Page 153 - Using the Enneagram System to Identify and Grow Your Leadership Strengths and Achieve Maximum Success

128 What Type of Leader Are You?

SLOW DOWN The two preceding developmental stretches will be
easier to do if you also slow down. That means making a conscious
effort to speak less quickly and to stay with an idea and consider it
from many angles before discussing it with others. It also means
concentrating on the task at hand and not being distracted by exter-
nal stimuli—for example, extraneous noise or a beautiful tree out-
side the window. Most importantly, slowing down requires focusing
your attention inward and asking yourself these questions: What
am I feeling (as opposed to thinking)? What bodily sensations am
I experiencing? Can I simply focus inside myself without thinking
about anything or being distracted by something external?

Enneagram Style Eights

Leadership Paradigm:
Leaders move organizations forward by leading
decisively, getting capable and reliable people in
the right jobs, and empowering competent people
to take action.
Because Eight leaders become invested in mak-
ing big things happen in organizations, they enjoy knowing the busi-
ness and developing a vision from which to create a viable mission
and effective strategies, goals, and tactics. They voraciously absorb
all they can about industry and marketplace trends and make it their
job to know the key customers. They then focus on the organiza-
tion’s products, services, and technologies to ensure that customers
are getting everything they need, and that the whole system makes
sense in terms of the structure, systems, people, and finances.
Eight leaders expend a great deal of energy making sure that the
right people are in the right jobs, so that they can trust others to
do their work without close supervision. Eights take pleasure in
making certain that everything in the organization is directed
toward making the company a leader in its field. In fact, Eights
often work themselves to exhaustion to make this happen.