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Leadership Style
As a leader, you can energize and motivate others with your passion for excellence, your determination to achieve results, and your drive to outperform the competition. You can offer an inspiring vision of how the organization will distinguish itself from the pack. However, your leadership may lack the inspiration of true creativity and innovation when fixated on public presentation and concerned about conforming to industry standards.
You may also have a tendency to overcommit, juggle many balls in the air at the same time, and value quantity over quality, all of which can compromise the ultimate results your team is able to achieve. You may become impatient, inattentive to important details, and overconfident about what can be accomplished.
You may expect your team to shift focus and adapt to changing circumstances as quickly and as well as you do, which may not be possible. You have extremely high expectations for your team, which can be positive but can also be demoralizing if the bar is too high.
Taking Guidance
You will take direction and work tirelessly under a respected mentor who conveys regular support for your advancement, reinforces you for good work, and holds your same high standards for excellence. It may be more challenging for you to take in feedback that seems counter to your idealized image, questions your carefully laid out plans, or delays production. You like to learn by modeling success. “Cooperative leadership” may be a solution, granted that roles and mutual objectives are clear from the beginning.
Typical Challenges
You may work less effectively in a work environment that emphasizes “process” and team collaboration because you generally prefer to complete your work on your own time table. You can be impatient when feeling held back from personal achievement and promotion.
You don’t like to get bogged down by details and may resent “nay sayers” or “devil’s advocates” questioning your seemingly clear and direct strategies to achieve results. You may also resent working without a clear and fair system for advancement based on productivity and results.
Ideal Environment
You work best on a team that sets clear goals, focuses on practical results, and is self-accountable about getting the job done. In your ideal work environment, team members work independently in the most efficient way possible, minimizing interruptions, meetings and communications that seem to waste time, as well as processes and emotions that slow down production.
You thrive in a stimulating work environment that showcases your distinct talents for value proposition and presentation, such as sales, marketing, and advertising. You want to be recognized for your achievements and do well in a workplace with a clear contingent reward system.
Working with Others
You are an extraordinarily hard worker who can be an active contributing member of a team or a very capable leader. You thrive at goal setting, strategic thinking, and getting results.
Intently focused on outcomes, you doggedly work to accomplish goals, often multi-tasking and “moving mountains” to get the job done. In the process of working efficiently and quickly, you may be less attentive to details and unaware of or naïve to potential pitfalls in your well laid strategies and plans. Your competitive spirit may create tension and mistrust on the team.
In the Workplace
How Others Can Support You
Make all performance evaluation criteria, expectations, and standards explicit. Let your Three know how success will be measured. Because of their tendency to over-work and ignore their feelings, they might isolate. In these instances, reach out and offer some connection. Include them in conversations about teamwork and its importance. Unless in a position of leadership, don’t let them seize control. Offer opportunities to relax and have fun--remind them that they’re more than their job and it’s not all about the hustle.
Potential Pitfalls
In an effort to seem high-achieving, you over promise, but then feel forced to cut corners. You sacrifice the quality of your work to maintain appearances, and might under-deliver. In the event of failure, you will cover it up or shirk responsibility instead of admitting it. You fall prey to thinking you know everything about your field, and so you might not listen to others or seek their perspective. You tend to merge your identity with your role, which could lead to problems when it comes to relationships or experiences outside the workplace.
Focus in the Workplace
Your focus is on performance, in both of the word’s implications: accomplishment and appearance. You are focused on being a high achiever, but also on being perceived as successful, that is showing off or performing your success. Failure is to be avoided at all costs, even if it means over-working, cutting corners, or hurting feelings. You spend time cultivating your image as a successful, high-achieving, stand out employee. You will often disconnect from your inner world or emotions through work. It’s more important to you to achieve success than get in touch with your feelings or authentic expression.
Tips for Others When Relating with You
(To Share with Others)
When giving feedback, be concise, speak directly to the matter at hand, and remain objective. Also, keep in mind that they will--consciously or unconsciously--likely delete negative feedback. Don’t waste their time; value their attention as much as they do.
Be assertive, persuasive, and well-informed. Communicate any expectations clearly. Threes are focused on success, and knowing what’s expected of them will enable them to be relaxed about performing. Aim to collaborate, not compete. Threes are driven by results and immediacy. Focus on how to make progress, achieve quick pay offs, and effect high-value change. They will seem unflinchingly self-assured and confident. While they likely aren’t on the inside, don’t be disturbed by their aires. It’s their nature.
Sometimes Threes will deceive others for personal gain. Be aware of this tendency and check in with yourself to gauge whether their expression is genuine. Emphasize achievement. Do not make Threes look bad.
Tips for Relating to Others
If you ask someone a question, pay attention to the answer. Conversations aren’t just a formality. People are trying to connect. Notice if you tend to gloss over feelings--yours and other people’s--by moving quickly from task to task. Avoid becoming robotic by pausing between activities.
You will often want to jump straight to work and lead the charge on new projects, ideas, or plans. Resist this urge and check in with others before diving into things. Suss out if there’s enough time, attention, and energy for what’s on the table, and consider all the consequences of your actions. When working with others, you might be placing an unfair burden on them to clean up after you, as you’ll likely excel at initiating and delegating, but might rush on to something else before you’ve completed the task at hand.
Be accountable to your commitments and take responsibility for your mistakes. You will have a tendency to polish your failures away, or try to pass them off as successes. Try to own your reality without sugar coating it. Notice your tendency to deceive others in order to manage the impression you give. Endeavor to tell the truth.
Your Workplace Profile
Habitual
Thought: I’m not okay unless I have accomplished a lot.
Feeling: I must lie to myself about my needs and desires in order to be successful.
Behavior: Doing brings love and acceptance.
Hidden Communication Style
I am rewarded for what I do, not how I am.
Nonverbal Communication Style
Possibly chameleon-like, transforming to fit the situation as required or expected; shapeshifting depending on the situation. Little emotional engagement or connection to genuine intimacy. Shallow breathing and fast talking. Prototypical appearance--always look the part.
Verbal Communication Style
Confident, efficient, goal-driven, and clear. Often tends toward self-promoting. Might be loud, bold, and appear unafraid. Defensive against criticism and rejection.
How You Make Decisions
Your primary motivation for your decisions is appearances. You might even been manipulated into choosing something based on the way it looks, or the way you look with it, instead of relying on your felt experience. You are impressed by status and pedigree, which will often inform how you make decisions.
Relationship to Time Management
For you, time is your container in which to achieve. You’re skilled, efficient, and you maintain a high-tempo so that you’re always maximizing your time. You want to address time in the here and now--what works in the moment? Because you want to be seen as accomplished, you might blow through projects or bring things to an end before their time. You might also take on too much and not budget enough time to get it all done effectively. You might experience time as a competing force, as if you’re always racing the clock. You attend to the present moment, but you also have the pleasure of successfully accomplishing something always in the back of your mind.
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Primary Enneagram Type | 3
The Achieving Mediator
Staring Roles: Superstar, Producer, Performer, Motivator, Role Model, Ideal Exemplar, Best in Show
