Featuring Special Guest: Andy Bales | Enneagram Type 6

What does it actually look like when people use the Enneagram at work, not just during a workshop, but in everyday decisions, conversations, and leadership challenges?

In this episode of Enneagram at Work, I'm joined by Andy Bales, a retired engineer, manager, and global supply chain leader who spent 35 years working for a Fortune 500 company. Along the way, Andy became an internal champion for the Enneagram, introducing it to coworkers, leaders, and teams across the organization.

Andy shares several real-world stories of how understanding personality and motivation helped people navigate difficult relationships, influence leadership, build stronger partnerships, and recognize their own patterns before those patterns led to burnout.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• How a mechanical engineer became an internal Enneagram champion at a Fortune 500 company.
• Why understanding someone's motivation can be more useful than simply observing their behavior.
• What it means to "speak to someone's listening" and how Andy adjusted his communication with Type 8 and Type 3 leaders.
• How understanding a command-and-control leader helped Andy build trust and become more influential.
• How a Type 3 executive used his Enneagram insights to develop his leadership approach and help build a strong organizational culture.
• How a Type 1 project manager turned a frustrating working relationship into a successful partnership.
• How a newly promoted Type 2 manager recognized her overgiving tendencies, established boundaries, and began asking for help.
• Why Andy encourages leaders to practice the Platinum Rule: Treat others the way they want to be treated.
• Why an Enneagram assessment is a starting point - not necessarily the final answer- when identifying your type.

A few key takeaways...

Understanding motivation changes the conversation. Two employees may behave similarly for entirely different reasons. The Enneagram helps us explore what might be driving those behaviors.

You don't have to change someone's personality to improve a working relationship. Sometimes the better approach is to understand their perspective and adjust how you communicate and collaborate.

Self-awareness should lead to action. Whether that means delegating more, setting boundaries, building trust, or approaching a challenging colleague differently, the value comes from what you do with the insight.

About Andy Bales

Andy Bales spent 35 years working in engineering, management, and global supply chain leadership at a Fortune 500 company. An Enneagram Type 6 with a Preserving Instinctual Bias, Andy has studied and applied the Enneagram since 2000, introducing the framework to colleagues and helping individuals better understand their types.

His experience includes facilitating Enneagram training, mentoring employees, and helping leaders apply personality insights to real workplace situations.

Connect with Andy: andybales019@gmail.com

About Enneagram MBA

Enneagram MBA helps teams and leaders build stronger working relationships through practical, engaging Enneagram-based training.

Explore our workplace workshops, leadership development experiences, and team resources at enneagrammba.com.

To get a typing session with Andy, learn more here: https://www.enneagrammba.com/enneagram-coaching

Have a request for a future episode? Drop a text here!

Why do some coworkers question everything? And why can their questions sometimes feel like criticism, resistance, or a lack of trust?

Inspired by a recent conversation between Adam Grant and Brené Brown about the Enneagram, we're exploring skepticism through a different lens.

What if three people questioned the exact same idea, but for three completely different reasons?

In this episode of Enneagram at Work, we're looking at how Enneagram Types 1, 5, and 6 might approach skepticism, what's potentially motivating their questions, and how understanding those differences can help us communicate and collaborate more effectively.

We'll use a common workplace scenario (introducing a new process) to explore how questioning can be driven by a desire for improvement, a need for information, or a concern for trust and security.

And while any Enneagram type can be skeptical, these three examples give us a useful starting point for getting curious about what's underneath someone's pushback.

In this episode, we explore:

• Type 1: Questioning to improve: Why a coworker's attention to errors, inconsistencies, or standards can sound like criticism when their intention may be to make something better.
• Type 5: Questioning to understand: Why asking for more information, evidence, or processing time doesn't necessarily mean someone disagrees.
• Type 6: Questioning to establish trust: How anticipating risks, questioning assumptions, and wanting contingency plans can strengthen a team's decisions.
• Why we often mistake skepticism for negativity, resistance, or someone questioning our authority.
• What each of these coworkers might need before feeling ready to move forward.
• Three simple questions that can help you respond to skepticism with curiosity instead of defensiveness.

Three questions to try with your team:

1. What about this doesn't feel right yet?
2. What additional information would be helpful?
3. What concerns do you have that we haven't addressed?

You don't have to know someone's Enneagram type to start asking better questions.

The takeaway: Skepticism isn't always resistance. Sometimes it's someone noticing something important that the rest of the team has overlooked.

The next time someone challenges an idea, try asking one question to better understand their concern before jumping in to defend your position.

Mentioned in this episode

• Previous episode: Adam Grant Doesn't Believe in the Enneagram. Does He Have a Point? A closer look at Adam Grant's skepticism, the research behind the Enneagram, and its application in the workplace.
• Adam Grant and Brené Brown on The Curiosity Shop
• Explore Enneagram team workshops and retreats
• Get help planning your own Enneagram workshop
• Share your thoughts or workplace experiences

Bring the conversation to your team

At Enneagram MBA, we help teams turn personality insights into practical conversations about communication, collaboration, and workplace relationships through facilitated workshops, leadership retreats, and team development programs.

Learn more at Enneagram MBA.

Have a request for a future episode? Drop a text here!

Adam Grant, organizational psychologist, bestselling author, and longtime skeptic of the Enneagram, has agreed to take an Enneagram assessment.

During a recent episode of The Curiosity Shop with Brené Brown, the two discussed revisiting the Enneagram on Adam's ReThinking podcast. And as someone who uses the Enneagram professionally, I couldn't resist digging into the conversation.

Does Adam Grant have a point about the Enneagram? I think he does. But I also think there's more to the conversation.

In this episode, we're looking at what the research actually says about the Enneagram, where some of the criticism is warranted, and why the way we teach and apply the framework matters.

I'll also share a personal experience that changed how I teach the Enneagram, why I've moved away from certain traditional theories, and how I think we can approach personality frameworks with more curiosity and less certainty.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why Adam Grant is skeptical of the Enneagram and other personality assessments.
• What a systematic review of 104 research samples found about the Enneagram's reliability and validity.
• How Dr. Daniel Siegel's more recent work explores nine personality patterns through interpersonal neurobiology.
• Why I question traditional Enneagram teachings like Centers of Intelligence, wings, and childhood origin stories.
• The experience that made me realize I was spending more time defending the model than understanding the person.
• What we're actually trying to accomplish when we bring the Enneagram into workplace relationships.
• Why scientific scrutiny and practical experience both deserve a place in the conversation.

One of my biggest takeaways: The model should serve the person. The person shouldn't have to serve the model.

Whether you're an Enneagram enthusiast, a skeptic, or someone considering bringing personality development into your workplace, I hope this episode encourages you to stay curious, question what you've been taught, and remain open to learning something new.

And stay tuned for the next episode, where I'll revisit Adam Grant and explore why Enneagram Types 1, 5, and 6 might question the exact same thing for three very different reasons.

The original conversation

• Adam Grant and Brené Brown on The Curiosity Shop

Research and books

• The Enneagram: A Systematic Review of the Literature and Directions for Future Research - Hook et al., Journal of Clinical Psychology (2021)
• Personality and Wholeness in Therapy: Integrating 9 Patterns of Developmental Pathways in Clinical Practice - Daniel J. Siegel and the PDP Group (2024)
• Awareness to Action - The Enneagram approach used at Enneagram MBA

Bring the Enneagram to your workplace

Explore facilitated team workshops, leadership retreats, and development programs at Enneagram MBA.

Or explore our free Workshop Planning Kit, with sample agendas, room setup ideas, discussion questions, and resources to help you plan your own team experience.

Have a different perspective?

I'd love to hear it. Whether you agree with Adam's skepticism, have research to share, or have experienced the Enneagram differently, join the conversation at enneagrammba.com/contact.

Have a request for a future episode? Drop a text here!