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I recently passed my certification to be an Enneagram Coach through Inner Life Skills. What this means for you is that you can work with me to discover your Enneagram type and intentionally grow into a more whole person through Enneagram coaching.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Enneagram, it’s a personality typing system based on archetypes. “Ennea” is the Greek word for “nine,” and “gramma” is the Greek word for written or drawn. So like a diagram, a drawn representation of something, the Enneagram is a written account of the nine personality archetypes.
The Enneagram is different from other personality typing systems in that its focus is on a person’s motivation. Personality indicators like Myers-Briggs, DiSC, and StrengthsFinder are great at identifying leadership strengths and weaknesses and professional aptitude; however, they are not specifically designed to help people grow nor transform. The Enneagram’s purpose is to help with psychological and spiritual growth to bring us into wholeness by looking at our deep and often unconscious motivations.
I realize this might sound a bit woo-woo. How can personality typing help us grow? Well, when we know our motivations, we can observe ourselves and see how our motivations influence our decision making, our choices, and how we interact with others. In this way, Enneagram work expects something of and from us.
As leaders, we may have trouble understanding why a certain employee or volunteer drives us bonkers or we can’t let a situation go. Getting to the root of the issue, with the assistance of the Enneagram and a qualified coach, can help us identify how and why we’re feeling threatened, bringing the subconscious to the conscious. When we are conscious of our motivations, it is at that time that we can make informed decisions about how we want to proceed. We can take into account our underlying needs while not letting them be in the driver’s seat.
This is the power of working with motivation: making informed choices, knowing how and what our personality type desires and not being enslaved to those desires. Before I started working with the Enneagram, I thought I was making objective decisions. I was wrong. I was unconsciously being steered by my personality’s primary desire and avoidance tendencies.
Over ten years later, I still catch myself falling into the trappings of my personality archetype. Yet today I am so much more self-aware and healthy with significantly greater understanding of why I make the choices I make.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Enneagram and discovering your type, reach out to us via email and we’ll get you more information! We’re now scheduling individual appointments in January 2022 and group sessions in February 2022.
Stay curious friends!