Page 145 - Using the Enneagram System to Identify and Grow Your Leadership Strengths and Achieve Maximum Success

120 What Type of Leader Are You?

component parts and the interconnections that exist between and
among the pieces.
One of Michelle’s employees describes her this way:

“Whenever I ask Michelle a question about customers, prod-
ucts, industry trends, or the latest technology, she always
has the answers right at her fingertips. How she knows and
retains all this information seems like a miracle, but she is
certainly a great resource for us.”

Five leaders’ strength in knowing the business and thinking and
acting strategically can also be an obstacle for them. It is impossi-
ble for someone to know everything about an organization and its
business context, especially in a constantly changing marketplace.
These realities may frustrate Five leaders, who often believe that
they must understand all the data before they can take action. In
addition, while intellectual analyses are a necessary component of
high-level success in this competency, understanding feelings—your
own and those of others—is equally critical, as is a gut sense of what
is most important and what direction the organization must take.
There is also a tendency among Fives, particularly early in their
leadership careers, to handle the running of an organization,
business unit, or work group as one would handle project man-
agement. The Five leader’s strength in understanding how pieces
of the business fit together works well in project management,
but it can be a limitation in running a business. An organization
or a strategic business unit is far larger in scope and complexity
than a project, no matter how complex the project, and there are
many more unpredictable and changing variables involved in run-
ning a business.
Five leaders may also confuse tactics with strategy, since many
tactics are strategic in nature—that is, they are crucial to the busi-
ness. However, a strategic activity is not the same as a strategy, as
it is simply one tactic rather than an overall strategy or approach
from which several tactics emerge.