the organization.

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So you can think of this

model as three nested circles.

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Starting at that individual circle in the

middle, people who are self aware are more

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aware of their habits and are better able

to reflect on and change their behaviors.

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They have this enhanced understanding

of themselves and others that enables

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them not only to be more effective

at the personal level, but also more

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compassionate and authentic in the

relationships that they have with others.

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And then, at the team level,

compassionate, authentic engagement drives

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trust in teams, groups, and even families.

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Self aware people support

positive group dynamics.

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They're better at communicating,

managing conflict, and making

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decisions collectively.

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And in the outside circle, learnings

individual and the team level then filter

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through to the organization and community

to create improved collaboration and the

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ability to affect real change, supporting

an innovative, adaptive culture that

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is positioned for long term success.

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So let's look at how working with

the Enneagram at the individual

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level adds value to the system.

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Within teams, families, and

systems, individuals are constantly

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learning, developing, adapting,

and improving their skills and

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knowledge to remain relevant and grow.

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The Enneagram offers an in depth

understanding of the diverse, often

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unconscious assumptions and patterns

that drive individual behavior.

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This deeper self awareness leads to

a fundamental shift in the way that

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we think, feel, and show up in the

world, while also developing our

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compassion and understanding of the

needs and perspectives of others.

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Employees, leaders, and teams with higher

levels of emotional intelligence, self

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awareness, and the ability to understand

and communicate with others tend to

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outperform their peers in most settings.

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The Enneagram is helpful for any

individual who seeks to understand

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themselves and others better, become more

tolerant, better at conflict resolution,

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and more courageous and authentic.

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It supports a diverse range of individuals

in using their strengths more effectively

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in many different areas of their life.

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Its depth and integrative nature make

it ideal for multi layered development

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over time and it is capable of

addressing a diverse range of issues.

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Now let's look at how working

with the Enneagram supports teams.

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Working effectively in teams requires

high levels of collaboration, trust,

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and interactive decision making between

diverse members and personalities.

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Therefore, much of the conflict and

friction in teams is the result of

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misunderstandings or differences

between members perspectives.

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The Enneagram offers teams a language for

understanding, discussing, and leveraging

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their diverse perspectives and strengths.

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This enables them to improve

communication, understand different

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members approaches to conflict, and

respect and leverage the gifts of

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each individual within the team.

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The Integrative Enneagram Report also

scales to apply to teams, going beyond

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illuminating the challenges each player

may experience in a team environment

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as a result of their individual type.

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This team profile applies team theory

to decode and describe how the team's

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diverse perspectives blend into a set of

unique collective drivers and dynamics.

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Reflecting their collective Enneagram

team style and the gifts and

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potential challenges they might face.

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And then finally, we'll look at

how working with the Enneagram

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supports the organization as a

whole and adds value at that level.

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To succeed and thrive in this

modern, increasingly complex and fast

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changing world, organizations need

different voices and perspectives.

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This is why diversity and inclusion

initiatives are so important right now.

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Major organizations around the world

are using the Enneagram to align and

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link diverse organizational development

initiatives, such as leadership

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development, team building, culture and

climate, engagement, and productivity.

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As one framework that scales to multiple

levels, the Enneagram not only offers

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a language for discussing and balancing

diverse perspectives, complex trade

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offs, and real systemic polarities, It

allows organizations to embrace diverse

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perspectives and utilize the gifts of

their staff, offering the potential

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to create coherent, long term journeys

that result in sustainable change.

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By helping managers and leaders

identify the individual needs,

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motivations, and drivers of their

staff, the Enneagram helps them get

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the best out of their people, even

in times of change or uncertainty.

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Did you know that the Enneagram

has been used to develop leaders

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in hundreds of companies, including

the NBA, Spotify, Dropbox, Toyota,

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Best Buy, and Avon, among others.

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Companies who work with the Enneagram

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have experienced specific benefits,

including improved happiness,

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job performance, engagement,

communication, problem solving,

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relationship satisfaction,

effectiveness, and self confidence.

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And they've seen decreased

anxiety, stress, depression,

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misunderstanding, and conflict.

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This comes out of a survey that

the Enneagram in Business conducts.

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I just completed a team workshop

with a group that I've been

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working with for a couple of years.

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We were doing some deep work that can

only happen when you've been working

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with the system for a little bit.

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Okay, so the four main things that I

tend to work on with teams when I'm

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using the Enneagram are leadership

development, identifying the strengths

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and weaknesses of your team style.

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Improving relationships on the team and

becoming more effective communicators.

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Let's start by looking at

leadership development specifically.

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In 21st century organizations,

every employee is encouraged to

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think of themselves as a leader.

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And that tends to come from the

seemingly endless set of challenges

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that go beyond just doing your job.

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Being a leader in this new world means

dealing with the fast pace of change,

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the need to improve communications

to foster better collaboration, and

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the need to relate to an increasingly

diverse workforce and stakeholders.

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Now more than ever, we need

reliable tools to help decode

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and resolve the misunderstandings

and relationship problems that

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happen all the time in business.

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One of the mistakes that managers

make when they get promoted or take

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on responsibility for a new team

is that they try to Adopt a new

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leadership style or to strengthen

their leadership style typically by

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modeling it after Maybe a mentor or

the previous manager or someone who

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has been successful at the organization

But the type of leadership development

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that I'm interested in is helping you

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Now that you understand how the

Enneagram insights can be applied

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in a work setting to help you get

results, you're probably wondering,

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"but how, how exactly does this work?"

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This is what we explore in the next

couple of episodes where I'm going to

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share with you the four primary ways

that I use the Enneagram with teams.

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If you are familiar with the Enneagram,

you'll be able to start to apply

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some of these insights right away.

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But even if you're new to the Enneagram,

it'll help you think about the

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support that your team might need in

order to become a high impact team.

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Stay tuned next week to learn

more about what it's like to work

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with me and some of the tools and

strategies that I use with my clients.

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Thank you for joining me on

this episode of Upleveling Work.

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To view the complete show notes and

all the links mentioned in today's

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episode, visit uplevelingwork.com.

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That's where you can search by the

episode number in order to find the

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transcripts and any downloads or

resources mentioned in the podcast.

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That's also where you can find my

10 Mistakes Managers Make ebook,

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which explains the most common

mistakes managers tend to fall into.

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My intention is to save you

the wasted time and energy that

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these failed solutions cost you.

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That way you can become a more

effective leader while playing

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to your natural strengths.

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Before you go, make sure you subscribe

to the podcast so you can receive new

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episodes right as they're released.

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And if you're enjoying the

podcast, I'd love to ask you to

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leave a review in Apple Podcasts.

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Reviews are one of the major ways new

podcasts get noticed, and it would

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really make a difference if you could

take a minute to write a review.

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Thank you for joining me,

Michelle Kay Anderson, on this

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episode of Upleveling Work.

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I'll see you next time.

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