The Enneagram Advantage: Putting the 9 Personality Types to Work in the Office [Hardcover]

Helen Palmer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 29, 1997

Adapting a centuries-old psychological system of personality profiling, The Enneagram Advantage gives invaluable insight into your own business persona as well as those of your colleagues, bosses, clients, and corporate cultures. Best-selling author Helen Palmer has written the ultimate guide to using this remarkable system at the office and in business relationships.

The Enneagram is a powerful tool that is reshaping the face of business in the 1990s. With straightforward techniques that are easy to understand and simple to apply, The Enneagram Advantage helps you break free of rigid perceptions about yourself, your business environment, and the way you think and act in the office. Palmer teaches you how to identify yourself as one of the nine personalities--the Perfectionist, the Giver, the Performer, the Romantic, the Observer, the Loyal Skeptic, the Epicure, the Boss, or the Mediator. She then pinpoints the strengths and weaknesses of the types: how they interact with others; how they think and perform in their jobs; what motivates them; and how they communicate. The Enneagram Advantage provides a powerful and proven method for self-discovery and gives you the tools you need to improve and enhance all of your professional associations and activities.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Adapting a centuries-old psychological system of personality profiling, The Enneagram Advantage gives invaluable insight into your own business persona as well as those of your colleagues, bosses, clients, and corporate cultures. Best-selling author Helen Palmer has written the ultimate guide to using this remarkable system at the office and in business relationships.

The Enneagram is a powerful tool that is reshaping the face of business in the 1990s. With straightforward techniques that are easy to understand and simple to apply, The Enneagram Advantage helps you break free of rigid perceptions about yourself, your business environment, and the way you think and act in the office. Palmer teaches you how to identify yourself as one of the nine personalities--the Perfectionist, the Giver, the Performer, the Romantic, the Observer, the Loyal Skeptic, the Epicure, the Boss, or the Mediator. She then pinpoints the strengths and weaknesses of the types: how they interact with others; how they think and perform in their jobs; what motivates them; and how they communicate. The Enneagram Advantage provides a powerful and proven method for self-discovery and gives you the tools you need to improve and enhance all of your professional associations and activities.

About the Author

Helen Palmer is the author of the best-selling The Enneagram, The Enneagram in Love and Work, and The Pocket Enneagram. She codirects the Center for Enneagram Studies and Teaching in Berkeley, California, and regularly conducts workshops and lectures around the world.

Paul B. Brown, a former writer and editor for Business Week, Financial World, Forbes, and Inc., has written eight books, including the best-selling Grow Rich Slowly. He lives with his son and daughter in Duxbury, Massachusetts.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 282 pages
• Publisher: Harmony; 1st edition (December 29, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517704323
• ISBN-13: 978-0517704325
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #961,196 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Palmer is the best!, July 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Enneagram Advantage: Putting the 9 Personality Types to Work in the Office (Paperback)

Helen gives practical advice on using the Enneagram typing system to help put people in a position to suceed. The workplace is made up of diverse personality types. Palmer provides the guidelines to help us with daily interactions with differing types. By showing strengths and weaknesses for each type she helps to insure that people can be utilized in jobs that will bring out their best.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reasonable Application of the Enneagram in Work Settings, December 2, 2005

By 

Peter Messerschmidt "denmarkguy" (Port Townsend, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Enneagram Advantage: Putting the 9 Personality Types to Work in the Office (Hardcover)

In this book, enneagram expert and teacher Helen Palmer teams up with business writer Paul Brown to explore the "Business and Work" aspects of the nine enneagram types. Specifically, Palmer sets out to cover people's "Business Persona" and how the types interact in work settings. Whereas I would call this a "worthwhile effort," the reknown of the co-authors led me to expect more from this book. Although I mostly bought the book on account of my interest in the enneagram, I found the business angle to be somewhat weak. That said-- and in defense of Palmer-- the enneagram IS a very complex system, so an attempt to incorporate its teachings into a 280-page business "manual" for laymen is not only ambitious, but would almost inevitably have to include an extensive psychological background. Which this book does, somewhat at the expense of much practical "nuts and bolts" coverage of business applications.

The book has two main sections. In the first section, Palmer offers a brief background on the enneagram, followed by a self-test "quiz" (a series of paragraphs) to help readers determine their type. She explains (briefly) how the system "works," and how knowing the enneagram can help people work more smoothly with each other in a business setting.

The second section-- entitled "The Nine Types At Work"-- consists of nine chapters, each offering a "descriptive snapshot" of an enneagram type. Each type chapter starts with a checklist to help with self-identification, then covers typical motivations and behaviors of that type in work settings. There's also a brief section on how *others* perceive that type. The remainder of each chapter covers self- and outer-motivation, time management, negotiation strengths and weaknesses, training techniques, and concludes with a short "vignette" to show that type might work through a particular business situation.

Overall, the book is fairly logically and simply laid out, with each type chapter covering the same basic concepts in fairly easy-to-read language.

Final thoughts: Recommended (7.5 out of 10 possible bookmarks) with a couple of cautions. It's interesting material for students of the enneagram, although it breaks little new ground from Palmer's previous "The Enneagram in Love & Work." As a stand-alone "Business Book" to provide someone NOT familiar with the enneagram insight into the personality dynamics of a workplace, you have to be prepared to read a LOT of enneagram/psychology content before you can get significant benefit from the somewhat limited business/work content. Might be best suited to HR managers with a solid background in psychology.

For an alternative (and perhaps somewhat clearer and more useful) angle on this topic, I'd like to also suggest "The 9 Ways of Working: How to Use the Enneagram to Discover Your Natural Strengths and Work More Effectively" by Michael J. Goldberg.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great introduction to Enneagrams..., May 3, 1999

By 

Erik J. Larsen (st. paul, mn) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Enneagram Advantage: Putting the 9 Personality Types to Work in the Office (Hardcover)

This was my first look at enneagrams. It makes you realize how pathetic identifying someone as simply a 'Type A' or 'Type B' personality is. It helped me understand why my wife, whom had been categorized as a 'A' type would act differently in different situations, while I, a 'B' type would do the same. Once you find your Enneagram, you will be amazed at how so many things will make sense.