Leading from Behind: The Unique Leadership Style of the Enneagram 2

Pieter Polhuijs hadn’t been leading the team at Unilever very long when he noticed something odd about one of his managers. At 3:55 pm every day without fail, his employee Jan would pack up and leave for home.  

“No one knew why he left so consistently at 3:55 pm every day, but the whole team was annoyed by it,” chuckles Pieter, 40 years later. Rather than reprimand him, Pieter, an Enneagram Type 2, decided to meet with Jan to learn more about his life outside of work. During that meeting, it all tumbled out. Jan shared that he had a paralyzed 26-year old daughter who needed full-time supervision. His wife took care of her during the day, but the wife worked a night shift.  Jan had carefully timed his departure to arrive just before his wife needed to leave. Despite 15 years of employment at Unilever, no one knew about Jan’s paralyzed daughter.

But as he talked with Jan, Pieter understood Jan was rushing to make it home every day. Pieter suggested he leave at 3:30 to make his life less stressful. “My way of leading was always about finding what the people who worked for me needed and then to meet them there. This is when you really get the best from your team,” shares Pieter.

It worked. Beyond winning his loyalty, Jan’s productivity improved as he could put his full attention on his job without the distraction of whether he would get home in time. And the team’s attitude changed completely when they had a fuller understanding of Jan’s situation. 

The Type 2 Leader at Work

Type 2 is called the Giver and, with a habit of attention that points to the needs of others, these types are typically warm, concerned, and high in empathy. They care deeply about the people around them, from co-workers to neighbors. In an office environment, this might be the worker who proactively organizes a birthday calendar to make sure a cake arrives on everyone’s birthday. And they pay such close attention to their colleagues, they even know everyone’s favorite flavor of cake! 

If you work with a Type 2, they probably know plenty of details about your non-work life like the names of your children, how long you’ve been married, your hobbies, and so on.

In a management context, this collaborative, human-centered approach can be in sharp contrast to the top-down leadership style of Type 3 Achievers and Type 8 Challengers, personalities we often see in senior business roles.

As business leaders, Type 3s focus their attention on hitting their goals and being seen as a success. Their management style places importance on external measures of accomplishment, image-consciousness (don’t make them look bad!), and competition.  The Type 3 habit of attention points to success, and these leaders want themselves individually and their team collectively to be seen as the best. Relentless in the pursuit of their goals, the human side of work falls out of focus as milestones, awards and achievements take center stage.

Type 8s are another common personality type we see in management positions. The bull in the china shop of the Enneagram has a direct, blunt, action-oriented and decisive management style. Their habit of attention points to power and power dynamics. They often see the workplace as a battlefield divided into friends and foes. They move into action to avoid feeling vulnerable and can subconsciously disregard the emotional side of work.

With such a sharp contrast to the more human-focused Type 2, you might be left wondering how Type 2s can be effective as managers? Let’s take a closer look.

Leading from Behind: Leadership Strengths of Type 2

With their tendency to put the needs of their employees first, it isn’t always clear how this Enneagram type can be successful as a business leader. But having a warm heart doesn’t preclude getting business results. “You can almost always make someone more productive if you know what their situation is,” shares Pieter.  

For Type 2 leaders, influence doesn’t come from position or power but instead from connection. They don’t stand in front of their teams and direct. They stand behind their team offering support, guidance and encouragement. Their strength lies in understanding what motivates each person and creating the conditions that allow their team members to succeed.

Whereas a Type 3 seeks achievement and a Type 8 seeks control, Type 2 leaders seek connection, and they build trust and loyalty that inspires their people to perform at their best. Type 2 leaders listen deeply and remember personal details. They notice what other people overlook including who is feeling overwhelmed or who needs recognition. This emotional attunement helps them to create psychologically safe teams where people feel genuinely seen and valued.

Collaboration over Competition

When I do Enneagram typing interviews for business leaders, one of the questions I ask is “on a scale of 1-10, how competitive are you?”  Type 2 leaders typically rate themselves low, saying they want the whole team to win, but they themselves aren’t particularly interested in being seen as the best. This collaboration over competition mindset is another pillar in the Type 2 leadership style. Type 2s don’t say “ I want to win!” They say “I want us to win!”

The Struggles of Type 2 Leaders

Like all Enneagram types, Type 2s have their own blind spots and underdeveloped areas. Burnout and people-pleasing are two common pitfalls this type has to be on high alert to avoid.

When Helping Hurts: The Risk of Burnout

Burnout is real for all of the Enneagram types, but it is especially likely for Type 2s in the workplace. The givers of the Enneagram place a lot of importance on being available at all hours to support team members, and this lack of personal boundaries takes its toll.

“I was on the brink of burnout, and my whole team knew it so we agreed I wouldn’t check emails between 8:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m.. And to make it easier for me, my colleagues agreed not to send me anything during those periods!” says Michaela, a Type 2 senior manager. When I met Michaela during an Enneagram leadership training workshop, she was considering taking a medical leave of absence due to burnout.

Implementing personal boundaries can feel uncomfortable for Type 2 leaders who pride themselves on always being available for their team. But without awareness and careful management, these same managers run the risk of severe burnout.

Avoiding Difficult Conversations: People-pleasing at Work

Since feeling appreciated is so important to Type 2s, they can inadvertently adopt people-pleasing behavior, saying things they don’t really mean and avoiding difficult conversations in a bid to stay likable. 

“One of the things we’ve seen in coaching Enneagram 2 leaders is that they can adopt indirect or vague positions on difficult topics. They don’t want to risk taking a hard stand, because they are so focused on maintaining positive relationships and keeping the workplace collaborative and conflict-free,” says Camille Ramani, an Enneagram leadership coach.

Being more direct and learning to say things that are necessary, but maybe unpopular, is an important growth edge for Type 2s in management positions.

The Balanced Servant Leader

When they achieve balance and operate at high levels of self-mastery, Type 2 leaders can transform a workplace by building bridges instead of walls and making friends instead of competitors. They lead with an eye on the team, and the culture they create is based on collaboration, trust and an acknowledgement of the human side of the workplace. In a business world that often rewards competition and self-promotion, Type 2s show us how it is possible to lead from behind and to operate as a servant leader. The big hearts of the Enneagram prove to us that even in business, you can be successful not by being the loudest voice in the room, but by helping every team member find their own voice.