Introduction to the Enneagram
An overview of the 9 lenses of the Enneagram and how we can use this archetypal system for our personal & professional development
The nine Enneagram styles represent nine different worldviews that guide how we think, feel and act in relation to ourselves and the world around us.
In its simplest sense, the Enneagram is a personality mapping tool. Our core type offers us insight into many areas including: motivation, strengths, challenges, avoidances, defense mechanisms, communication style, decision-making and conflict style.
When working with the Enneagram more deeply, it goes beyond diagnostics and towards a powerful roadmap for growth.
Working with the Enneagram helps us improve:
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Gain insight into your personal strengths and motivations
Develop awareness of your potential blindspots & the fears that might be holding you back
Learn to align with your own unique leadership style
Gain practical tools for helpful behaviour change
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Improve emotional intelligence by becoming more other-aware
Gain insight into others’ unique gifts and contributions
Develop empathy for how others experience the world
Harness the diversity of the team and the individual strengths we bring
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Gain powerful insight into how the team operates as a system, which is more than the sum of its parts
Identify team strengths and challenges
Learn how to improve communication, decision-making and conflict
Identify opportunities for improved team dynamics, team cohesion and team performance
What is your Enneagram type, really?
Our Enneagram type represents our unconscious, auto-pilot approach to life. By discovering our individual Enneagram type, we gain awareness of our unique lens: how it supports us and how it may be holding us back.
Instead of being led by old, automatic programming, we can then start to take a more conscious approach in our lives, our work and our relationships.
Your Enneagram style is not who you are at your core. It’s a strategy unconsciously adopted in your early years as a way of finding safety, support, and connection. For this reason, your type has been a very helpful and necessary mechanism for our survival.
Over time, however, the need for this strategy changes. It becomes more of a habitual patterning rather than a necessary and helpful adaptive response. But because we are so knitted to this way of being, we don’t recognise it as separate from our true identity. We come to believe it’s “just the way we are.” This is often why we find it so hard to change: if a pattern is part of our core Enneagram style, it’s deeply embedded and will likely take time and intentional effort to let go.
Over time, the aim is to become less driven by our auto-pilot conditioning, less reactive to our type-related triggers and more intentional and regulated in our responses. This is at the heart of emotional intelligence.
A brief overview of the 9 Enneagram styles:
Type 1 - Seeking to be good
"I see how things could be better and I want everything to be right with the world. I want to uphold high standards and live according to my principles. People should stick to the guidelines and do things correctly. There’s a lot that hasn’t been done properly that we need to fix and it’s up to me to make things right.”
Type 2 - Seeking to be connected
“I will go way beyond the call of duty to help other people. I focus on others’ needs and want them see that I have value and a place here. I don’t think I’m appreciated for all the things I do for people. It feels so satisfying when people appreciate and value all I amd and all I do.”
Type 3 - Seeking to excel
“I want to be the best. It’s important to me to be successful at all that I do and it’s also important that I’m acknowledged for this. I don’t really have time for feelings, there are things to get done for me/this team to win. I can see the end goal and what needs to get done to get there. l just have to get people’s buy-in.”
Type 4 - Seeking to be unique
“I have a unique perspective and want to express myself with authenticity. Most people don’t really understand me. I am kind of different from others and seem to live with more depth, creativity & complexity . I find people quite shallow so it can be difficult for me to fit in.”
Type 5 - Seeking to be autonomous
“I want to gain more mastery through knowledge and expertise. I don’t like emotional drama or people invading my privacy so I tend to detach when things feel too much. I like to focus on the information, patterns and insights and find it easy to disappear into my own thinking world.”
Type 6 - Seeking to be safe
“It’s great to be part of a healthy team and have a boss I can trust and respect. I enjoy believing in a cause and am really good at supporting a strong leader and identifying risk. I consider things from a different perspective but doubt myself a lot and can take a long time to make a decision because of my complex over-thinking.”
Type 7 - Seeking to be happy
“It’s important to me to feel stimulated and inspired. I’m enthusiastic about new ideas and doing things differently. We should break out of our old assumptions and rules and have more fun. Life doesn’t have to be so boring!”
Type 8 - Seeking to be strong
“I really want action on this. Yesterday, actually. People need to toughen up a bit. It’s obvious what needs to get done so let’s stop talking about it and just do it. I find people quite helpless, and it irritates me. Also, I wish they would be more direct. I hate BS.”
Type 9 - Seeking to be at peace
“I will generally go along with what other people want, rather than inserting or asserting myself on others. I like to avoid upsetting anyone. I like to listen to what everyone else has to say. I do sometimes get the feeling that I am not having any impact. I know I procrastinate a lot and don’t always drive my own agenda.”
(Adapted from Ingrid Hurwitz)