Leadership excellence is one of the most critical challenges facing organizations today. Most top leaders leave their positions in three years or less under duress, even when they have had highly successful track records in previous jobs. Companies across the globe are in leadership succession crises, trying to find and/or develop sufficient leadership talent.
Why is it so difficult to find great leaders? One reason is that an individual's prior leadership skills may not transfer to a new leadership position, company, or industry. Another factor involves the demands placed on today's leaders. With a constantly changing business environment, a global marketplace, and the need both to get products to market quickly and to create sustainable organizations for the long run, today's leaders are faced with confounding ambiguities and competing priorities. However, perhaps the biggest reason for the leadership shortage today is that we are not even sure what truly great leadership is, much less how to develop it.
The Enneagram provides an unparalleled way to enhance leadership capabilities and to do so across the globe. It can show leaders their implicit leadership paradigms – mental models and assumptions about what effective leaders should do – highlighting both the leadership strengths that develop from these paradigms and the possible areas that will eventually derail leaders unless they make the choice to develop these. This is because your leadership paradigms indicate what you think is important and so you pay attention to and become proficient in these areas. Equally important is what is
not in your paradigm of leadership; this is an area in which you are likely to be less skilled because you pay less attention to them. The nine leadership paradigms and the resultant strengths and derailers are described in the first part of this section.
The Enneagram also shows you what leadership talents you should honor in yourself and offers you specific development activities to accelerate your leadership growth and potential. These are outline in the second part of this section.
Finally, the Enneagram can be used to develop specific leadership competencies. The Enneagram is really a 21st century technology that can be used to create 21st century leaders across the globe. The seven core leadership competencies are described in detail in the third part of this section.
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Greatest Gift: The pursuit of excellence
Development Ideas:
• Delegate more and include the whole job, not just the parts.
• Have more fun on the job.
• Strive for 80-90% excellence, not 120%.
• Notice positive aspects of people and events.
• Be more flexible.
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Greatest gift: Objectivity
Development Ideas:
• Act more, think less.
• Be more aware of social relations and were to exert your influence.
• Focus on the interdependence of your team; help your team optimize
the internal deliveries and increase the coordination.
• Be more attentive.
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Greatest gift: Making important things happen
Development Ideas:
• Never shout at work!
• Be careful with accusations, be cautious with your tone of voice,
the way you ask questions.
• Consider opposite points of view – Whom and what do I not listen to?
• Learn how to manage your need for control.
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Greatest gift: Inclusion and consensus
Development Ideas:
• Pay attention to the most important, accentuate only the
main points when you speak.
• Move things away from your desk by delegating more.
• Learn how to manage your tendency to postpone things.
• Be more assertive.
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Click on a section to see the corresponding leadership competency information.
Excellent leaders need to have strong capabilities in the seven core competency areas seen on the Leadership Competency Model above.
To learn more about each competency, click on the specific competency and it will show you a graphic of the competency and explain the competency in more detail.
Development activities for all seven leadership competencies for leaders of each Enneagram style are available in the Enneagram Learning Portal.
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