Personality Specifics
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 you 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.