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You're listening to the Enneagram at Work Podcast, a show about understanding people at work, including yourself. I'm your host, Sarah Wallace, and I'm looking forward to diving into this week's episode with you. Welcome back to another episode here on the Enneagram at Work Podcast. I am your host, Sarah Wallace, and today I'm going to be sharing two real life examples, different examples, but that hit home the same point. And that point has to do with using the Enneagram in the hiring process or using the Enneagram to predict the future, whether it's predicting if somebody would be good in this role, hiring that person, determining what role they should move to, grow into, or stay away from. And these two examples are going to just kind of underscore why here at Enneagram MBA, we continue to say, once that person comes in the door, we want to use the Enneagram. You can use it to help them leverage their strengths for whatever role they are in, help them get to know their teammate, their manager, vice versa. But we want to be very careful about using it to hire, to determine, ooh, we got this job, a type 7 would be great here, or ooh, we got this job, a type two. We're really looking for a type two. And I'm going to give you two real life examples about why um why that's not a good idea. And they both came from the same week. So I had the opportunity to it, it's always a little crazy, but I I love it so much. Um had two workshops in the same week, and uh it it was it was kind of wild. I uh I got in at midnight from one of the trips, and then the other trip was in driving distance, um, about three hours from my house. And um I had to be there the following morning at 8 30 a.m. that time. And so I thought, oh my gosh, I am not going to, I'm not gonna be able to sleep. Um I'm gonna fall asleep at the wheel or um I'm gonna get a terrible night's sleep. So um I'm so lucky and my boyfriend came and picked me up from the airport and ended up driving me through the night to where I needed to be, and I was able to to sleep a little. And uh it all worked out and I enjoyed it so much. I enjoyed the one before that too. And uh these two points came from those experiences. One group was a group that was being introduced to the Enneagram for the first time. We did a half day workshop introducing the Enneagram. The other one was with a, and that one was with a group, I think, of 35, 40 people. And then the other one was a group of about 10 leaders, and I I've had the the opportunity to work with them now a couple times. And that's always fun. That just adds kind of a different dynamic because they've gotten to know me. Um, I've gotten to know them, they feel comfortable with me, starting to feel more comfortable with me anyway. I won't speak on behalf of everybody, and then they're starting to get more comfortable talking about this kind of thing with each other. So we just can we just can kind of dig in a little bit more. Um, but still, it's interesting, the same point came from each um of each of these workshops. And the point is we want to be careful in the hiring process. And here's why. So the first example was there was a in this first workshop, there was um a handful of judges in the cr in the group, and one judge um shared what was what was most resonating with her type. And before I even tell you what their their type was, um, I don't know about you, but just being stereotyp you know, stereotypical, um, when I think of a judge, I think law and order, by the book, black and white, you know, you gotta be firm, you gotta have a schedule, you gotta be disciplined, you gotta be consistent, you gotta follow the rules, follow the policies. And when I think of that, those characteristics, a lot of times those are associated with a type one. I think, oh gosh, a one would be great at being a judge. Um, I'll tell you what type I don't think typically when I think of judge is a type seven, striving to feel excited, a little spontaneous, really optimistic, loves options, what's possible, future uh future forecasting, planning for the future. And uh that happens to be exactly what this person was. And it was so fascinating and so inspiring to hear how she saw her type seven show up in her role as a judge. And she shared something along the lines of when people come to see her, typically she's the first person that they see after they have spent the night in jail for whatever happened, for you know, whatever happened. And of course, um, you know, that's a difficult thing. Um, you know, probably not gonna be your most favorite night ever. And they come to see her, and maybe they feel, you know, all kinds of feelings, but probably not, you know, happy and excited. However, she said, I'm the first person that they see after a hard night. And I want them to know that, you know, we will get through this, they will get through this. Um, there is hope on the other side of this. We have programs, we have support, we have resources that I can connect them with to help them um grow from this. And I want to inspire them that this is not the end of the the world. Um, in fact, this could be the beginning of a new chapter. I want them to see possibility. I want them to leave me feeling hopeful. I want them to leave me feeling inspired that this experience doesn't have to define them and we're gonna get them additional support and they're gonna be on a new path of all kinds of possibilities. And you know, type seven sometimes have a reputation for that toxic positivity, rose-colored glasses, glasses half full. Um, and in this case, I thought, oh my gosh, I love how she is using a lot of the strengths of the seven in this what seeming what seems like almost an opposite role, but how well she's using her gifts to really complement that role. Um, and so you know, sevens are great at, you know, painting those uh that future of what's possible. Anything is possible, right? Um we're gonna get through this, it's all gonna be okay. Everything will be fine. Um, here's what we're gonna do. Let's get a plan. And I thought, I don't know that I would have thought that, but this is another reminder of why we can't use the Enneagram in the hiring process because you just don't know what might seem like, you know, the almost the opposite of a specific role. Someone's going to infuse their unique personality. And we're talking about the Enneagram for, you know, because we're here at the Enneagram at Work podcast, but you're going to infuse your own unique personality, and you can do almost any role. Add your own flavor or whoever you're thinking about hiring may do just this. You think, gosh, I have an idea of who would be great in this role, but we don't know what strengths people are going to pull in and just completely put an incredible twist and end up being so inspiring, literally changing people's lives and perspectives. Um, so I I tell you what, when she started talking about how she saw that show up for her, I I was getting cold chills. I I was I did not even explain it um as inspiring as she did, but I that is forever one of my favorite Enneagram in real in real life uh examples. The other situation happened um with the group that we got to dive into the instinctual biases. So that transmitting, navigating, preserving, we did a lot of things around that piece of the Enneagram and this other workshop. Um and this was really interesting because there have been two type threes in this particular group, and they both identified with that striving to feel outstanding, but the way they both showed up was very different. They acted differently, they thought differently, um, their examples were different, and and and you would almost look at them and like think, gosh, how are they the same type? Like it just doesn't, it just doesn't seem well. One most identified with that preserving instinctual bias, and then the other identified as a transmitting type three, which by the way, if you haven't caught it, we just had a real life uh type three transmitter in the previous episode 160 with Demetrius Parker sharing his real world experience. So you have to check that one out if you want to understand the transmitter, or or maybe you are uh a transmitting type, but that one is specifically transmitting three. And our transmitters are wanting to leave a legacy, they are incredibly charming, they have like they're gonna be doing some signaling, leaving a legacy, uh, broadcasting, narrow casting, making people feel like the most important person in the room, dressing to impress, uh, maybe a little bit more uh open to taking risks, making big things happen. Whereas the preserving energy, when you especially when you pair that with the type three, um, they are the most task-oriented of all the types. Our preservers are gonna be a little bit more um focused on managing risk. They're going to be a little bit more focused on making sure that there's enough, enough resources, enough money, enough time, um focused on uh, you know, be a l be a little less maybe flashy, like you, and which is kind of um counter to what you might think of as a type three. And so you have two threes, but with diff very different instinctual biases. So it made sense that they showed up differently. The transmitting three, we actually were talking about how well dressed he always is. And some of his teammates were talking about just he tends to be the best dressed in any room that he walks in. It's like, oh, he's always dressing to impress. He's always wearing something stylish, always something kind of that gets noticed, and his glasses are always so fashionable. Um, he's had a different pair on each time I've seen him. So he just has he just has this look. He you can see him transmitting, where the other one was just a little bit more reserved, a little bit quieter, maybe not as outspoken. And uh so again, this was a great reminder that if you think, oh, this job, maybe, oh, I'm hiring some new salespeople, I need I need threes. I need to be hiring threes on this PR team or this sales team or this marketing team. And, you know, when you overlay that instinctual bias, that type three may end up looking very different than what you were expecting, what that stereotypical type three is. Um, I think they they say, you know, if there is such a thing as a counter type, that preserving three tends to have that kind of push and pull of striving to feel outstanding, but also wanting to be a bit more reserved. Whereas the transmitting three is kind of doubling down on that outstanding energy. So they are they are an intense three. Um, and so you're gonna get somebody very different. And just another reminder of why we don't want to solely rely on type or we don't want to use the Enneagram really in any way to hire, to decide, to help us predict the future, because it just it it cannot, it cannot. And even when we when we overlap type and instinctual bias, we get 27, but that is still not even close to encompassing all the complexity that that we humans have, um, and to be able to predict how somebody's gonna do in a role, whether they're gonna succeed or not, based on that. So um I thought I would share those two situations, real-world Enneagram situations with you to give you some things to think about. And just for your for your own reminder, it was a good reminder for me to have those conversations, to hear those things. And uh I wanted to pass along to you. So if you happen to be a part of the group, part of a group or leading a group that you think would either benefit from an introduction to the Enneagram or build on some additional Enneagram programming that you have already started, I'm gonna invite you to check out our workshop and training options over at EnneagramMBA.com where we have anything from a one-hour kind of speaking and teaching opportunity at a conference type of event to a one-day, two-day type of workshop event where you bring your team members together and we get to dig into the Enneagram and then overlap your specific situation, your what's going on in your organization, what's going on with the team dynamic, and and really make it, yes, we all gotta learn the same language, we gotta learn the Enneagram, but really pull in uh some personalized pieces too of your team. So I'm gonna invite you to check out that Enneagram MBA.com is a great place to start with those options. And with that, I will see you back here next week.