Bringing Out the Best in Yourself at Work:
How to Use the Enneagram System for Success
Book Chapters
While most books about psychological styles are organized
according to personality type, this book is organized according to application
areas — particular skills that can be used to solve recurring business
issues. You can thus use this book as a continuing resource, consulting
it as needed when you encounter particular challenges at work.
Each of the seven chapters has a specific focus. The chapters build on
one another, moving from the identification of one's Enneagram style to
the application of the Enneagram in increasingly complex business situations.
Individuals unfamiliar with the Enneagram should first read Chapter 1,
"Discovering Your Enneagram Style." Those who already have a firm understanding
of their Enneagram style can begin with the chapter that best suits their
needs; while designed to follow a logical progression, Chapters 2 through
7 can be read in any sequence desired. Finally, the Resources section
offers websites, books, and other reference material for further study.
Table of Contents
| |
Introduction |
| The introduction explains the book's purpose
and structure, describes the Enneagram's roots and applications, and
provides a perspective on the evolving fields of management theory
and organization development. |
|
 |
Discovering
Your Enneagram Style |
| The first chapter, "Discovering Your Enneagram
Style," contains exercises and conceptual models to help readers identify
their Enneagram styles. Readers begin their self-assessment with two
warm-up exercises and then move to an activity in which they rank-order
nine different paragraphs — each paragraph describing a different
Enneagram style — in order to determine which style best matches
their own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Readers then learn additional
information about the Enneagram system as a way to further clarify
which style best describes them. |
|
 |
Communicating Effectively |
| This chapter explains how to remove the
communication barriers associated with each Enneagram style —
when either sending messages (speaking style, body language, and blind
spots), or when listening to others. The Enneagram style-based patterns
of communication are demonstrated through real stories about people
of each Enneagram style, followed by a detailed analysis of that person's
behavior. The chapter concludes with specific exercises for improving
communication with others. |
|
 |
Giving Constructive
Feedback |
| This chapter describes the what, why, and
how of giving constructive feedback. The first section of the chapter
provides examples of how individuals of each Enneagram style may err
when giving feedback to someone else, regardless of the recipient's
Enneagram style. The second section of the chapter provides a clear
and effective technique for giving feedback to anyone, regardless
of Enneagram style — the Feedback Formula. Finally, the chapter
reviews how to adjust the Feedback Formula to individuals of each
Enneagram style. |
|
 |
Managing Conflict |
| Through nine different stories, this chapter
explains the following: (1) how to dramatically improve your ability
to manage your reactions during conflict in order to keep most interpersonal
conflict from occurring or escalating, and (2) how to tailor your
conflict resolution approach to the Enneagram style of the other person.
Using the "pinch-crunch conflict model," the chapter identifies the
anger triggers ("pinches") and conflict-related behavior typical of
each Enneagram style, provides instruction for approaching individuals
of these styles during conflict ("crunches"), and offers specific
methods for using your pinches and crunches as opportunities for your
own self-awareness and growth. |
|
 |
Creating High-Performing
Teams |
This chapter describes how to create high-performing
teams. Using a real team case study, this chapter explains and analyzes
how individuals of each Enneagram style behave on teams, using the
following team frameworks:
- Team goals
- Team interdependence
- Task and relationship roles of team members
- Individual behavior during the four team development stages
— Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing
The chapter concludes with specific activities
for using this information to create high-performing teams.
|
|
 |
Leveraging Your Leadership |
This chapter shows how to bring out the
strongest leadership skills for each Enneagram style by examining
the following:
- Leadership paradigms — nine worldviews based on assumptions
and beliefs that influence how we behave and what we tend to
overlook
- Leadership strengths of each style
- Leadership derailers — weaknesses, directly related
to Enneagram style, that often impede a leader's success
- Descriptions of how the leadership strengths of each Enneagram
style, when used to excess, become leadership weaknesses
- Analyses of the common leadership behaviors of each style
- Three ways leaders of each style can dramatically improve
their leadership performance
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 |
Transforming Yourself |
| "Transforming Yourself" provides a total
of five developmental activities specifically designed for each Enneagram
style — three for daily use, one for changing style-based mental
patterns, and one for transforming style-based emotional habits. These
activities and exercises are easy to understand and follow. |
|
| |
Resources |
| "Resources" is a bibliography with a select
list of books and websites for both the Enneagram and the behavioral
sciences. (See Bibliography in About the Enneagram section of this
website) |
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