Professional Applications

Enneagram in the Workplace Applications

Every professional, in every industry, needs certain universal skills to be effective. Communication, giving feedback, working through conflict, leadership, and working on teams. Exploring these skills from the perspective of our Enneagram types allows us to see more clearly where we succeed and where we often come up short. Here is a brief description of some of the Enneagram applications used in our training:

Effective Communication – Build awareness of communication style, overcome communication blind spots, use body language effectively, and remove distorting filters when listening.

Constructive Feedback – Develop the skill of giving constructive feedback using an effective feedback formula, remove your type bias in delivering the feedback, and learn how to give type-specific feedback.

Working Through Conflict – Understand the impact of conflict, explore what triggers your “pinches” and “crunches” and those of others, discover how to self-manage and work with others in a conflict situation.

Team Effectiveness (Roles) – Gain insight into the typical team role you and others play. Understand how to grow professionally through taking on new, challenging roles. Learn to discern which role is right for the situation. We’ll explore both task and relationship roles.

Work Together Better (Goals & Interdependence) – The amount of interdependence desired at work varies by type. Likewise, what makes an effective goal is also type-dependent. Working with these differences is what aligns a team.

The Four Stages of Team Development – Forming, storming, norming, performing is a now classic model. The twist? Each Enneagram type responds differently to each stage. Understanding your tendencies gives you a choice in how you can support building a high performing team.

Inspiring Leadership (Paradigms) – Appreciate the nine valid approaches to leadership. Uncover assumptions, values, and beliefs. Develop your leadership strengths and learn strategies to overcome your derailers.

Creating Excellent Client Relationships – Learn both how you as a professional service provider can improve based on your Enneagram type and how you can better meet the needs of clients of different Enneagram types.

Personal Transformation (An advanced topic) – Whether we are performing at our peak or at our worst, our experience is a manifestation of the same underlying energy. “Going deeper” allows us to tap into this energy and bring forward our best selves.

Note: Ginger Lapid-Bogda developed these applications in her book, Brining Out the Best of Yourself at Work.

Return to Enneagram Training.