Why we over-utilize strengths
One of the problems with 360-degree feedback is that it is hard to separate the personality type of the person conducting the review from the person receiving the feedback. But if your team has taken Enneagram tests and confirmed their type, you will be able to sift through the information collected and get insight into the motivation or reason behind some of the derailing behaviors identified in the feedback process.
Often, the very things that we are good at can show up as areas for improvement in a review. Everyone is at different stages of development and integration on their personal growth journey. When less healthy, we continue to rely on behaviors that worked for us in the past. We even become experts in certain areas because they are so practiced. However, overutilizing these strengths or using them in inappropriate situations will cause problems and maybe even lead to failure.
Sometimes dialing back your strength can help you be more effective, but you need to grow your self-awareness to be able to discern when this is true for you.
The reality of the environment we are operating in is that different problems require different tools to solve them. And when you continue to rely on the same actions or strategies, you risk missing an opportunity for creative problem solving that only arises when you can stay open and are willing to try new things.
Conducting a team personality audit
When I work with leaders to do a team assessment, one of the first things we explore is how the strengths of your team fit together and align with the mission. The cool thing about these reports is that the friction caused by different styles becomes obvious, and teams are able to more clearly name issues they’ve been dealing with and understand why they might come up.
For example, it is a relief to know that you aren’t the only one feeling tension when no one is willing to speak up on your conflict-avoidant team. Things may look okay on the surface, but if your team has developed workarounds to avoid the tension there could be resulting inefficiencies that make it hard for you to deliver on your goals. Most people just notice that nothing seems to change and try to do their best.
The beauty of these team audits is that you can clearly see the unique strengths of each individual on the team and make sure that you are appreciating and leveraging them by organizing work around what comes naturally. But what also becomes more clear is how those very strengths can tip into liabilities for the team when they are unchecked or out of balance.
In fact, the very thing that frustrates other people might be related to why you are so good at certain things. And in order to begin to shift things, you have to look at why you got so good at those things in the first place. What drove you to develop these competencies at a young age? Why are certain things so important to you?
The book, The How and Why: Taking Care of Business with the Enneagram, articulates how our core needs can actually become our achilles heel if over-utilized.
A note about the feedback process:
When reviewing feedback from others, you may find clues that point to your type. This information can help you focus on the real, underlying issue and not just the behavior that someone is complaining about. Using your Enneagram personality type to understand the reasons behind why you might be perceived the way you are can help you connect to others in a way that help you more clearly articulate your needs. Having these conversations makes it easier to develop rapport and compassion on the team.
Caution: You aren’t just one thing, and there is a major risk with these personality systems to over-identify with a type (and lose touch with what is actually true for you). So don’t go looking for these patterns if they don’t exist. But to the extent that this helps you name a dynamic you couldn’t quite put your finger on, you can use this to more clearly articulate your needs and desires.
Remember that it isn’t other people’s job to give us what we need or want. Your personality defaults to these preferences because of old defense mechanisms and ways of keeping you safe in the past.
Is it possible that you could relax your core need and open up to navigating this as an ambiguous situation where you acknowledge the complexity and stay open to what is present?
Seeing the shadow side of your strengths can help you wake up to the ways that you’ve been operating on auto-pilot and open up to new perspectives or data that your brain has missed because it is focused on the way you’ve always done things.
This is big work, ya’ll. Onward!
