Interviewing a diverse group of operations executives last summer, one item popped up on many wish lists:
Gaining an edge in dealing with different personalities and styles.
Some wanted to build greater trust with the CEO. Others wished for an easier path through sticky situations with cross-functional partners. Many could do with more leverage in holding reports accountable for results.
With operations, you’re touching such a broad realm of stakeholders. There will inevitably be some people who are easy to ride with, and some with whom it seems it’s a road full of potholes.
Who is coming to mind as I say this?
What I know for sure is upping your communications game starts with self-awareness.
In this episode, I’ll share my go-to resource for insight into relationship mechanisms.
The Importance of Knowing Your Leadership Style
It takes a savvy person to drive outcomes while balancing strategy with systems. You have to keep a pulse on everything across the org. That requires ninja-level relationship building.
You know that building relationships requires effort to develop and maintain the trust that makes things gel.
When someone shows up as a challenge, it’s natural to try to figure out what’s wrong or different about them. You’re great at finding and solving problems, right? And the more quickly the better.
But that’s a trap.
Even if you figure out how to get the response you want, this situation hints at a larger pattern of challenges.
That has to do with what’s functioning underneath inside your personal mechanisms. When you have insight into these, you’ll have the edge to communicate better, find more fulfillment, and be a better leader.
Time to pop the hood and see what’s going on.
The Key to Relationship-Building Across Diverse Relationships
Working as a senior leader for years, and now as an executive coach, I’ve worked with lots of personal development systems. They include Myers Briggs, Clifton StrengthsFinders, DISC, The Big Five, and Tilt.
They are all valuable. All have their benefits. And all provide insight and a development path. I’ve gotten something out of them all.
Working with the Enneagram is my favorite framework. I just love to know why humans do what they do.
But beyond my own fascination with it, it has the most holistic, deepest, and most durable framework I’ve known. I am just as intrigued by it as when I first learned about it 20 years ago. It is easily accessible and has the most potential for powerful impact across every type of relationship.
I’m so lucky to have learned about it from many brilliant teachers. I keep coming back to it time and again for insight and leverage.
The Role of the Enneagram in Your Leadership
So, what is the Enneagram? The word comes from the Greek words meaning nine and a written symbol.
The nine-pointed symbol represents nine distinct worldviews. Each has its unique patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting. This creates our natural strategy for relating to the self, to others, and the world.
Think of it like standing in a building, looking up to see nine different shapes and colors of windows.
We all start with all nine available to us. As we face obstacles and learn from them, we start to focus on the one perspective that helps us make sense of life. That becomes the lens through which we begin to filter everything else.
Every type perspective has its own highest gifts. They also have their liabilities, places where our perspective gets overused or distorted.
Working with the Enneagram often begins by determining your type perspective. This helps you find your hidden strengths so you can leverage them more. It also reveals blind spots that can create or augment those relationship potholes.
All of this helps you to learn about your leadership style and make the most of it.
For example, knowing your enneagram perspective helps you anticipate your reactions to conflict.
You can also learn to recognize others’ strengths more easily and how your blind spots might cause friction. All of this helps you build rapport and resolve conflict.
I’ve seen Enneagram learning used to process feedback and to give feedback that leaves others respected and clear about what’s needed.
If you’re looking for a roadmap that helps you identify where you need to sharpen your edge, consider exploring the Enneagram.
You can’t stop the chaos, but you can change the game.