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Using The Enneagram To Build Team Culture with Ashton Whitmoyer-Ober | GP 181

  • connection, empathy, enneagram, Grow a Group, numbers in practice, office culture, team culture, work environment
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Have you often wondered how to can create genuine empathy within your business? Do you want to learn how to meet people where they are at and make yourself fully – and truly – understood? How can you use the Enneagram as a tool for connection in your private practice?

In this podcast episode, LaToya Smith speaks about using the Enneagram to build team culture with Ashton Whitmoyer-Ober.

Podcast Sponsor: Blueprint

A photo of the Blueprint podcast sponsor is captured. Blueprint sponsor the Practice of the Practice podcast.

Providing great therapy day after day can be challenging – even for the best of us!

At Blueprint, they believe that nothing should get in the way of you doing your best work, which is why they created a platform that provides therapists with an array of clinical tools – things like therapy worksheets, intervention ideas, and digital assessments – that are designed to help you and your clients can stay connected and confident throughout the care journey. Even better, Blueprint helps streamline your documentation so that you can spend less time on your notes and more time on the things that matter.

To learn more and request a free 30-day trial, visit blueprint-health.com

Meet Ashton Whitmoyer-Ober

A photo of Ashton Whitmoyer-Ober is captued. She is an author, public speaker, Community Psychologist, and certified Enneagram educator. Ashton is featured on Grow a group Practice, a therapist podcast.

Ashton Whitmoyer-Ober is an author, public speaker, Community Psychologist, and certified Enneagram educator. With a desire to see relationships strengthened, she created Enneagram Ashton in early 2019. She is the author of Enneagram for Relationships, The Two of Us: A Three Year Couples Journal, and The Enneagram Made Simple.

Visit Enneagram Ashton and connect on Instagram and LinkedIn.

In This Podcast

  • Enneagram basics
  • How companies can benefit from the Enneagram
  • Where are you your best self?
  • How to figure your number out
  • How the Enneagram can foster a strong team culture

Enneagram basics

The Enneagram consists of nine different types or lenses that people within them view the world. They’re not classically behavioral, but what really makes up the Enneagram is the motivation behind each section.

This is because each of the nine sections in the Enneagram has a core fear and a core desire, and these motivations can produce sometimes stereotypical motivations.

You have a dominant type but the Enneagram is a symbol … it’s a circle … and you have your wings, and they are the number on either side of your main type, [and] so you will pull characteristics from your wings as well.

Ashton Whitmoyer-Ober

You’ll have one motivation and fear that drives your behaviors which can then also be influenced by the wings on either side of that core number.

How companies can benefit from the Enneagram

Primarily, people will use the Enneagram in businesses and private practices with their team to help make sense of common behaviors, giving new ways to explain and understand one another.

Maybe the way that you are communicating with them is not getting through to them based on their Enneagram type, and so understanding those kinds of nuances based on each of the Enneagram types can be really helpful in changing the way that you interact with your team, those individuals, and coworkers as well [for the better].

Ashton Whitmoyer-Ober

The Enneagram is a great tool that can help you to:

  • Communicate with someone in a way that they will understand you best
  • Allocate work and roles based on someone’s natural inclinations as well as their strengths in the workplace
  • Foster a work environment that is rooted in empathy and understanding

Where are you your best self?

The different numbers on the Enneagram work in unison, and when you know how to read the chart, you can understand new things about yourself.

For example, when you are stressed or upset, you might act out the unhealthy or destructive traits of a certain number, or when you are feeling motivated and calm, you might act like another – without changing your core number itself.

We take on the positive qualities of our growth number and then we can take on some of the negative qualities or those not-so-good qualities of our stress number.

Ashton Whitmoyer-Ober

You have your main type and the numbers that you are connected to; to clarify:

  • Your main type has your motivations
  • Your wings that are on either side of your main type can influence your characteristics
  • When you are stressed or healthy you can look like two other potential types

How to figure your number out

There is a lot that you can learn, so don’t stop just after taking the test.

Once you have taken the test online either with the Enneagram Institute or Truity, then dive deep into the top three scores that you get for each and learn about each number.

Do your own research as well so that you can get the most out of this resource and deepen the connection that you have with yourself and others.

How the Enneagram can foster a strong team culture

Firstly, just talk about it! Make it an open discussion and encourage people to talk about how they often are when they feel good and what they might feel or do when they are struggling.

Encourage a discussion where people get to learn about each other so that the team itself consists of well-informed people that are educated on one another.

If we really want to apply this, let’s all figure out what all the numbers mean … let’s see what’s around us and get a greater understanding of how to help each other, and I think that is a part of the leadership role now.

LaToya Smith

Books mentioned in this episode:

Useful links mentioned in this episode:

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Meet LaToya Smith

An image of LaToya Smith is captured. She is a consultant with Practice of the Practice and the owner of LCS Counseling. LaToya is featured on the Practice of the Practice, a therapist podcast.

LaToya is a consultant with Practice of the Practice and the owner of LCS Counseling and Consulting Agency in Fortworth Texas. She firmly believes that people don’t have to remain stuck in their pain or the place they became wounded. In addition to this, LaToya encourages her clients to be active in their treatment and work towards their desired outcomes.

She has also launched Strong Witness which is a platform designed to connect, transform, and heal communities through the power of storytelling.

Visit LaToya’s website. Connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, Strong Witness Instagram, and Twitter.

Apply to work with LaToya.

Email her at [email protected]