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It’s Nothing Personal – The Enneagram Type 3 Leadership Challenge

April 5, 2021 by Matt Schlegel Leave a Comment

Failure is not an option! Enneagram Type 3s are goal-oriented leaders driven to succeed.  When the end-goal is in sight, they may become so focused that they neglect the feelings of those around them causing the team to slow down rather than accelerate towards the goal.  Here’s how one Type 3 leader intentionally built and maintained trust, positive intentions and personal connections on their team.

It’s Nothing Personal

Enneagram Type 3s are in the Feeling Center of the Enneagram.  At the core position in this Center, Type 3s tend to suppress feelings, both their own feelings as well as the feelings of others.  They can appear emotionally distant and will often minimize the impact that feelings have on team dynamics.  Unintentionally, they may generate bad feelings on the team which can defeat their desire for high efficiency and team effectiveness.

Vulnerability and Trust

Type 3 leaders will recognize that they, more than other Enneagram types, will minimize emotional connections among team members.  If they allow that style to permeate the team, the team may grow distrustful of the leader and of teammates.  By deliberately building strong personal bonds among team members, the team can grow to appreciate each other’s working styles and positive intentions.  The Type 3 leader can initiate this growth by being open about their own style, pros and cons, and demonstrate vulnerability to the team.  While this may not come easily to the 3, these actions will ultimately help the 3 build the highly effective team they desire.

Mess to Success

In this video, I describe how a Type 3 leader promoted trust among team members and improved team effectiveness.  Based on the principles in Teamwork 9.0, we developed a workshop that helped everyone better understand each other’s working styles and how those styles contributed to the overall success of the team.

Do the Enneagram Type 3 leaders in your life deliberately focus on building personal connections among team members?  How do team members respond to these efforts? How do personal connections impact team dynamics?

[Video Transcript]

“I just want my team to succeed.”

That’s what my client Lilly shared before going on to say that interpersonal issues were preventing them from being as good as she knew they could be.

Lilly is an ambitious, goal-oriented leader, focused on success.

In fact, for Lilly failure is not an option!

When I started working with Lilly, I was impressed with the team she had assembled.

In terms of style diversity, it was the best I had ever encountered.

But, there was one thing that was keeping the team from being great –

TRUST.

Lilly had recruited her team because of their excellence, and she expected everyone to hit the ground running, just as she would.

Inadvertently though, she had minimized the importance of  promoting personal connections among team members.

To address this, I suggested that she herself demonstrate the importance of getting to know one another.

We developed a two-day workshop with a number of interpersonal activities that allowed her team to develop trusting relationships.

Importantly, Lilly allowed herself to be vulnerable.  She told everyone right up front how much she respected and admired them and how much she enjoyed working with them. She admitted that those feelings did not always come through, but that is how she felt.

She acknowledged that when the end- goal was in sight, she could become very abrupt; but she wanted everyone to know that it was nothing personal.

That moment of vulnerability set the tone for what would be a great workshop.

Checking in a year later, Lilly shared how the team had grown closer personally and had become more trusting of one another.

In fact, they were still actively using the tools and learnings from the workshop.

They all had a much better appreciation of each other’s working styles and positive intentions, including Lilly’s.

And Lilly was happy because the team became even more efficient, effective and successful.

Thanks so much for listening.

If you like this, please click on subscribe and share it with others.

And, stay tuned for next episode.

Thanks again.

Filed Under: Enneagram, Leadership, Team Effectiveness

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