2. The Heart Types

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Enneagram Series by Mark McGuinness

Having introduced the Enneagram system of personality types in my last post, I’ll now start to describe the individual Enneagram types.

The minimum you need to know about the Enneagram symbol is that it is divided into three parts, representing the three ‘centres’ or types of intelligence in human beings - emotional, mental and physical. Another way of looking at the three centres is to see them as corresponding to different types of action - relating, thinking and doing.

basic-enneagram-groups


In this post I will outline the three ‘Heart’ types - Two, Three and Four. These types’ strength lies in their emotional intelligence - their ability to relate to others and their own emotions.

It’s important to remember that no types are better or worse than the others. Each type has strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and obstacles. And the Enneagram is not about putting people in boxes - we all have the potential to occupy any position on the Enneagram, and in different situations we can take on the characteristics of any of the nine types.

N.B. The names of the Enneagram types given here are not definitive - different teachers use different names, and some just refer to the types by number.

Enneagram The Heart Types


Type Two - The Helper

Type Two is skilled at reading others’ emotions in order to understand and meet their needs. Twos take their identity from their ability to help others. Generous to a fault, they can be relied up to step forward and take care of others when needed. Their giving can take many forms - time, attention, energy, experience, influence or money. Problems can arise when they start to give in order to receive something in return - whether material or emotional.

The stereotype of the Two is the kindly old grandmother or self-sacrificing carer, but Twos can also take on the role of the ‘power behind the throne’ of an influential person.

At their best Twos understand the joy of service. They are happy to give without seeking a reward in return, since making a difference to another’s life is what brings them pleasure. They find fulfilment in the act of giving, without clinging to the image of the ‘generous person’. There is nothing neurotic in their generosity, since they are wise enough to balance what they give to others with taking care of their own needs.

At their worst Giving becomes a form of manipulation, of making others feel indebted to them and returning the ‘favour’. Unable to acknowledge their own needs directly, they use emotional pressure to meet them indirectly, often without realising what they are doing. It is not enough for them to help someone else - they crave praise for their generosity and want to be recognised as a ‘special’ indispensable person. If they do not get this, they can criticise other and complain of their ‘ingratitude’. The dark side of the Helper is the self-appointed Martyr.

We all experience point Two any time we help someone else and experience the pleasure of seeing their face light up with happiness - and maybe a twinge of anticipation to see whether they have noticed our generosity?

Type Three - The Performer

Type Three is skilled at reading others’ emotions in order to influence them. Threes take their identity from their ability to win praise and recognition from large numbers of people, or of the most influential people. Because they always have one eye on the public perception of their actions, they become consummate performers at whatever they choose to focus on. Problems can arise when they become so attached to their public persona that they lose touch with their own real feelings and start to deceive both themselves and others.

The stereotype of the Three is the actor, showbiz performer or politician, but they can be found in almost any walk of life - such as the highest-profile manager, doctor, writer, salesperson or fitness instructor.

At their best Threes are the embodiment of excellence. They deliver a wonderful performance in every sense, and their impressive style is backed up by substantial achievement. They experience joy in the performance itself, without undue concern for their public image. They are able to distinguish between reality and illusion, and to balance public adulation with awareness of their own feelings and honest acceptance of their shortcomings.

At their worst Threes are addicted to the limelight and will stop at nothing to bolster their self-image. Cut off from their true feelings, they cling to the external trappings of success and are ruthless with anyone who threatens their position, sometimes resorting to underhand methods to discredit them. To others they look deceptive - all ‘spin’ and no substance - but they have been believing their own press for so long that they hardly notice the deception. The dark side of the consummate Performer is the plausible Liar.

We all experience point Three any time we perform a task particularly well and receive praise and recognition - and maybe the temptation to play to the crowd and bask in the limelight?

Type Four - The Romantic

Type Fours are highly sensitive to their own emotions, able to introspect deeply and to express these feelings in original ways. Fours take their identity from their sense of being true to themselves and following their own path in life, whatever the prevailing wisdom or fashion. Because of their ability to tap deep wells of emotion, they can create powerful works of art or take unusual and memorable paths through life. Problems arise when their introspection tips over into self-absorption and they start to lose touch with the realities of life around them, including the feelings of others.

The stereotype of the Four is the Romantic artist or poet, but their originality is not always expressed through artistic channels - they can be the black sheep or dark horse with a distinctive approach to any profession or life situation.

At their best Fours can inspire others with their originality and bring a magical, almost otherworldly quality to whatever they do. Whether artists or not, in their work they create something striking and meaningful that resonates deeply with those whom it touches. Instead of being attached to their own feelings, they take pleasure in expressing them and touching others’ hearts. They are able to balance self-awareness with a healthy respect for others’ feelings and the reality of the world around them.

At their worst they become so absorbed in their inner world that they lose touch with reality and become self-obsessed. Melancholy - never far away - turns into depression and they wallow in negative feelings. They become bitter against a world that ‘doesn’t understand’ them and angrily reject suggestions that they need to take their head out of the clouds and deal with the realities of life. Others see them as self-indulgent and start to lose patience with their negativity. The dark side of the Romantic is the neurotic Depressive.

We all experience point Four when we feel something so strongly that we have a vivid sense of the beauty and preciousness of life, so that no force on earth will persuade us to go against our true feelings - and maybe the temptation to milk the feeling for all its worth?

Questions

  • Do you recognize yourself in any of these descriptions?
  • Supposing you met someone who seemed to be at point Two, Three or Four - how could you ‘speak their language’ to make them feel at ease and relate to them on their own terms?

Part 3 in Enneagram — a Brief Introduction, The Head Types, will appear Thursday at about this same time.

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Mark studied the Enneagram as part of his training as a psychotherapist. He has used it for his own personal development and in his work with individuals, families, and organizations. Mark McGuinness’ business Wishful Thinking, is a specialist coaching and training service for creative businesses such as design studios, ad agencies, film and TV production companies, computer games developers, architect’s practices and fashion designers.

Thank you, Mark,
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related:
See the complete series listing at Series: The Enneagram – a Brief Introduction

1. What is the Enneagram and Why Should You Care?

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Enneagram Series by Mark McGuinness

The Enneagram is a nine-pointed star drawn inside a circle. It has many meanings and uses - currently, it is best known as a system of personality types, where each of the nine points corresponds to a different type.

basic-enneagram-names


I was introduced to the Enneagram in 1997, since when I have found it a powerful and practical tool, in my own life and relationships, and in my work - originally as a psychotherapist and now as a business coach and consultant.

The Enneagram system is not confined to what modern psychology regards as the ‘personality’ - it includes the whole of human nature, mental, emotional and physical - but I will limit this brief introduction to the personality types and how they can help you in your personal and professional development.

What can the Enneagram offer you?

Personal development

The Enneagram types are not made up of lists of character traits, but are founded on a person’s core values. Each type represents a fundamental decision about what is most important in life - such as power, security, harmony, knowledge or fulfilment. This decision is a two-edged sword: focusing on any of these important values enables us to make a valuable contribution in many areas of life; but it also causes us to neglect other values, creating a psychological ‘blind spot’ that limits our perspective and prevents us from developing beyond a certain point.

Identifying your Enneagram type can show you this blind spot and open up unexpected options for change. It can help you break long standing patterns that have been holding you back, sometimes without your realising it.

Professional development

Whether or not knowing your strengths and weaknesses is important to you personally, it is vital to your professional development. Without this knowledge you risk choosing the wrong challenges or even the wrong career. You are also likely to keep coming up against the same obstacles to success.

Identifying and working with your Enneagram type can help you play to your strengths by choosing professional challenges that are most appealing and appropriate for your talents. Knowing your ‘blind spot’ helps you work around the obstacles it creates for you.

Personal relationships

Well these don’t come with an instruction manual, do they? For most of us, personal relationships are most rewarding or the most frustrating part of life - or both. In some ways we can be so close to another, yet in others feel so apart. How many times have we all felt, when an argument starts or a misunderstanding arises, ‘That’s not what I meant at all!’?

Understanding your own and others’ Enneagram types allows you to relate to others with greater empathy and compassion, leading to less conflict and clearer communication.

Working relationships

It’s hard to think of a job in which dealing with people is not a vital skill. For anyone in one of the ‘people professions’ - such as managing, teaching, counselling, coaching, consulting, sales, medicine or politics - it is central to the success or failure of your work.

The Enneagram offers you a powerful framework for relating to others more authentically and constructively. Whether influencing, managing, selling, caring, team-building, presenting or advising, it can help you communicate effectively and respectfully, extending your influence and opening up new options for collaboration.

Spirituality

I’ve left this one last as it’s perfectly possible to use the Enneagram as a practical tool for self-knowledge and relating to others without any spiritual element.

On the other hand, those with an interest in spiritual development will want to know that the Enneagram has been used as a framework for meditation and growth in several different spiritual traditions. For the Sufis, the mystics of Islam, the Enneagram is the ‘face of God’. Christian teachers have traced the seven deadly sins - and their antidotes - in the Enneagram types. And Buddhist teachers use the Enneagram as a ‘map of attachments’ that can guide meditators on the way to awakening. More modern spiritual schools that use the Enneagram include the Fourth Way teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff and the Arica training of Oscar Ichazo.

So which Enneagram type are you?

Whether you are interested in secular or spiritual development, the Enneagram offers you a powerful lens for examining yourself and others - and making profound changes in your own life and relationships.

The first step towards using it is to familiarise yourself with the nine Enneagram types and start to get a sense of your own type. In my next few posts I’ll describe the nine types, but before we get to that here’s a short questionnaire to help you identify your type. It’s a shortened version of the Riso-Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator (RHETI) devised by well-known Enneagram authors Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson.

Here’s a link to the free shorter version of the test - take 10 minutes to complete this questionaire before my next post and it will make the descriptions of the types more relevant and interesting to you.

Enneagram — 10 minute questionnaire

I’m offering the link here to help you take the first step towards recognising your type - but don’t be too quick to jump to conclusions. It took me several months (and some brutal feedback from a well-meaning friend!) before I identified my own type correctly.

In my next post I’ll start to introduce the Enneagram types.

_____________
Mark studied the Enneagram as part of his training as a psychotherapist. He has used it for his own personal development and in his work with individuals, families, and organizations. Mark McGuinness’ business Wishful Thinking, is a specialist coaching and training service for creative businesses such as design studios, ad agencies, film and TV production companies, computer games developers, architect’s practices and fashion designers.

Part 2 in Enneagram — a Brief Introduction, The Heart Types, will appear Wednesday at about this same time.

Thank you, Mark,
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Mini-Session 3: Five Things about Creativity

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Guest Speaker: Mark McGuinness

Five Things about Creativity

1. Creativity happens inside the box as well as outside it – yes you need to free your mind and think laterally, but you also need rules, deadlines and constraints.

2. Creativity happens between people, not just between the ears – inspiration comes from conversation; if no-one ever hears about your idea, it may as well not exist.

3. What’s obvious to you is original to others – you’re often at your most creative when you stop trying to be original and say the first thing that comes into your mind.

4. Creativity is a mind-altering substance – when was the last time you were so absorbed in your imagination that time stood still, your surroundings disappeared and you were lost in another world?

5. Creativity can be managed – artists learn to manage their own creative process; the best managers do the same for others.

Thank you, Mark
__________________
Visit Mark at his website and blog, Wishful Thinking, where he works with professionals on how creativity and business fit together. –ME “Liz” Strauss
______________________

Let’s open the Q&A . . .

I’ll go first, Mark, how can I help businesses value creativity?


SOBCon 07 link

During the Virtual Conference today, you can take $100 off registration to SOBCon 07.

Mark McGuinness is a B.A.D. Blogger

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Blogger A Day Call: Hello, Hello, Hello is Mark there?

Mark and I were ready for a great phone call. Skype wasn’t as prepared. After a good college try, Mark, gentleman and hero, volunteered the call from London to Chicago. What’s not to love about a blogger like that?

Mark was a business coach at the corporate level, but his passion is creativity coaching. So he changed his focus to working in the creative industries — television, film, design, and others. Last month, Mark finished his dissertation on coaching in creative businesses. He’s putting podcasts of the interviews on his blog while his dissertation is under review.

Mark and I talked about his interviews and my experiences as director of departments that were made up of editors and designers. Mark touched on the same point that Tony made yesterday — creative work requires a personal investment; then folks have to let go. We talked about managers helping with that and the way managers translate to financial folks the most effective ways creative people think and work.

Our conversation included high-trust environments and the problems of needing to be creative on-demand — the fact that no one is creative all of the time — and that people need to know that it’s okay not to be exceptional every moment.

Mark’s a poet. He drew an analogy between poetry and blogging. He pointed out that the deeper you go into poetry the more you notice the great poets connecting to poets who have gone before — he called it a poetic form of hyperlinking. One more way that poetry is code.

Imagine poets as the first bloggers . . . I can see the similarities.

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

A blog is like a book where you can see the readers reading it and talking back to you. –Mark McGuinness

Stop by Mark’s Blog, wishful thinking, and say hi!

Thanks, Mark, you B.A.D. Blogger!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Want to be a B.A.D. Blogger see the. . . a B.A.D. Blogger? page in the sidebar

Bloggy Question 14 — Make a Wish

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Wishful Thinking

For those who come looking for a short, thoughtful read, a blogging life discussion, or a way to gradually ease back into the week, I offer this Blogging Question.

What do you wish someone would invent?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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