How Leaders Can Better Understand Their Team’s Dynamic Through the Enneagram

It’s natural for people to be drawn to jobs that align with their natural strengths and talents. It’s the same for teams. Teams with specific functions tend to attract certain kinds of people, and knowing everyone's Enneagram type can reveal the different things a leader will need to consider when leading different teams. 

For the sake of simplicity, we’ll say there are three kinds of teams that pivot around the Enneagram’s three centers of intelligence – the Head, the Heart and the Gut or Body center.  

Each center prioritizes information from different sources. The Head center prioritizes objective data, the Heart center prioritizes subjective feelings, and the Body center prioritizes concrete, practical information from the immediate environment. We tend to prioritize one center over the other two, which means we tend to become good at using that center. 

People who prioritize the Head center tend to be good at analysis, research, planning and teaching. They tend to be drawn to roles in research and development, data management, designing technical systems, product development, and communication.

People who prioritize the Heart center tend to be good at relating to others. They tend to be drawn to roles in sales, marketing, design, customer service, and human resources. 

People who prioritize the Body center tend to be good at creating order, maintaining standards, and ensuring things get done. They tend to be found in roles like maintenance, operations, quality control, safety, purchasing, supply chain, and distribution. 

What does that mean for leaders?

Through my work with teams, I’ve noticed that teams have a tendency to skew to one center of intelligence. For example, teams focused on quality control tend to be composed of Body types. Teams with a focus on marketing tend to skew to being Heart types and teams focused on developing software tend to be Head types. 

If your Enneagram team profile reveals that you lead a team with a dominant center, here are a few things to consider. 

What you need to know about Body Centre teams

Teams that are predominantly a mix of Eights, Nines and Ones will tend to be more practical, concrete and ordered than Heart or Head centered teams. 

These teams thrive when their leaders' words and actions line up and when the big picture is more focused on practical outcomes rather than some impossible vision for the future. They prefer to have clear accountability between tasks and outcomes. 

These teams appreciate having: 

1. Clear commitments, clear hierarchy and clear accountability. 
2. Standards and procedures that consistently deliver clear outcomes. 
3. Responsibility to create order from chaos. 
4. The ability to make decisions and take action now, rather than waiting for more information. 
5. Direct, plain yet respectful language about what needs to be done now and who’s going to do it. 

These teams struggle when assigned tasks that require them to:

1. Explore a range of alternatives and options that don't seem practical.
2. Spend time talking about multiple ways to complete a project.
3. Patiently wait for more information.
4. Change course part way through a project, or stop doing a project once it's started. 
5. Invest time in aesthetics or concepts that don’t seem to add anything to the practical function. 

To support these teams to be more abstract, creative or flexible, they need clear commitments about how and what that looks like. They will need to see leaders who walk the talk as they don’t put a lot of stock in what people say, only what they see them do directly. 

What you need to know about Heart Centre teams

Teams that are predominately Twos, Threes and Fours tend to be flexible, adaptable and relationship-oriented more than Body or Head centered teams.

These teams thrive when they can give time and attention to fostering and maintaining their relationships and feel they have a genuine and sincere relationship with their manager and team. They do really well when they receive a lot of positive feedback about their work on a regular basis. 

These teams appreciate: 

1. Having time to build genuine relationships with people. 
2. Delivering solutions that sincerely meet the needs of the customer. 
3. Including empathy, compassion and emotions into their work, whatever it is. 
4. Connecting into what others need and want, whether that's in-person, over the phone or via a marketing campaign. 
5. Being able to adapt the scope of a project when the needs of the customer changes.

These teams struggle when assigned tasks that require them to:

1. Work independently with little collaboration.
2. Stay the course and not change scope as needs or feelings change. 
3. Separate subjective emotions from objective analysis.
4. Wait too long for positive feedback and recognition. 
5. Not have time and space to share how they are feeling or connect with others. 

To support these teams, allocate time to building a relationship with each person on the team, as well as hosting regular team events. It’s essential to prioritize relationship building so everyone feels supported and understood.

What you need to know about Head center teams

Teams that are predominantly Fives, Sixes and Sevens tend to be analytical, logical and future-focused more than Body or Heart centered teams.

These teams thrive when they are given freedom to pursue their own ideas. They appreciate when they can partner with people who can effectively implement their ideas. They value time to think things through and play with ideas, and they value managers who fully listen to their imaginative ideas.

These teams appreciate having time to: 

1. Research what might happen in the future and make plans accordingly.
2. Brainstorm a range of possibilities and options.
3. Explore complex situations and all their moving parts. 
4. Analyze data to draw insightful conclusions.
5. Design solutions that support a vision for the future. 

These teams struggle when assigned tasks require them to:

1. Take action too quickly, before the necessary research or planning has been done.
2. Do tasks that are too routine or operational and lack necessary mental stimulation.
3. Explore too many options and get stuck in over-analysis. 
4. Incorporate the feelings of others into their analysis. 
5. Act before exploring different options to decide on the best path forward. 

These teams benefit from having a leader who creates a balance between planning and implementation, who is comfortable with plans changing as new information becomes available, and who encourages and supports the team to build relationships beyond the sharing of new ideas. 

Understanding your team dynamic 

Once you have your Enneagram team profile, take a look at which center your team skews towards. Consider what is attracting those types to your team and how that shapes how they work together. 

There is no right or wrong center for a team to skew towards. This is a simple way to understand the underlying motivations that shape how your team communicates, how they work with each other and other departments, and how a leader might need to adapt their style to suit the team’s approach.