Enneagram Library

Six Ways the Enneagram Helps Teams Grow

Let's examine six specific areas where the Enneagram, as a curiosity-led framework, can enhance team engagement, promote personal growth, and yield improvements in the workplace:

1. Connection: Creating an atmosphere that fosters authentic connections leads to stronger relationships, increased trust, and a more effective team. The Enneagram supports the mutual understanding that creates an environment of authentic connection. 

2. Care: Team members often wish to support each other, and the Enneagram helps illustrate how individuals prefer to receive care. By fostering a deep understanding of each team member, the Enneagram enables individuals to provide care in ways that resonate with others.

3. Communication: By applying their Enneagram knowledge, team members can better understand and appreciate each other's communication styles, both concerning what is communicated and how it is communicated.

4. Conflict: Productive conflict is necessary to develop high-trust teams that perform at their best. The Enneagram equips individual team members to recognize their own and their colleagues' underlying motivations, priorities, and fears. This allows team members to approach and effectively resolve conflicts from a foundation of understanding- of themselves and those around them. 

5. Collaboration: Individuals can adapt their approaches to collaboration and leadership by understanding their own Enneagram type and those of their teammates. The insights gained through the Enneagram facilitate more successful interactions and increased engagement among team members.

6. Challenge: The Enneagram can be utilized to identify how team members can challenge one another to push toward goals, think deeply about decisions, and align on what success looks like. The care, connection, and communication that is illuminated by the Enneagram helps each individual understand what their team members need in order to challenge themselves in a productive way.

Tips for Leaders Using the Enneagram with Teams

While the Enneagram possesses significant effectiveness as outlined above, leaders must approach its application thoughtfully. Once leaders decide to integrate the Enneagram intentionally within their teams, the next step is to determine how and where to incorporate the tool. 

As with any project undertaken in a team capacity, successful application of the Enneagram framework will require each team member to dedicate resources to this work. It will be important that the leader create a supportive environment in which each team member feels equipped with the necessary time and energy to devote to this new task. Just as a leader would not expect a team to reach a quarterly goal without the necessary support, leaders must ensure that team members feel resourced and enabled to spend valuable work time on this valuable work. Leaders who personally engage with the Enneagram and model its utility, as well as communicating the importance of shared understanding, create an opportunity in which teams can thrive. 

Once adopted, the Enneagram maintains its effectiveness over time and continues to yield positive results, as long as team members and leaders continue to be willing to dedicate the necessary time, attention, and resources. When implemented successfully, team members are able to apply the framework in both established and new situations.

We have seen the most powerful results when leaders spend time and energy understanding themselves, the Enneagram, and those around them. Our Enneagram Team Leader Guide contains a step-by-step guide to support leaders seeking to use the Enneagram with their teams.

In Conclusion

The Enneagram helps us better understand our inner worldviews and how they manifest in our daily actions. It reveals our underlying motivations, which are often invisible to those around us. Utilizing the Enneagram creates a framework for conversations that will draw these underlying motivations to the surface. With insight into these motivations, people will begin speaking more openly and vulnerably. Because we are all human beings, this openness and vulnerability is necessary to develop the trust needed to work well together.

The Enneagram framework is a powerful tool when used by teams that devote the necessary time, attention, and resources. When effectively applied, it has the power to create stronger relationships and lead to greater success in the professional sphere. 

Consistent use of the Enneagram empowers teams to discover new ways of understanding, communicating, and collaborating. The ultimate outcome is a high-performing team capable of achieving remarkable results.

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