Breaking Through Recurring Performance Patterns on Your Team

If you’re leading a team right now, chances are there’s at least one performance issue that feels familiar.

You’ve addressed it before.
You’ve clarified expectations.
You’ve coached, supported, and followed up.

And yet, some version of the same pattern keeps resurfacing.

For many leaders I work with, this isn’t about effort or skill. It’s about where the intervention is happening.

Why performance patterns persist

Most performance challenges don’t appear overnight. They build gradually and show up as subtle disengagement, unmet expectations, and stress responses that become the norm.

As a leader of a team, it’s natural to focus on what needs to change:

• clearer roles

• better follow-through

• stronger accountability

But when the why underneath the behavior goes unexamined, progress often stalls.

What tends to drive recurring issues is the deeper dynamics at play.

Using what you already know, more intentionally

Many of you reading this email already have experience with the Enneagram and insights from our past work together. The opportunity now is to apply it more deliberately to current team challenges.

Remember that the Enneagram can be especially useful with recurring performance issues as a lens for understanding:

• How different people experience stress

• What they are protecting or prioritizing under pressure

• Why the same conversations land differently with different team members

When leaders integrate their understanding of Enneagram patterns into everyday performance conversations:

• Discussions become more focused and less emotionally charged

• Resistance often softens because people feel understood

• Less time is spent rehashing the same issues

Importantly, teams are far less likely to burn out when you reference the person’s type structure and apply it to current issues that arise in processes or work products in real time.

How to integrate this on your current team

If you’re noticing recurring performance challenges right now, consider starting with these small but powerful steps:

• Look for Enneagram type patterns, not just isolated behaviors

• Consider what might be driving avoidance, over-functioning, or quiet resistance

• Adjust your approach guided by your knowledge of their Enneagram type to meet the actual need beneath the behavior

These are often subtle shifts, but they tend to create an outsized impact.

If you’re dealing with a current performance issue with a team member and could use some support applying the Enneagram patterns to the issue at hand, please reach out for a complimentary 15-minute laser coaching session with me through this link. This limited-time offer disappears after Friday this week, so grab a spot now.

Warmly,
Stephanie Freeth
Leadership and Teams Coach

PS: Laser coaching sessions are included for my Coach on Call clients to provide real-time coaching whenever needed. Ask me for more info if you are curious about adding Coach on Call for your team.