Ginger Lapid-Bogda’s The Enneagram in Business portal contains an “Ask the Coach” feature, where a coach of each Type answers the same question about coaching, to give a flavor of the different possible perspectives. Ginger asked me to be the Type 9 – or Peacemaker – representative on this panel. Here’s my answer to the eleventh question in the series.
Question 11: Can you share a surprising coaching story about a coaching client of your style?
My answer: I began coaching someone of Style Nine, who was very unclear even about for what she wanted coaching. It seemed to me that I was listening to different people talking. So, I introduced Schulz von Thun’s Inner Team model into the conversation. This is a very helpful way to identify “the different souls that beat within one breast”. Then, it’s usually possible to find a way to help them to live in harmony.
Within minutes, she had identified 14 different team members in her Inner Team (such a large number is typical for people of Style Nine), among them The Pointing Finger, The Panther, and The Clown. The coaching turned into a session on how she could manage her team and reconcile the differences between the members, so that they would co-operate with each other. In less than an hour, the paralysis of the previous months had vanished, and she began quickly to find answers to his questions and to draw strength from the diversity in her team. Five years later, they still support her and the positive results continue to be visible.
If you’d like to see the other eight answers to this question, head over to the Enneagram Learning Portal. If you’d like to share your answer to the question, or discuss my answer, please leave a comment or trackback.