The Enneagram at Work

Sharing my learnings from the book, The Enneagram at Work by Jim McPartlin

The Enneagram at Work by Jim McPartlin

The Enneagram at Work is the first book to harness the insight of the Enneagram to transform leadership in today’s workplace. A veteran of the high-profile hospitality industry with two decades of experience working with the Enneagram, author Jim McPartlin has seen firsthand the way self-awareness can radically transform leadership, strengthen teams, and spark creative solutions. From giving and accepting criticism to fostering strong mentorships and managing conflict, The Enneagram at Work will give you invaluable tools for growing and thriving in your career.

For the longtime Enneagram fan or those who are just learning to identify their type, The Enneagram at Work helps readers explore the full breadth of their type, becoming aware of their blindspots in the workplace and leaning into their strengths more fully. Each chapter includes actionable exercises and practices so that readers can move from learning to doing and apply their insights in the real world.

• success has always been linked to interpersonal relationships – to get where you want to go, you need to connect with others on an emotional level.
• the Enneagram: a centuries-old framework that’ll help you better understand others, foster self-discovery, and serve as a roadmap to achieving your full potential. 
• The Enneagram is often used to resolve workplace conflicts and marital troubles. And some companies have integrated the Enneagram into their corporate culture to strengthen employees’ personal performance and interpersonal dynamics.
• The Enneagram provides a springboard for cultivating that awareness. While the Enneagram won’t try to alter your core, it’ll reveal your behavioral patterns and help you build on the strengths that benefit you while demonstrating how to release those patterns that don’t. 
• The word Enneagram comes from the Greek ennea, or “nine,” and gram – “written.” Evenly spaced around a circle, connected by a nine-pointed star, are nine personality types. each is associated with certain patterns of behavior that can be used to glean insight into the inner workings of yourself and those around you.
  • Strict Perfectionist – people who are driven by what should be done.
  • Considerate Helper – Helpers are happy to sacrifice their own needs in order to support others
  • Competitive Achiever – someone who forgoes feelings in favor of professional success
  • Intense Creative – These individuals want to feel special
  • Quiet Specialists – They prize logic and intellectual reasoning
  • Loyal Skeptics – worriers: they doubt their own power And that of others
  • Enthusiastic Visionaries – Charming, upbeat, and adventurous, their fear of being limited by commitment drives them to see life as a string of infinite possibilities
  • The Boss – someone who likes being in control
  • Adaptive Peacemaker – diplomat by nature who can see all sides of the equation
• To be an effective leader, you need to cultivate self-awareness. Being self-aware means not allowing your patterns to function on autopilot; instead, it’s seeing your mind as a muscle you can direct and focus. you can train and focus the mind to become stronger – through meditation. 
• five Enneagram-inspired leadership principles
  • self-awareness
  • be curious
  • honor your commitments
  • choose your team carefully
  • pay attention
• Within the Enneagram circle of worldviews lies a triangle. This triangle represents the three centers of intelligence – logic (head), action (gut), and emotion (heart).
  • our head brain makes us observant and creative;
  • our gut brain makes us feel alive and grounded;
  • our heart brain makes us authentic and receptive.
• Learning to balance your three centers of intelligence is the first step toward core activation – being able to operate consciously and access your best self. You can do this through an exercise McPartlin calls The Pause. Subtly stop whatever you’re doing and tune in to your centers of intelligence. Ask yourself, What do I think? How do I feel? What can I do? If you’re alone, touch your temples, heart, and belly as you ask these questions; if not, imagine these motions.
• Being able to give – and receive – feedback and mentorship is a hallmark of great leadership. A four-step feedback model can help activate your core and make giving and receiving feedback less scary
  • observe the behavior you wish to address
  • interpret
  • feel
  • need
• Tap into humor, self-awareness, and other Enneagram types to manage fear and failure.
• When you fail, which is in itself a subjective term, rejuvenation should be your priority. The best way to fire up this process is by tapping into your three centers of intelligence:
  • practice compassion in your Heart Brain,
  • use your Head Brain to rationally contemplate what happened, and
  • gear up your Gut Brain to move forward. 
• Diffuse conflict and foster collaboration by recognizing and releasing your patterns.
  • each of us also has a good and bad self. Different personality types instinctually manage discord in various ways – but regardless of the approach, there is a higher and lower expression for each type.
  • We all possess an inner observer. During a tense moment, practice tuning into this impartial set of eyes to identify when you’re slipping into your bad self – and shift course in real time.
  • The key to effective, fun teamwork is learning to acknowledge another’s point of view, voicing your own, and then solving the obstacle together. 
• three Enneagram subtypes, or instincts, that can help you gain a more nuanced understanding of others’ positions:
  • self-preservation – which entails a sense of security;
  • social – wanting to belong within a group; and
  • one-to-one needs like partner intimacy or close friendships.