When a Strength Becomes Automatic
Where you are: Module 2 · Lesson 12 of 30 · about 23 minutes (reading 12, practice 11). In Lessons 9 to 11 you tested patterns against your own events. Now you look at one habit that grew from a real strength, and you learn to check when the habit fits the situation and when it only runs on its own.
What you'll be able to do
- Explain why many automatic habits begin as strengths, and why the strength is not the problem.
- Map one example of a habit in four parts: intended, did, achieved and cost.
- Check the real deadline before you change anything, and choose a smaller variation with a success sign.
- Write a three-line note with two other explanations: one about the situation and one a possible motive.
Many habits start as strengths
This is our course's observation, not a claim from the books. First-time managers are often promoted for a strength: fixing problems fast, spotting risks early, or taking charge when nobody else does. In the new role, the same strength can start to run automatically, whether or not the situation needs it. The strength is still real. What has changed is that you are no longer choosing it.
What the authors describe
Chestnut and Paes describe several habits of this shape. These are the book's descriptions of particular patterns. They are not tests for you or anyone else.
- Taking charge. Directing what happens can be done in a skilful and confident way, or in a bossy or pushy way (Type 8, PDF page 222).
- Solving problems. "Because you are a good problem-solver, you may also be a problem-seeker." Preparing for every risk can add to stress (Type 6, PDF page 166).
- Analysing. Over-valuing reasoning and analysis may give knowledge, but not necessarily wisdom, which the book says comes from experience (Type 5, PDF page 138).
- Supporting others. You may find it easy to mobilise your energy when you help others, but hard to sustain it when you act for yourself (Type 9, PDF page 250).
You do not need to be any of these patterns to see the shape: a useful capacity becomes a trap when it runs without a choice.
The four-part map
Before you change anything, map one recent example of the habit. The map is this course's design.
| Step | Question |
|---|---|
| Intended | What was I trying to achieve? |
| Did | What did I actually do, as a camera would record it? |
| Achieved | What did it produce? Be fair and list the real gains. |
| Cost | What did it cost me, other people or the work, now and later? |
Check the real deadline first
Ask three questions: What does the work actually need? By when? Who else can do it? This is the external clock. Your urge to act is an internal clock. Any change must still meet the external clock. If a real deadline or a safety issue leaves no time for anyone else, stepping in is the right choice. It is not a failure.
Choose a smaller variation. Keep your intention. Change the size, the timing or who does it. Decide in advance what you will see if it works: the success sign. A success sign is something you can check by looking, not by feeling.
A virtue is a direction, not a rule. In Lesson 8 you met Chestnut and Paes's pairs of passion and virtue. If a passion seems to describe your habit, the paired virtue can suggest a direction for a small change. It is never a new rule such as "never worry" or "never help", and it never cancels a real duty.
Look at the system too. If the main cause is staffing, workload, a missing process or unclear authority, a practical fix or a request to your own manager comes first. Changing your habit will not fix a missing process.
Two other explanations. Your note needs two: one about the situation (the system, a rule or the deadline), and one possible motive in hedged words, as in Lesson 7: what the habit may be protecting or paying attention to. Neither has to be true. Each has to be possible, and you must be able to say what you would look for to test it.
Worked example
Faten leads a team of four who prepare a weekly stock report for the operations director, due on Thursday at 12.00 noon. The company rule is that the team lead signs off the report. Each team member checks their own section first.
Faten's strength is care for detail. She was promoted partly because she once found a wrong figure before it reached the director. Every Wednesday, after the four checks, she rechecks every figure in all four sections, from 2.00 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. She had planned that time for her own stock forecast, so she starts it at 4.30 p.m. and leaves at 7.00 p.m.
| Step | Faten's answer |
|---|---|
| Intended | No wrong figure reaches the director. |
| Did | Rechecked every figure in all four sections, line by line, after the team had checked their own. |
| Achieved | No figure error in six weeks. The director had no query. |
| Cost | Her forecast starts late and she leaves late. One team member said he now checks his own section less carefully, because Faten checks it again. |
The real deadline: Thursday 12.00 noon. The rule needs one sign-off, not a full recheck.
Other explanations. Faten writes three possibilities as questions. She does not know which is true.
- The habit comes from her strength and runs without a choice. Test: does she recheck even a section that has never had an error?
- It may protect against a repeat of the earlier wrong figure. Test: does the rechecking fall on the sections where errors happened before?
- The system is part of the cause: the team has no shared checklist, so she cannot see which figures were really checked. Test: does she recheck less when a checklist shows what was checked?
A smaller variation. The team adds a one-page checklist to each section. On Wednesday Faten rechecks the totals and the three figures the director uses most, in about 45 minutes. If a section fails a check, she widens the recheck for that section only.
Success sign: over three weeks, no figure error reaches the director, Faten starts her forecast by 3.00 p.m., and each checklist is complete.
Her three-line note.
- Strength: care for detail.
- Where it might over-run: rechecking every figure after the team has checked, when the rule needs one sign-off.
- Another explanation: the team has no checklist, so I cannot see what has been checked; I may also be protecting myself against a repeat of the earlier error. I would look at whether I recheck the sections that had errors before.
Faten does not pick a pattern. She writes possible reasons as questions.
Your turn
Do this privately. Nobody collects or checks it.
Part 1. A supplied case. Deema leads a team of six who answer staff questions about pay. Her strength is speed: she was promoted partly because she answers every message within 10 minutes. On Sunday she blocked 9.00 a.m. to 11.00 a.m. to write the team's monthly improvement plan, due on Monday at 9.00 a.m. It needs about two hours. During the block she received 14 messages and answered all of them:
- 3 were pay questions (at 9.20, 9.50 and 10.30 a.m.) that needed an answer before the pay run closed at 2.00 p.m. that day;
- 6 could have been answered by team members who were online;
- 5 were not needed until Tuesday.
By 11.00 a.m. Deema had written one paragraph of the plan.
- Write Deema's three-line note: Strength; Where it might over-run; Another explanation (one about the situation and one possible motive, as a possibility).
- Write one smaller variation for her next planning block that protects every real deadline, and a success sign.
Part 2. Your own note (private). Write a three-line note about one strength of yours, in a situation where it might over-run, with one explanation about the situation and one possible motive. "I do not know yet" is a complete answer for the motive line.
Check your work. A good answer for Part 1:
- Strength: "Speed: I answer every message within 10 minutes."
- Where it might over-run: "During my planning block I answered all 14 messages. Six could have been answered by someone else and five could wait until Tuesday."
- Another explanation: "The team may have no rule about who answers what, so answering everything myself may be the quickest way. I may also be protecting my name as the person who always answers. I would look at whether a rule exists, and whether I answer fast even when nobody is waiting."
- Variation: "During a planning block I check messages at 10.00 a.m. and 11.00 a.m. Pay questions are answered at the next check, well before 2.00 p.m. Team members who are online answer the rest. Tuesday messages wait." Success sign: "By 11.00 a.m. the plan has had my time except for the two checks, the three pay questions are answered before 2.00 p.m., and nobody misses a real deadline."
Your answer meets the criteria if: the strength gets honest credit; the facts come from the case (14 messages, 3 with a 2.00 p.m. deadline, 6 others could answer, 5 could wait); there are two other explanations, each testable, and the motive is a possibility, not a fact about Deema; the variation protects the 2.00 p.m. deadline; the success sign can be checked by looking; and nobody is typed. A motive here is practice wording about a fictional case; for a real colleague you never write a motive. Answers that do not meet the criteria: "Deema answers fast because she needs to be needed" (a motive stated as fact); "she should stop answering during planning" (ignores the pay deadline); "I will feel calmer" as a success sign.
Extra practice (optional)
Nayef leads a site team of six. His strength is deciding fast. In Monday's 45-minute meeting he decided all six items himself in 25 minutes. Two team members had information about item six: a supplier changed a price on Friday. The supplier order must be placed by Tuesday at 12.00 noon. Nobody spoke on item six. Write Nayef's three-line note and a smaller variation that protects the Tuesday order.
Key. Strength: "Deciding fast, so the team can start work." Over-run: "I decided all six items in 25 minutes, and two people with price information did not speak." Other explanations: "The meeting may have no step for adding information before I decide. I may also be protecting my image as the person who decides quickly. I would look at whether the meeting has such a step, and whether I decide fast when nothing is urgent." Variation: "Before each decision I ask, 'Does anyone have information before I decide?' and wait a few seconds; the order goes on Tuesday morning after I have heard any price change." The facts do not say why nobody spoke.
Knowledge check
A manager reaches for a report check out of habit. It must reach the director by 3.00 p.m., it is 2.15 p.m., and only she has system access. What is best?
Tahani often volunteers for new tasks. Which is the best other explanation to test?
Chestnut and Paes pair fear with courage (PDF pages 168 and 185). A manager decides courage means he will stop a weekly check his company requires. What is the best advice?
Answers explained.
- B. The external clock decides: nobody else can do the check in time, so doing it fits the situation, and the habit can be studied later. A breaks the deadline to break a habit. C and D delay a decision that cannot wait.
- C. It is possible, it can be tested (who was in the office when each task arrived?), and it points to a system, not a character. A types her. B is stated as a certainty ("secretly", "every colleague"). D blames others without a fact.
- A. A virtue is a direction, not a rule, and it never cancels a real duty. B removes a safeguard. C is not a rule of this course: you can use the pairs as a direction without a type. D asks people who report to him for a verdict on his character, which makes an honest answer risky.
Key takeaways
- Many automatic habits began as strengths. The problem is not the strength; it is that the strength runs without a choice.
- Map one example in four parts (intended, did, achieved, cost) and give the habit honest credit.
- Check the real deadline before you choose a smaller variation, and decide on a success sign you can see.
- A virtue is a direction for a small change. It never overrides a real duty, and the system may be part of the cause.
- Next, Lesson 13 shows how to look for a blind spot by asking someone who saw you.
Sources
- Chestnut, B. and Paes, U. (2021) The Enneagram Guide to Waking Up. Hampton Roads Publishing. PDF pages 138 (reasoning and analysis give knowledge but not necessarily wisdom), 166 (a good problem-solver may also be a problem-seeker; the short quotation), 168 and 185 (fear and courage, Type 6), 222 (directing what happens in a skilful and confident way, or in a bossy or pushy way), 250 (energy comes easily for others and is hard to sustain for oneself), 20 (the passion and the virtue; see Lesson 8). The printed page number is the PDF page minus 13.
- Rules and examples of this lesson that are ours, not the authors': the observation that many habits start as strengths; the four-part map (intended, did, achieved, cost); the check of the real deadline (external and internal clock); the smaller variation and success sign; the three-line note; and reading a virtue as a direction, not a rule. These are this course's design, not tested methods.
- Faten, Deema, Nayef and Tahani are this course's own fictional examples, not the authors'.