enneagram
Our unconscious habits are powerful. They make the work of self-development and behaviour change difficult. Developing the ability to stand back and observe our habits is the key to personal mastery and the Enneagram can help us do that.
The lens of the Enneagram is a powerful way of looking at these unconscious habits because it is holistic and self-directed. It provides us with a map that shows us how to deepen our understanding of ourselves and change behaviour that no longer serves us.
The framework of the Enneagram provides a safe platform from which to investigate why we respond to the challenges of life the way we do. In this way, it can support us as we improve our ability to respond to people and situations as opposed to reacting in an unconscious, knee-jerk manner.
The Enneagram is an archetypal framework that offers in-depth insight into both individual and team culture, values and barriers, empowering the team to shift. It opens a pathway to self-discovery and greater personal awareness without boxing people into a stereotype. It can help individuals and teams access more effective ways of relating, collaborating and leading.
Enneagram Personality Types are determined based on your main motivation for behaving the way you do. Our behaviours may be the same, but the reason we’re choosing that behaviour is different for each Enneagram Type. We have access to all of the Enneagram Types, so you will find many of them resonate but we only identify with one to the extent that it represents the underlying motive for most of our behaviour.
Human behaviour cannot be simplified to any framework or model, so while this framework has shown itself to be extremely powerful for me and my clients in our journey to self-mastery, it is to be used as one of many tools to unlock our potential to live more consciously.
I use the framework of the Enneagram for individuals and teams in life and in business. Below are some motivations for each Enneagram Type as per “The Wisdom of the Enneagram” by Don Riso and Russ Hudson.
“In order to change behaviour to achieve personal growth, we must develop one capacity: We must develop the ability to create the mental and emotional space inside ourselves to observe and understand what we are doing and think about why we do it.”
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- Beatrice Chestnut, The Complete Enneagram -
Summary of the 9 Enneagram Types
Type 1: The Reformer
Want to be right, to have integrity, to strive higher and improve others, to be consistent with their ideals, to be beyond criticism so as not to be condemned by anyone.
Type 2: The Helper
Want to be loved, to express their feelings for others, to be needed and appreciated, to get others to respond to them, to vindicate their claims about themselves.
Type 3: The Achiever
Want to feel valuable and worthwhile, to be affirmed, to distinguish themselves, to have attention, to be admired, and to impress others.
Type 4: The Individualist
Want to be themselves, to express themselves in something beautiful, to withdraw to protect their feelings, to take care of emotional needs before attending to anything else.
Type 5: The Investigator
Want to be capable and competent, to master a body of knowledge and skill, to explore reality, to remain undisturbed by others, to reduce their needs.
Type 6: The Loyalist
Want to have security, to feel supported, to have the approval of others, to test the attitudes of others toward them, to defend their beliefs.
Type 7: The Enthusiast
Want to be happy and satisfied, to have a wide variety of experiences, to keep their options open, to enjoy life and amuse themselves, to escape anxiety.
Type 8: The Challenger
Want to be self-reliant, to resist their weakness, to have an impact on the environment, to assert themselves, to stay in control, to prevail over others, to be invincible.
Type 9: The Peacemaker
Want to have serenity and peace of mind, to create harmony in their environment, to preserve things as they are, to avoid conflicts, to escape upsetting problems.