Page 273 - Using the Enneagram System to Identify and Grow Your Leadership Strengths and Achieve Maximum Success

248 What Type of Leader Are You?

Having genial social skills, Nine leaders also establish excellent
rapport and are able to discuss important issues in a nonthreat-
ening way. Nines will listen openly when someone disagrees with
a decision that the Nine has made as long as the other person is
not overly antagonistic or critical in doing so.
The following story about Brandon shows the Nine’s decision-
making style:

Brandon, the new manager of a customer service help
desk, realized immediately that the people who staffed the
telephone help lines had serious skill deficiencies. Rather
than immediately warning the worst-performing
employees to improve their performance, Brandon instead
spoke privately with each employee in order to understand
his or her perspective and to develop rapport. Brandon
also spoke with his boss, his peers, and the help desk’s
customers. In addition, Brandon benchmarked similar help
desks in other companies and observed his company’s
help desk employees as they worked. Brandon took his
time, developed relationships, and learned exactly what
was causing the problem—a mismatch between the ques-
tions that help desk staff were expected to answer and the
level of their technical expertise to do so. When he
decided to divide the department into service specialists
and technical specialists, his decision was met with wide-
spread acceptance.

Most Nines have access to their Head and Heart Centers, using
the former to collect and absorb information and the latter to
engage others in the decision-making process and to anticipate
their reactions to decisions. Although Nine is a Body Center style
and many Nines trust their gut knowing when they sense it, most
Nines do not have full access to their Body Center. Because Nines
are uncomfortable with feeling angry, they often ignore the phys-