Page 110 - Using the Enneagram System to Identify and Grow Your Leadership Strengths and Achieve Maximum Success

Strive for Self-Mastery 87

CHART 3.7 (Continued) Sixes: Levels of Self-Master

Descriptions
also be antiauthority, wavering, short-tempered, and reactive.
Alternating between being trusting and being distrusting, they
are plagued by doubts and confusion. On the one hand, these
Sixes desire the safety that cohesive groups can provide; on
the other, they fear groups unless these groups are
characterized by a strong sense of like-mindedness. They are
thus loyal to friends, groups, and leaders whom they trust,
but that trust is tenuous at best and is easily broken if others
do not live up to the Six’s hopes and expectations.
Example: In a team meeting of 30 people, Jeannie was
sitting on the edge of her chair, feeling so frustrated that she
finally blurted out, in a very loud voice, that she completely
disagreed with the assignment that the division manager had
given everyone in the room. While some of the team
members silently agreed with her, they were aghast and
amazed that Jeannie would have taken such a confrontational
approach. From Jeannie’s perspective, she was merely giving
voice to what needed to be said, and in doing so was, in her
view, protecting her team.
Low self-mastery The Coward
Core fear: Having no support or sense of meaning and being
unable to survive.
Sixes with low self-mastery display an extreme amount of
anxiety and frenzy as they go about trying to make their
frightening world less dangerous. They engage in continuous
worst-case scenario development and projection, imagining
all the bad things that could happen to them and believing
that these creations of the imagination are completely true.
With a tendency toward paranoia, these Sixes can become
clingingly dependent, panicky, and punitive. Looking for
solace, they find little, because they reject anyone who
disagrees with their worldview or dares to offer an opinion
contrary to theirs.
Example: Carlos was brilliant, but when he worked with
other people, particularly those who were talented and had
strong personalities, he was involved in constant battles with
them because of his fears that they would (1) take over his
work product, (2) do something to harm its quality, or (3) take
advantage of him by claiming credit for what he had done.
Ultimately, others found Carlos’s continuous accusations
about their motivations too much to deal with, and no one
wanted to work with him.