Taming the Power of the Enneagram 8 Team
The Enneagram 8 is a powerhouse within the Enneagram personality system. Highly attuned to boundaries and respect, and guided by their gut, the Enneagram 8 Leader is quick to make decisions and believes that offence is the best defence.
Observed by others as assertive, direct and action-oriented, the 8 thrives in the fast-paced environment of most corporate and start-up environments. The 8 energy as a group is powerful and worth betting on as they are sure to beat the market, advance their product line aggressively, and work long hours to achieve success.
When aligned 8 teams are unstoppable, but when misaligned 8 teams can get into serious trouble. Things to look out for are:
Poor meeting outputs – a lot discussed but rarely agreement reached
Back door politics – lots of discussion outside of the meeting to move agendas forward
Failure to land the plane – many moving projects but most aren’t finished
Talking at each other rather than having conversations – lots of talking and not a lot of listening
Non-constructive conflict – arguing for the sake of arguing
The superpower of this team quickly falls into the danger zone when the team’s instinctual talent of drive and action puts too much strain on the internal team cohesion forcing competition over collaboration. When 8 dominant teams are in alignment there is no stopping what they can do. In cases of misalignment, the intensity that is their greatest strength becomes their vulnerability as 8 teams get caught up in internal politics and fail to support each other causing the internal friction to get in the way of their success. Or at the very least, makes the path to success that much more strenuous.
To help these teams stay in good balance and in check I recommend three immediate actions:
Assign a facilitator for every meeting – most 8 teams immediately oppose this option, no surprise as 8’s oppose most ideas at first. But once they do, they realize the power of having someone play the middle man. The role of the facilitator is to ensure that conversations are happening and that everyone is contributing.
Use Fist-to-Five for decision making – I have found that most 8 teams like to talk. In fact, the majority of the discussion could involve arguing over the smallest details when in reality the team was on board ten minutes earlier. To assist teams in cutting through the decision-making process, I implement the Fist-to-Five process. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD
Book problem-solving meetings monthly – leave the tactical discussions to the weekly operations meeting and schedule a monthly problem-solving meeting where the team tackles one major problem and moves this agenda item forward. Limit each meeting to 1 or 2 items.
By balancing the need for action with good team processes you can make your team unstoppable!