Enneagram at Work
Welcome to Enneagram at Work, your Saturday leadership download. We're bringing you insights for your weekend so you're ready for Monday.
This is a podcast about understanding people at work and navigating professional relationships. We spend so much of our time at work, why not make it more enjoyable by working on creating more enjoyable relationships with our teammates?
Listen in each week to gain self-awareness, relationship management, leadership development, personal growth insights, and real-life application ideas through the lens of the Enneagram inside educational episodes and interview conversations.
Learn about bringing the Enneagram to your organization or group and view the current workshop menu at: enneagrammba.com
Enneagram at Work
124. Coworker Chemistry: Type 3 & Type 4 Dynamic
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Check out the Backstory vs. Bullet Points episode mentioned here!
-> https://www.buzzsprout.com/1850780/episodes/16622539
What happens when the Achiever and the Individualist end up on the same team? In this episode of Coworker Chemistry, we dig into the Type 3 + Type 4 dynamic - the strengths, the friction, the communication gaps, and what growth actually looks like when someone striving to feel outstanding meets someone striving to feel unique and authentic.
The Strengths of This Pairing:
- The Three drives toward the finish line; the Four makes sure what gets built there actually means something, together they produce work that doesn't just perform well, it stands out
- Fours can help Threes to slow down and ask whether the goal is worth chasing, producing work that's genuinely differentiated rather than just technically impressive
- Threes can pull Fours forward; their bias toward action and deadlines is often exactly what gets a Four's best creative work out of their head and into the world
- Fours bring creative depth; Threes bring polished execution. That combination is genuinely rare and genuinely valuable on any team!
Where the Friction Lives:
- The Three is ready to present before the Four is ready to ship, and the Four is still refining while the Three has already sent the deck. The gap in speed is real.
- Threes shift to fit the room; Fours resist any shift that feels like a compromise of who they are. What the Three calls professional, the Four can read as inauthentic.
- When a Three gets the credit, and the Four feels pushed into the background, the resentment is quiet, but it can build deep.
- Threes manage emotions to keep things moving; Fours bring emotional honesty as a feature of their work. The Three reads the Four as too sensitive, the Four reads the Three as performative, and both are missing the point.
Resources + Links:
- Learn more about the 3-part Dream Team Momentum program: enneagrammba.com/enneagram-team-workshops
- Run your own Enneagram Workshop: enneagrammba.com/enneagram-workshop-kit
- Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarahlynnwallace/
- Take the 2-question Enneagram quiz: enneagrammba.com/blog/enneagramtest
- Work with Sarah - workshops, speaking, and team facilitation: enneagrammba.com/enneagram-speaker
Have a request for a future episode? Drop a text here!
🗓️ Book a Guided Enneagram Workshop for your team retreat at work:
https://www.enneagrammba.com/enneagram-team-workshops
✏️ Get an overview of all nine types inside the Understanding People at Work Cheat Sheet
https://www.enneagrammba.com/cheatsheet