We've all heard of the different personality types, Type A versus Type B, the extrovert versus the introvert. Most of us have heard of or played with the Myers-Briggs personality indicators. I first did the Myers-Briggs back in University as part of a group project in order to get to know my teammates working styles and personalities. Since then, I've done a few different variations of the test, including color theory, personality tests, and the enneagram.
(I've included my anlaysis at the bottom)
What is an Enneagram?
It's a system of 9 personalities/traits that goes way back into history used to disect the human psyche. My enneagram "interpreter" told me this is not a new discovery in the modern day, but we have learned to apply modern psychology in the way we understand and interpret these 9 personalities. In modern days, enneagram can be used to understand the root cause or drive of our behaviour, motivation, and actions, and therefore, it is especially useful in situations such as:
communication, leadership and team work;
personal and interpersonal relationships; and,
spiritual growth and self refelection.
The 9 types are:
1 THE REFORMER
The Rational, Idealistic Type: Principled, Purposeful, Self-Controlled, and Perfectionistic
2 THE HELPER
The Caring, Interpersonal Type: Demonstrative, Generous, People-Pleasing, and Possessive
3 THE ACHIEVER
The Success-Oriented, Pragmatic Type: Adaptive, Excelling, Driven, and Image-Conscious
4 THE INDIVIDUALIST
The Sensitive, Withdrawn Type: Expressive, Dramatic, Self-Absorbed, and Temperamental
5 THE INVESTIGATOR
The Intense, Cerebral Type: Perceptive, Innovative, Secretive, and Isolated
6 THE LOYALIST
The Committed, Security-Oriented Type: Engaging, Responsible, Anxious, and Suspicious
7 THE ENTHUSIAST
The Busy, Fun-Loving Type: Spontaneous, Versatile, Distractible, and Scattered
8 THE CHALLENGER
The Powerful, Dominating Type: Self-Confident, Decisive, Willful, and Confrontational
9 THE PEACEMAKER
The Easygoing, Self-Effacing Type: Receptive, Reassuring, Agreeable, and Complacent
Regardless of the context of work, personal relationships, or social interactions, certain patterns or themes by which people form a personality will arise to help us form a social persona. These collectively form they way we express ourselves to meet the challenges of work, life and society. This is our dominant enneagram type.
If you are interested, you can do your own tests here : https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/
Centers of Intelligence/Perception:
The Enneagram describes three centers of intelligence and perception: Head, Heart and Body. While every individual has to some degree a melange of all these centers, each of the 9 personality types has stronger center associated with each of them.
Understanding our primary center is an important key to developing our personal and professional potential and overcoming our blind spots.
The Intellectual Center: using the mind for language and rational thinking, ideas and images, plans and strategies. Located in the head.
The Emotional Center: using the "heart" for positive and negative feelings, empathy and concern for others, romance and devotion. Located in the area of the chest and diaphragm.
The Instinctual Center: using the body for movement, sensate awareness, gut level knowing, personal security and social belonging.
Image 1) The 9 personality types are arranged in a circle representing the wholness of human life.
The 9, 6, 3 positions form a triangle.
Image 2) The two numbers either side of your main enneagram number are called "wings" and represent different personalities we can transform into.
Image 3) Each personality has an arrow feeding into it and an arrow pointing away. The first one represents our 'past' behaviour or situation that has led us to become our main enneagram type. The arrow leading away represents what we can become or grow into (a higher state of awareness for future development).
Results
When I took the test, I thought I had a fairly accurate prediction of my outcome. I was a resounding Type 3 - the Achiever (no surprises💁 🤣); however, what surprised me was the 3 way tie between Type 6 - the loyalist, Type 5 - the investigator, Type 1 - the reformer, and a very close fourth place, Type 9 - the peacemaker.
The personality consultant explained that we are multi-facted and different situations can bring out different sides to our personality, so it is very common to have multiple personality traits come out on top evenly. With that said, my clear winner was Type 3.
What did that mean?
I had taken this test to understand myself better during a time of my career where I felt overwhelmed, unsuccessful and always anxious. This was the context that my Enneagram was being applied:
Aside from the descripters above, the consulant explained to me that, likely, my core values include being goal-driven, image conscious, and a relenteless drive for self-improvement. Being productive and acheiving goals are ✔️✔️ major. She was on pointe so far...
In the context of work, Type 3s love to go above and beyond, but when the ability to meet those expectations fall outside our own control, thats where 💩 hits the fan. Accurate. I had gone from knowing a lot of things, to knowing almost nothing with no concrete way to help myself learn...
Within each personality there are various level of health - this means that you can be a very healthy Type 3, whereby you are driven but able to lend a hand when others need it, or you can be an unhealthy Type 3, whereby you view every interaction as a competition, shift in mood, or reject their own sense of self to appease others. This was a very eye opening moment for me. As I always thought one trait was more preferred to another, and depending on the situation, we had to shift type. But this was not the case. One can be a very healthy Type 3 and succeed, and another can be a detrimental Type 3 and exhibit poor choices.
My Type 3 are flanked by Type 8 and Type 1 wings, so a lot of times I do tend to also lean on my analytical, rational and decisive nature. I think these traits are great to tap into to keep Type 3's grounded and level headed.
To support my Type 3 going forward, I can look to my "connectors". My first connector being Type 9 represents my past experiences; very laid back, easy-going and ressuring. However, in order to grow and achieve a more balanced Type 3, I need to cultivate a more level headed trait, such as the one exhibited by Type 6, my second connector, the Loyalist. Balancing my fast-paced, decisive nature with some caution and skeptical judgement (basically, not rushing into things).
How to apply the enneagram principals
All in all, you can interpret the results in many ways, and it's easy to fall into the self-fulfiling prophecy. Personally, for me, I associate myself strongly to many traits (as seen in my close results). However it gives us a good understanding of what our underlying intentions may be, and offers us a moment to reflect internally on why certain situations trigger us in a certain way. The important step, is to think about how to balance out our dominant personality types when we are exhibiting an unhealthy version of ourselves, and what traits to look for in order to achieve a healthier version of our behaviours. This can lead to better communication with coworkerss, partners and even ourselves.
Comments