Page 262 - Using the Enneagram System to Identify and Grow Your Leadership Strengths and Achieve Maximum Success

Make Optimal Decisions 237

CHART 7.6 (Continued) Fives: Development Stretches

Center of Intelligence Activities for Fives That Develop That Center
Compassion
Tell people how you reached your decision, and also share
your feelings about it. Be kind when delivering tough
information.
Body (Gut) Center Taking effective action
Make decisions in a timely manner, using information
from your mind, heart, and gut.
Steadfastness
Hold firm on decisions you have made using your mind,
heart, and gut in an integrated way; be flexible and
reconsider decisions you have made using your mind only.
Gut knowing
Learn to read your body’s signals so that you can trust
your gut; doing so will enable you to make better and
faster decisions.

Enneagram Style Sixes

In the Six’s mind, effective leadership involves
making constant decisions about which course of
action best solves the problem. However, Sixes
don’t usually make unilateral decisions; they often
think of decision making as creative problem solv-
ing, with the best solution involving ample input from other peo-
ple. Making decisions this way offers Sixes more assurance that
they’ve considered all contingencies, and that there will be sup-
port for the decisions they make.
Sixes attempt to identify all the potential issues that could arise,
calculate the pros and cons of each possible course of action, and
then decide on the best alternative. Because they have finely tuned
imaginations, most Six leaders can project vivid future scenarios,
anticipate the consequences of each one, and then make a deci-
sion about what to do. Although these projected future scenarios
arise from the Six’s Head Center, they also involve the Heart Cen-
ter (that is, through the Six’s imagining people’s emotional reac-