What's Really Holding Each Enneagram Type Back at Work?

The Enneagram’s map of human personality can be applied in almost all environments, and one place it shows tremendous potential is in the workplace. When applied at work, you can understand your focus of attention, your colleagues’ triggers, your professional development opportunities and, if you're the one in charge, how your own habits are landing with the people who report to you.

 One of the most powerful business workshops I run focuses on how to give and receive feedback. Participants learn what their colleagues appreciate about them and what their coworkers want them to stop doing. These sessions are eye-opening because we rarely understand how our own behavior, which seems so reasonable to us, is landing with the people we work with. 

Based on these sessions, below I’m offering you a cheat sheet on what’s really holding each Enneagram type back at work.

Type 1 Perfectionist: Remember to Offer Praise

Your habit of attention goes to what needs improvement. You have high standards and your ideas to make output better are almost always spot on.  You keep the quality high, and you push us to be our best.

But as a One, you trip yourself up when people come to you for feedback because you assume they are asking for constructive criticism. They are, but your sense of what counts as helpful and theirs don't always match, what reads to you as useful guidance can read to them as a list of everything wrong with them.  If you want to keep your team motivated, you also have to inspire them. Try to balance your feedback with positive comments. Tell them what they did well and highlight their achievements. You might not realize it, but the people who work with you often have a sense that nothing they do is ever good enough. Prove them wrong.

Type One Tip:  Make a real effort to offer balanced feedback. You can even employ the sandwich method: start with something good, deliver constructive criticism, then close with another genuine compliment. Your colleagues will thank you for it.

Type 2 Giver: Stop Sugarcoating the Truth

Twos focus on the needs of others and are highly attuned to the emotional vibe in the office. You make work a more humane place, and your genuine concern for your colleagues is one of your greatest strengths.  

The problem is you can overindex on feelings and underindex on business needs. You soften your message, avoid the hard conversation or second-guess what's actually best for the business because you're thinking more about how it will land with the person you need to talk with. Without realizing it, you can say things that are not exactly true or you can be so indirect, the message doesn’t land accurately. This happens because you are afraid of the social capital it might cost you to have that hard conversation.

Type Two Tip: When you notice you are spending a lot of time massaging how to tell your colleague something, catch yourself.  Think about what is best for the business and not what makes you the most likeable manager. Your colleagues will respect you more if you say what needs to be said.

Type 3 Achiever: Stop Taking Credit for Team Accomplishments

All Threes love hitting goals and you are often regarded as the star performer in a team. Your focus is on achievement and—whether it’s conscious or subconscious— you want to be seen as the best in your workplace. 

That’s all well and good except that sometimes you get confused about who did the work. You can unintentionally create the impression that your successes were primarily individual achievements. Your focus on being seen as a success in the eyes of others can overshadow your colleagues’ contributions, leading to resentment on their part.

Type Three Tip:  When you win at something, take a minute to consider all the people, big and small, who contributed to your win and supported your effort. Acknowledge them and their support. That positive image you want to cultivate will grow exponentially when you start sharing the credit of your successes with the other people on your team.

Type 4 Individualist: Learn to Let Things Slide

Fours are committed to authenticity and you aren’t afraid to say what is true, even if it makes you unpopular. One of your strengths is the way you intuitively understand what is below the surface, issues that are important but maybe not being talked about directly. 

While this ability serves you well, sometimes you take it too far. You can be a bit obsessive about calling out touchy topics that aren’t really that important, like bringing up an incident from months ago where you felt overlooked, even if the manager has no memory of it being a big deal. You don’t need to die on every hill.

Type Four Tip:  Ask yourself how important the issue you want to surface really is. Does it need to be said? What would happen if you let a few of the lower priority things just slide?  It doesn’t make you any less authentic to choose to ignore something that isn't really that important.

Type 5 Investigator: Be Less Literal

Your focus is legendary and you are often an expert in your field of interest. At work, you can be counted on to offer a rational, grounded perspective, and we know your arguments are backed up by cold hard data. Unfortunately, these contributions can be diluted by your overly literal communication style. Fives answer the question with precision but you forget to say what the answer means in the context the team cares about. 

For example, a colleague might ask how many people contacted the support line this week, and you give them a single number, the exact count. You've done exactly what was asked so you think you nailed it. But they feel annoyed and think you are being difficult. What they actually need to know is whether that number is good, if the data is trending up or down, if the issues are getting resolved faster than last month and so forth. You leave them to figure out what the data actually means, and they often end up asking you five follow-up questions to get the information they actually came for.

Type Five Tip: Answer the question precisely but also consider what the person asking might need to know. What bigger question are they trying to understand? What decision are they trying to make? Give them the data, but also proactively give them the context that makes it useful.

Type 6 Skeptic: Don’t Be So Obstructionist

As a Six, your habit of attention goes to what could be a threat, and you are gifted at seeing fissures before they become cracks. Naturally, you are the one who makes sure the team has a backup plan that carefully considers, and mitigates, all negative outcomes. This is a genuinely useful perspective, and can be valuable on almost any team. 

The problem comes when you become unable to imagine positive or even moderate outcomes. It’s useful to plan for the worst, but it’s also important to remember the worst-case scenario doesn’t happen 100% of the time. If you don’t see that, and become overly negative and obstructionist, your colleagues may start working around you. You get left out of email chains and meetings because others feel their initiatives can’t move forward if you are involved. Your drive to keep the team safe ends up leaving you out in the cold.

Type Six Tip: Consider the worst-case scenario but also apply a “percentage likely” to them. Make a conscious effort to consider positive and moderate scenarios too. You’ll get invited back to those meetings when people see you are adopting a more balanced approach.

Type 7 Enthusiast: Stop Glossing Over Bad News

Sevens bring positive energy and optimism to the office. You see possibilities everywhere, and you get people excited about a better future. You move fast, adapt quickly and you have a genuine gift for making work fun.

The problem is you skip over bad news, as though you just edit it out of your reality. When something goes wrong, you either minimize it, reframe it positively or just move straight to what's next.  You tell yourself you're keeping morale up, but your colleagues are sitting with a real problem, and you're acting like it doesn't matter. That erodes trust, and there’s a risk that people will stop bringing you real problems because they know you won't actually engage with them. And when things do go wrong, nobody learns anything because you never stop to figure out what happened.

Type Seven Tip: When something fails, sit with that reality. Ask what went wrong and why. Let yourself be uncomfortable instead of rushing to the bright side. Your team needs to know you can handle hard news and that you can face reality. 

Type 8 Challenger: Don't Assume Your Directness Brings Clarity

Eights are decisive and don't waste time with pleasantries. You see what needs to happen, and you call it out directly. Your confidence is magnetic, and people appreciate that you don't play games. 

The problem is your directness can be construed as dismissive. When you send a one-word response or a terse instruction without explanation, you think you're being efficient, but your colleagues often feel shut down or disrespected. They wonder if you're angry or if you think they’ve said something stupid. You're not trying to intimidate anyone, but your lack of softening can strong-arm others and make them avoid extra interactions with you. 

Type Eight Tip: Add an opening and closing sentence in your email communication or ask someone how they are before you launch into an imperative command. Explain the reason behind the directive. It takes thirty seconds to add a bit more to your communication, and it takes the punch out of your messages. Your team will be more creative and more honest when you acknowledge them as people.

Type 9 Peacemaker: State Your Actual Position

You have a gift for seeing all sides of a situation, and you are famously easy to get along with. You smooth conflicts before they escalate, and people feel heard around you because you're really listening. The office is calmer when there’s a Nine in the room.

The problem is you don’t always take a firm stance and make your opinion known. You go along with decisions, often accommodating other people’s preferences and staying quiet in meetings even when you have a conflicting view. You see this as being collaborative, but it actually creates confusion. Your colleagues don't know where you stand, and they start to question if you're just agreeing to keep the peace or if you support the direction. Over time, they stop asking for your input at all because they can't tell if your agreement means anything. 

Type Nine Tip: Even if it feels uncomfortable, state your actual opinion. You can do it gently, acknowledging the other perspectives, and you can be kind about it. Your colleagues will respect you more when you take a firm stance.

The Real Work

These tips come from real feedback in workshops. Every Enneagram type succeeds at work by leaning into their natural strengths, but true growth comes from recognizing when those same strengths begin to work against them. When you see your own type reflected here, sit with it. If you see your colleagues in these descriptions, remember that Enneagram is a tool for greater understanding and not for stereotyping.

The feedback isn’t all negative. People are often surprised to learn how their behavior lands with their colleagues, but they're also moved to learn what their co-workers appreciate about them. Sessions like these help give everyone a path forward and tools to work in a more effective and harmonious way.