We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jeff King. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jeff below.

Jeff, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about the best advice you’ve ever given to a client? (Please note this response is for education/entertainment purposes only and shouldn’t be construed as advice for the reader)

I have a client who is a nun in a monastery in the Northwest. She entered the order after a career in another field. She enlisted my services to provide leadership coaching for her as she adjusts to her new responsibilities assigned by her prioress.

Together we’ve explored how her Enneagram Type provides both strengths and liabilities in her leadership style. We’ve landed on several principles to ground and guide her in her interactions with those she leads. These are universal leadership fundamentals.

1) The number one, primary task of leaders is to manage themselves before focusing on managing others.

2) Managing self requires self-awareness, recognizing the triggers of our own fears and unresolved pain, our reactive patterns and our self-protective strategies.

3) The task of the leader is to maintain a calm, non-anxious and non-reactive presence as they relate with others, particularly those they are charged to lead. The person who can keep their mind while everyone else is losing theirs assumes the leadership role, regardless of their title or position.

4) When faced with complaints and resistance from others, it helps to listen with curiosity. Effective leaders go beyond “Who is right and who is wrong,” to, “Where is this complaint or resistance coming from? What do I need to understand about the person in front of me that will help us get to an effective resolve?” Almost always, complaints and resistance arise from a place of fear or pain. Until those core issues are addressed, rational arguments will fall on deaf ears and will only stir up more conflict.

5) The Enneagram is a powerfully insightful and effective system providing pathways of mastering leadership. It guides the leader to develop a more solid and effective sense of self as well as creating a more accurate and compassionate understanding of those being led.

Over the past 12 months, my client has been working hard to apply these leadership skills. Last week she reported that even though she’s one of the newest members of the monastery, the prioress has appointed her to be second in command in their community.

Jeff, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

After devoting nearly 40 years serving people in church settings as a pastor, in 2019 I made a significant career change and started a nonprofit organization. Driving this decision was a growing desire to expand my constituency beyond the limitations created by particular creeds and dogma.

While local church ministry opened many wonderful doors for me to offer guidance, care and support for people, I wanted to broaden my audience to those from all walks of life, spiritual traditions and lifestyle orientations. I became more and more interested in human development and spiritual formation that extended beyond church policy and dogma.

In 2015, I was introduced to the Enneagram, a powerfully accurate and insightful personality typing system that has proven effectiveness in creating personal and collective transformation. I recognized that the Enneagram provided a well-researched, complex and comprehensive framework to accomplish my emerging life mission.

I embarked on a professional training course to become a certified Enneagram teacher and coach. I stepped away from the pastor role at the end of 2018, and formed my nonprofit, Transmuto, Inc.

Transmuto’s mission is two-fold. First, we help people become curious about why they find themselves stuck in patterns that keep them from hope, happiness and wholeness. We provide education, training and ongoing coaching/consulting to empower people and organizations to access the wisdom of the Enneagram. Our aim is to meet people in their pursuit of personal growth and flourishing, relationship effectiveness and professional development. We work with individuals, couples, families, organizations and businesses.

Secondly, we provide pastoral services and support as well as spiritual guidance for those seeking to develop their spirituality and faith journey. We do so without restrictions of tradition, dogma, sexual orientation or background. I like to refer to myself as a “pastor without walls.”

In addition to my years of church ministry, I also hold a Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy, a Masters in Pastoral Counseling, and am a Certified Enneagram Teacher with The Narrative Enneagram (TNE).

Transmuto offers group training and educational events, workshops and retreats. We provide individual and couples’ Enneagram training and coaching. We work with business and leadership teams, customizing Enneagram coaching and leadership consulting to meet their specific contexts.

A final piece of our work is our podcast, “Nine Lives with Jeff King.” The podcast explores all-things-Enneagram and its application through interviews on a variety of topics.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Two main constructs guide my leadership/management and entrepreneurial philosophy. The first one is Bowen Family Systems, which was the bedrock of my graduate program in Marriage and Family Therapy. Bowen’s approach emphasizes working with others and situations not as isolated parts, but working through the paradigm of systems. Couples, families, organizations, communities, politics, policies and the greater world all form and function as their own system. These systems interrelate with each other to create even more complex systems.

This paradigm leads me to ask questions about context and the interrelated impact and influence that individuals and groups have on each other. A systems-framework pushes us to realize that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

A specific component to Bowen Family System is the concept of differentiation of self. This speaks to the capacity to maintain a clear sense and definition of self while we are in close proximity, both physically and emotionally, with others. It empowers leaders to stand on their own two feet and chart a clear course, regardless of the pressure others exert on us to comply with their agendas. Higher levels of differentiation allows us to listen to others, receive feedback and adjust thinking when appropriate, without compromising our own integrity and mastery of self.

Key books on this topic have been:

Peter Steinke’s work: “Uproar: Calm Leadership in Anxious Times,” “Congregational Leadership in Anxious Times,” and “How Your 21st Century Church Family Works: Understanding Congregations as Emotional Systems.”

Ronald Richardson’s work: “Becoming a Healthier Pastor: Family Systems Theory and the Pastor’s Own Family,” “Creating a Healthier Church: Family Systems Theory, Leadership and Congregational Life.”

David Schnarch’s “Passionate Marriage.”

The other core construct of my philosophy is the Enneagram. The Enneagram is a personality typing system that provides accurate and effective understanding of ourselves and others. The Enneagram is a powerful tool for personal and collective transformation. It combines spiritual, psychological and somatic wisdom to provide a pathway to effective leadership.

There are many resources on the Enneagram. Specific to leadership are:

Beatrice Chestnut’s “The 9 Types of Leadership: Mastering the Art of People in the 21st Century Workplace.”

Helen Palmer’s “The Enneagram in Love & Work: Understanding Your Intimate and Business Relationships.”

Drew Moser’s “The Enneagram of Discernment: The Way of Vocation, Wisdom & Practice.”

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I spent most of my adult life, beginning at the age of 20, in some form of church ministry. My faith tradition was rooted in conservative, Protestant Evangelicalism. I moved through the familiar career path of youth ministry, serving on pastoral staff and being the lead pastor. The bulk of my ministry involved starting a church and then leading that congregation for 20 years.

Over the years my faith paradigm began to expand beyond the conventional evangelical views on sexuality and inclusion. I came to believe that God’s love and inclusion were open to all regardless of sexual orientation. I also shifted my views on eternity, moving away from the belief in an eternal hell of punishment, and embraced the view of restorative justice for all.

Both views ran contrary to my denomination’s doctrinal stances. I worked hard to be a voice of change in our congregation, but over time it became evident that my views were not welcomed by those in oversight of my ministry credentials. This led me to resign from my pastoral assignment, which also happened to be my source of employment and income.

This was an unsettling and painful process. When I resigned I had no “next step.” I took several months to discern my next career move. In that transitional period I came upon the idea of forming a religious nonprofit that would provide me the avenue of offering pastoral services to those without a faith community (I refer to these as “spiritual refugees”) and provide Enneagram training and consulting.

This was the launch of my nonprofit, Transmuto, Inc. I have been operating under this umbrella since 2019.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.transmuto.org
• Instagram: Transmutokc
• Facebook: Transmuto
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/jeff-king-3576a583