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Welcome back to another episode here on the Enneagram at Work Podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Wallace, founder and managing director over at Enneagram MBA, a team training company where all we do is get to share the Enneagram with teams, departments, organizations, leaders. And today we are taking a look at our type sixes and trying to understand that the question or questions that they are asking most likely aren't really just a question. So imagine this. Imagine that you're a manager and you have made an announcement that starting next month, you're changing the way we handle client onboarding. Okay, that's your now, that's your announcement. Um, you are not a type six uh manager here, but you have a type six on your team. And the type six starts to ask questions. Well, who decided that? Have we tried that before? What happens to our current clients? What are they used to? How is this going to impact them? Does sales know? Um who's responsible if something goes wrong, something falls through the cracks? And someone else in the room might be experiencing these questions, or maybe even you are as the manager, as why are you being so negative? Um, why do you have to challenge everything that is said, or maybe everything that I say? It feels like you're always questioning my authority and challenging me. Um, but the type six, most of the time, uh, may be doing something a little bit different than how you're experiencing it. And they just might feel like, I'm just watching out for us. I'm just trying to protect the group, trying to protect the team, trying to make sure that we're safe and secure. Um, I want to pressure test this plan. And so I want to make sure that we're thinking about everything and that um I feel better. I feel like I'm able to do my job better when I have some of that background information. Where there are other people who are thinking, oh my gosh, just tell me what I need to do, tell me what the goal is, tell me what the first step is, just tell me where we're going and I will move in that direction. I don't need the backstory. If I have questions, I'll ask. But there are others, and type six is one of them who has a tendency to want to know all the information or as much of the information as they can before they take that first step. And so I mentioned it already, but as a reminder, our type sixes are striving to feel secure. So the questions that are being asked are most likely just an attempt to um kind of understand anything that they're uncertain about, uh, trying to get kind of clarification on anything that hasn't been considered yet, um, and determine whether the plan that is being presented or the people who are behind it um can actually be trusted. So look into kind of poke holes in that. Um but you know, I think a lot of times people think, oh, they're just being so negative, or some people can also experience it as maybe a negative, but but also, oh, they're just trying to, they're just slowing us down. All these questions are slowing us down, or or um it can sometimes feel personally offensive. Like, why can't this person just trust me that I have their best interest at heart? I have the best team, I have our client's best interest. Um, and this is what we're gonna do. Why do I have to, why do I have to explain everything? So um what might sound like risk, or I should rather say, what might sound like resistance to you may actually just be risk assessment or trying to understand and detect risks. It goes back to somebody who is striving to feel safe and secure. This makes sense, right? This behavior tracks, it's not completely out of the blue. You can kind of understand it now. Um, I do I do want to offer those of us who might feel like this is frustrating. I do want to share uh little something with you here. And that, of course, we don't want to over-romanticize all of these questions and constantly assessing and looking for risks, right? Um the overuse strength of this or the uh maladaptive distinction here, it it matters, right? So 27 questions with no willingness to move forward and no offering of solutions can can really stall a team and that can be frustrating, that can be annoying, it might even be infuriating at times, but also the flip side of that, right, is shutting down every question as negativity can also cause the team to miss something important. So I have one little tip for a six, and then I have one little tip if you are managing or working with a six. So if you are a six and you find yourself in these sort of situations, and you probably are just thinking, I care about the group, I care about the team, I want to make sure everybody's good, I want to make sure that we've thought about all of this before we, you know, jump off a cliff and don't have a parachute or a net at the bottom of it, right? So for a six, though, you might um maybe just tweak your delivery or your approach to these questions. So instead of firing off every concern as it comes to you, um, instead maybe lead with what you're actually trying to accomplish. So maybe during the meeting, maybe you don't, you know, uh address every single concern right away. Maybe you just start to take a few notes and then maybe you say something when you do have an opportunity to speak up, something like, hey, you know, I just want to, I just want to pressure test this, um, one part of what you said before we move forward. And I think just explaining, maybe adding some preface to your question can help your manager, the teammate that's presenting these changes, um, help them lower their guard a little bit, maybe not be so offended, maybe not be so frustrated because you you know where you're coming from. But by giving that little preface beforehand, they too can also have a better understanding of where you're coming from. Like I, you know, I really care about this project. I really care about our clients, I really care about this team. And so I just want to make sure that, you know, we've thought about everything or that we talk this through real quick before we move forward. And I don't know about you, but if somebody said that to me, um, that is going to, I am gonna be a little bit more, or I'm gonna be a little less resistant to those questions and wanting to offer additional information and be a little bit more willing to slow down and have that conversation. Um, and then for them for the manager or the teammate that's working with this partner or this person, instead of, you know, immediately shutting down the question or maybe getting defensive and defending the plan, just ask, okay, um, you know, what's the biggest risk that you're seeing that you don't think that we've accounted for? And so now what you're doing is translating all of those questions ideally into some useful information. And so uh, you know, it it can be frustrating. And again, like any of these types, it's not just the six that can be frustrating, all of them can. Um, it's not this the six that gets you know misinterpreted. Um, any type can can this can happen to. And so just understanding if this happens to be your type, ways that you might be experienced because of some of this, because of that core strategy and and what you're trying to accomplish. Um, and then also being aware that the other person's intentions most likely aren't, you know, bad or negative. Um, and just realizing, okay, this is where they're coming from. This makes sense that they would be this way, but how can we turn this into a useful um is in this specific situation? How can we turn these questions into something that's useful for us and can help us make help make us that much better? So if you happen to be a type six and maybe this has happened to you and um there's something that you've done to help people kind of lower their guard or be more accepting to um your questions or willing to go through those, uh, feel free to reach out. I always like to hear from people in quote unquote the real world about what's worked, or maybe there's been a funny example or an interesting example of where this has happened and you can share that real world um situation. I always love to hear from you. So please reach out, enneagrammba.com forward slash contact. And then if you happen to be somebody who um is worked with a six and you have found some ways to better work with them, better understand them, uh, reach out, let us know about that too. Enneagrammba.com forward slash contact. These are the exact types of um things that we talk about with the Enneagram and then look for ways to apply them in real life with our standalone workshops, with our development programs, with our um programs where we're bringing multiple departments together within an organization. So I'm gonna invite you to check out those options and start the process. Tell us a little bit about your team if this is something you you would like to be a part of your team organization culture, your language using the Enneagram over at Enneagrammba.com. With that, thank you for being here. And I look forward to seeing you in the next one.