A part of my master thesis (draft: Integral Leadership Model)

I'm working on my master thesis little by little.  I think the following post is difficult to understand in places, because I show my sentences neglecting the contexts...

          The purpose of understanding the types of leaders is to grasp the pattern of their thinking, emotions, behaviors, actions, interpersonal relationships, and so on.  Each person has a unique type, so he or she thinks, acts, behaves, and communicates with others in the different manner in accordance with each type.

All types are seen in all four quadrants (see table XX in the appendices), but this paper refers to only the Upper Left quadrant of personality types utilizing the wisdom of the Enneagram in order to avoid the complex analysis.  Also, the following analysis indicates not only characteristics of each type of leadership but also the conditions of healthy and unhealthy leaders in each type.

Although the wisdom of the Enneagram is so useful to categorize each leader into each type, we need to use it carefully in the following two points.  First, human beings are not simple so that we can classify people into one category.  Second, we may need to pay attention to the difference between the level of consciousness and the Enneagram types.  As, Esbjörn-Hargens (2010) points out, the former is vertical and the latter is horizontal.  Therefore, it is important to recognize that we, human beings are complex creatures mixed with various types within us and the difference between stages of consciousness and types.

Enneagram Type 9 (Peacemaker, Mediator): Leadership Types

          The greatness of the type 9 is the power of embracing others gently.  By virtue of this eminent point, Nines will provide us the peace.  In addition to that, healthy Nines can see the goodness in others and can also see the goodness in themselves.  Compared with the type 7 (me), in my view, Nines are good at caring others better than Sevens, because Sevens tend to focus on only themselves.  Therefore, I’d like to incorporate the strength of Nines in me.

Next, I noticed that I sometimes fell into the trend of unhealthy Nines while reading the Enneagram books.  For example, as Riso and Hudson (1999) explain, Nines are likely to focus on the brilliant aspects in their life in order to keep their mind peaceful.  Also, they tend to neglect the dark side in their life.  Like Nines, I have a propensity to look away shadow aspects in my life in order to maintain my inner peacefulness and stillness.

Third, as for “moving into the inner sanctum” (p.328) and stubbornness and inner resistance, Nines have a tendency to create and keep their inner sanctum where they feel safe, because they can get rid of the disturbance situation.  Furthermore, Nines sometimes have stubbornness and inner resistance toward the situation threatening to violate their inner peace.  Like Nines, I sometimes build my inner sanctum and resist the situation disturbing me.  Considering the above aspects, the unhealthy features in Nines sometimes appear on me.

              Last, the purpose of taking this class is to integrate the wisdom of the Enneagram with my interest (leadership development).  Therefore, I’d like to explore the types of leadership using the Enneagram.  As Palmer (1995) illustrates, Nine leaders sometimes struggle with a lot of opinions around them and try to put forward alternative ideas.  Also, their goals tend to be wide not specific.  That is because the particular goals may arouse disagreements between followers.  So, Nine leaders tend to listen to followers too much carefully, gather a lot of information, and share the information a little. 

Nine leaders are good at drawing a big picture, but they don’t want to think about the detail until they can make a complete plan.  In addition, Nine leaders are likely to suppose that followers also draw a comprehensive plan, and they may feel discomfort to find the followers have a narrow and selfish plan.   Thus, “Nines are imprecise in specifying the ways in which a plan to be carried out” (Palmer, 1995, p.242). 

Nine leaders have a tendency to want advice or directions from every department in an organization, because they try to obtain consensus in order not to bring chaos in the organization.  Therefore, Nine leaders may not take prompt actions until they can gain an appropriate agreement.

Nine leaders are likely to avoid innovative ideas, because new ideas may trigger disorder in their mind.  Although Nine leaders may not be suitable for the top positions in the fast-changing industry for example, internet industry, as Paler points out that they may fit for the top position in utility companies which tend to get around competition.

Reference

1 The Wisdom of the Enneagram: The Complete Guide to Psychological and Spiritual Growth for the Nine Personality Types

2 The Enneagram in Love and Work: Understanding Your Intimate and Business Relationships

The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram

In my opinion, Riso and Hudson’s book include more information about the Enneagram than this book.  However, this book more focuses on human spirit from the Enneagram perspectives.  In the first place, I recommend you to read all types in the Riso and Hudson’s book, then to read this book picking up your type. 

What’s your primary quadrant orientation?

Today, I studied “Types” taking a course in Core Integral one.  The assessment of types of quadrant orientation was interesting for me.  I answered eight questions.  The guidelines said that over three answers may be a primary quadrant orientation.  My result of the assessment was the following.  My primary quadrant orientation is UL and LR.

Upper Left Individual Interior	Upper Right Individual Exterior	Lower Left Collective Interior	Lower Right Collective Exterior
3	1	1	3

I’d like to introduce one example.  Please answer the following question.  What’s your primary quadrant orientation?

Scenario

You and a few of your friends decide to take a vacation together sometime in the next few months.  You all go out to dinner to talk about the trip.  After initial meetings, you start discussing plans.  Which of the following four answers/responses is most like what you would say and /or do?

Answer A: I’m really excited to be able to go on this trip with all of you.  I feel that this is a great opportunity to relax and decompress.  I have been really anxious and stressed lately.  I am confident that this trip will help me get back to feeling great.

Answer B: Before we come up with a plan we need to talk about the different variables, like how much money we want to spend, how long we want to go for, when we can all get time off, the list of possible destinations, etc.  We’ll have to get everything on the table so that we can decide on something that fits everyone’s criteria.

Answer C: Let’s decide where and when we want to go.  When I go on vacation, I like to be able to relax and also to stay active.  Maybe we can go to someplace near the ocean, like Mexico or Hawaii.

Answer D: It is so great that we’ll get to experience this together.  I think it will be important for all of us to share what we each want out of this trip, so that we can make it the best experience for everyone.

Your primary quadrant orientation is below.

Answer A	Answer B	Answer C	Answer D
UL	LR	UR	LL

Reference: Core Integral Course 1

Developmental Psychology: how to assess human developmental levels? What is the data?

I’m thinking about my final term paper in the developmental psychology class walking around my house in the morning.  This paper requires me to choose a significant person in my life and apply developmental understanding to his or her experience.  In addition, I have to write about the signs and markers of the stages he or she has been through along with the outer changes that have accompanied the stage transformations.

Umm, I have two challenges.  First, who should I choose in my paper?  Second, how can I analyze and assess his or her developmental levels?  The last one is a little bit difficult.  I’m not sure about the data in analyzing and assessing.  Is that an interview article or a book if I choose a celebrity (e.g. a famous CEO or president) whom I’ve never met before?

Anyway, I have no other choice to rely on “language” which he or she spoke.  I think “language” is the important data to analyze and assess developmental levels.  That is because we express our thoughts, emotions, sensations, and feelings by means of words.

However, we should be careful to analyze and assess his or her language.  In my view, language is not a perfect tool to reveal all thoughts, emotions, sensations, and feelings correctly.  Moreover, language is dependent on contexts…  Therefore, language is sometimes the reliable data but sometimes the unreliable data.

This paper is an interesting and challenging staff for me.

“a guide to integral psychotherapy” by Mark Forman

Happily, I’m learning “Developmental Psychology” from Mark who is the author of “a guide to integral psychotherapy” this summer quarter in JFKU.  In fact, when I lived in Japan, I read his book and I was overwhelmed by his insight and a lot of useful information included his book.  I really respect him same as I admire Ken Wilber.  OK, I’ll stop praising him here, but I really recommend his book for not only therapists but also consultants, coaches, and…all kinds of professional people.

After reading his book, I have a lot of questions for him about this book, so I’d like to ask him little by little this quarter.

He gave me his autograph very kindly.  I really appreciated him and I realized after class that he was a very intellectual and warm hearted person.

The Wisdom of The Enneagram

This is a required book in the Enneagram Assessment class in JFKU.  I read a Japanese translated version when I lived in Japan, but I found many new things reading this book again.  I think this book is very useful to grasp the overview of the Enneagram.  I really recommend this book as an ideal introduction of the Enneagram.  I hope you will utilize the wisdom of the Enneagram in your daily life.