Communication for Your Enneagram Type
What’s one of the best ways to increase morale, collaboration, productivity, and loyalty at work?
Communication.
Say what?
Yes, good communication is one of the top ways to motivate your employees, deliver clear and productive feedback, increase effective collaboration, articulate goals, and create a sense of community and connection at work.
But, when communication is unclear, misunderstood, or breaks down, conflicts arise, miscommunications persist, time is wasted, feelings are hurt, and productivity, creativity, and connection grind to a halt.
In our modern work world, communication is paramount.
So, what makes an effective communicator?
It depends on you.
Communication is different for each of us - what we hear, what we convey through our words and body language, how we come across to others, and how we filter information coming in is unique to each of us.
What feels like great communication from one person might feel like confusion for another.
Some of us say too much, while others say too little.
What we heard might differ from what another person heard or even what the original communicator meant.
So, how do you become a more effective communicator?
It starts with knowing your Enneagram type.
The Enneagram is a personality map specifically designed to help you understand your unique way of seeing the world.
Each of us falls into one of the nine Enneagram types. Our type helps us understand the motivations behind our actions, reactions, thoughts, feelings, and habits.
Your Enneagram type can illuminate:
your strengths, challenges, & motivations,
your leadership skills,
what causes you conflict,
how you relate to others,
and so much more - including what can improve your communication.
When we know and understand our Enneagram type, we know and understand ourselves exponentially better. We become more self-aware, more proactive in our personal growth, and able to make meaningful decisions and changes that transform our lives.
And the more we know and understand ourselves, the more we can communicate with clarity, understanding, empathy, and compassion.
Why does your type matter?
Each of us sees the world differently, and what we see, how we see it, and how we’ve developed our personalities in response create our personalities and our Enneagram types. How we communicate, including what we say or don’t say, how we say it, and how we filter what we hear, are all directly impacted by our type.
For example, Enneagram Type Twos are warm and friendly, compassionate and helpful, hard workers, and dedicated employees. Their strengths are found in their abilities to create rapport, connection, and relationships with others.
When communicating, Type Twos tend to be open and engaging, ask lots of questions to create rapport, give compliments, and focus the content of the conversation on the other person.
Type Twos can use their easy-going communication skills to help others feel included, motivate teammates, and soften hard conversations with empathy. Communication like this facilitates team cohesion and makes the workplace feel more collaborative and welcoming.
But, along with the strengths and natural abilities of our Enneagram type come challenges, too.
In our coaching, we help our clients understand and leverage their strengths while being mindful and aware of their challenges because what we don’t know or are not aware of can positively or negatively impact us and those around us.
For example, with our Type Twos, their strengths, when left unchecked or overused, become their challenges:
Creating rapport is great until it becomes talking too much and wasting what should be productive work time.
Positively including others is great until it’s difficult to give honest and direct feedback without sugar-coating it.
Focusing on others is great until the relationship (or concern for how much the other person likes you) is the only measure of your successful communication when other factors need to be considered.
When Type Twos are aware of both their strengths and challenges, they can communicate with clarity and directness while maintaining their natural ability to engage others. They can give honest feedback and receive it well without fear of damaging relationships. They can be more objective about issues at work without worrying that the relationship with the other person might be in jeopardy.
Meanwhile, opposite of the Type Two in communication is the Type Eight.
Enneagram Type Eights are direct communicators. They focus on the big picture, getting things done, and working and playing hard. Their strengths are their ability to seek justice and truth, take on challenges, address conflict directly, and bring big energy to all they do.
When communicating, Type Eights are direct: hit the bullet points, talk about the big picture, and move on. They don’t sugarcoat, can be intense, and are bold and authoritative.
Again, like the Type Twos, these strengths can be highly beneficial. Type Eights can communicate their vision and make bold actions happen. They clearly express what they want while leading teams and organizations in powerful ways.
Also, like Type Twos, Type Eights can overuse their strengths, turning them into communication challenges.
Being bold and authoritative is great until it intimidates others and creates a climate of silence and fear.
Being direct and unafraid of conflict is great until it turns into looking for conflict or being aggressive when diplomacy and talking things through would be more helpful and productive.
Talking about the big picture and vision is great until others feel lost, need more details, or need to grasp what the Eight is trying to accomplish.
When coaching our Type Eight clients in communication, we help them to learn to listen with empathy and patience, to stop and ask questions so others are clear on what they are saying, to be more diplomatic and understanding of other’s styles, and to release the need to control the conversation.
Putting It Together
Now imagine the Type Two and the Type Eight in communication together. Each type sees their world in their own way, impacting all aspects of communication with each other.
The Two is focused on creating rapport and building relationships, while the Eight is focused on taking action and direct communication.
The Eight wants to share their big vision and take action quickly, while the Two wants everyone to feel included in the vision and connected to each other.
The Eight might see the Two’s desire to talk and connect as wasting time that could be spent taking action, while the Two might see the Eight’s desire for fast action as intense and demanding and not helpful for creating team cohesion.
When a Two and an Eight communicate, they are both listening for and expressing very different needs - vision vs. connection, action vs. relationship, directness vs. rapport.
So when they are aware of their types and how their type influences their unique style of communication (both verbal and nonverbal), they can better listen for what’s really being said and:
balance bold directness with creating rapport,
value both the relationship and the work equally,
respect each other’s time and needs without resentment or frustration,
work together as a team while moving forward in the big vision,
and most importantly, both will feel heard, understood, and productive.
Conclusion
Modern workplaces need effective communication now more than ever.
With multiple avenues of communication - text, email, Slack, meetings, in-person interactions, video conferencing, and hybrid meetings - exceptional leaders know their communication style, strengths, challenges, and what to do about them.
Understanding your Enneagram type is the fastest, easiest, and most comprehensive way to become the communicator who motivates their employees, delivers straightforward and productive feedback, increases effective collaboration, articulates goals, and creates a sense of community and connection at work.
Our communication strengths come so naturally to us that we can’t always appreciate what they do for us or what happens when we rely on them too heavily and the negative effects of overdoing them.
Those same communication strengths, when not regulated or when we are unaware of their overuse, can become our most significant challenges.
With objective awareness gained through our expert Enneagram coaching, we teach leaders how to observe and realize their strengths and challenges and, most importantly, know exactly what to do to make meaningful changes in their lives.
When you are ready to become the communicator you and your organization need and deserve, reach out and start your journey with us. Book your free discovery call here!
