Understanding the Enneagram: A Guide to the Nine Types

The Enneagram is a personality framework that offers insights into motivations, behaviors, and personal growth. It is a powerful tool for coaching, leadership coaching, and team development. While each of the nine types has unique traits, it’s important to remember that personality is fluid, influenced by experiences, culture, and personal history. 

This guide offers an overview of each type. It’s designed to help teams and individuals enhance professional development and self-awareness by identifying and understanding their strengths and leadership styles. 

Type 1: The Reformer (aka: The Strict Perfectionist)

Core Motivation: Strives for integrity and improvement.
Strengths: Ethical, responsible, detail-oriented.
Challenges: Can be perfectionistic, critical, and rigid.
Growth Path: Embracing flexibility and self-compassion.
Focus of Attention: Distinguishing between right and wrong, good and bad, correct and incorrect.
Core Desire: Goodness, dignity, wholeness.
Core Fear: That there is something intrinsically wrong with them, being defective and “not good enough.”
Vice: Anger expressed as irritation, frustration, resentment, and self-righteousness.
Notes from a Coach: Effective in leadership coaching and facilitation by promoting high standards and accountability.

Type 2: The Helper (aka: The Considerate Helper)

Core Motivation: Seeks love and appreciation by supporting others.
Strengths: Empathetic, generous, nurturing.
Challenges: Can be people-pleasing, intrusive, or overextended.
Growth Path: Prioritizing self-care and setting healthy boundaries.
Focus of Attention: The needs of others and providing help and support in a dependable way.
Core Desire: To be liked.
Core Fear: Being unwanted, unloved, rejected, and abandoned.
Vice: Pride expressed through inflated self-importance in service to others, using seduction and subtle manipulation.
Notes from a Coach: Ideal for team development, fostering collaboration and trust.

Type 3: The Achiever (aka: Competitive Achiever)

Core Motivation: Driven by success and recognition.
Strengths: Ambitious, adaptable, goal-oriented.
Challenges: May struggle with authenticity and burnout.
Growth Path: Valuing self-worth beyond accomplishments.
Focus of Attention: Being successful and ensuring the high regard and respect of others.
Core Desire: To win, to be successful.
Core Fear: Failure; wondering if people will still love them without their success and accomplishments.
Vice: Deceit and vanity, tricking themselves and others into believing they are their self-made image.
Notes from a Coach: Useful in helping individuals balance ambition with well-being.

Type 4: The Individualist (aka: The Intense Creative)

Core Motivation: Seeks meaning and identity.
Strengths: Creative, introspective, emotionally deep.
Challenges: Can be self-absorbed, melancholic, or envious.
Growth Path: Finding joy in the present moment and connection with others.
Focus of Attention: Expressing themselves authentically and focusing on what has meaning and depth.
Core Desire: Being unique and meaningful.
Core Fear: Being without identity or significance.
Vice: Envy and fantasy, longing for what they are not or don’t have, dissatisfaction with the ordinary.
Notes from a Coach: Beneficial in recognizing the value of emotional intelligence.

Type 5: The Investigator (aka: The Quiet Specialist)

Core Motivation: Desires knowledge and autonomy.
Strengths: Analytical, perceptive, independent.
Challenges: May withdraw, struggle with emotional expression, or overanalyze.
Growth Path: Engaging with emotions and building trust in relationships.
Focus of Attention: Conserving resources and minimizing demands on time and energy.
Core Desire: Need to know and understand.
Core Fear: Being dependent, exhausted, overwhelmed, and incapable.
Vice: Avarice (or greed) which is expressed via managing personal energy and resources, detaching from engagement in life.
Notes from a Coach: Strength in identifying strategic and analytical strengths in teams.

Type 6: The Loyalist (aka: The Loyal Skeptic)

Core Motivation: Seeks security and support.
Notes from a Coach: Loyal, responsible, prepared.
Challenges: Can be anxious, skeptical, or overly cautious.
Growth Path: Cultivating inner trust and adaptability.
Focus of Attention: What can go wrong and constructing worst-case scenarios.
Core Desire: Being safe and prepared.
Core Fear: Being alone in a threatening world, unable to survive.
Vice: Doubt, focusing on worst-case scenarios in everyday life or relationships.
Notes from a Coach: Key in team development by fostering reliability and resilience.

Type 7: The Enthusiast (aka: The Enthusiastic Visionary)

Core Motivation: Pursues experiences and joy.
Strengths: Energetic, optimistic, spontaneous.
Challenges: May avoid discomfort, be scattered, or overcommit.
Growth Path: Practicing mindfulness and embracing deeper experiences.
Focus of Attention: On what excites them, future possibilities.
Core Desire: Freedom and joy.
Core Fear: Being limited, restricted, or not living a full life.
Vice: Gluttony for new experiences to avoid pain or confinement.
Notes from a Coach: Useful in coaching to encourage balance between enthusiasm and focus.

Type 8: The Challenger (aka: The Active Controller)

Core Motivation: Desires strength and autonomy.
Strengths: Assertive, decisive, protective.
Challenges: Can be confrontational, domineering, or resistant to vulnerability.
Growth Path: Embracing vulnerability and collaboration.
Focus of Attention: Ensuring no one can control them, focusing on solutions and results.
Core Desire: Being strong.
Core Fear: Being weak, vulnerable, or controlled by others.
Vice: Lust for control can lead to excess and difficulty in connecting with others.
Notes from a Coach: Helps to refine assertiveness into effective leadership.

Type 9: The Peacemaker (aka: The Adaptive Peacemaker)

Core Motivation: Seeks harmony and stability.
Strengths: Adaptable, diplomatic, reassuring.
Challenges: May avoid conflict, struggle with decisiveness, or be passive.
Growth Path: Asserting personal needs and embracing active participation.
Focus of Attention: Ensuring everyone feels heard, respected, and considered.
Core Desire: Peace and harmony.
Core Fear: Being controlled, in conflict, or facing chaos.
Vice: Self-forgetting, procrastination, avoidance.
Notes from a Coach: Effective in facilitation, supporting harmony in teams and leadership settings.

Whether you know your type or not, the above information provides a window into how we can all assess ourselves in our relationships with others and the world. The Enneagram is not about putting people into boxes – it’s a tool for self-awareness and personal development. Each type has strengths and challenges, and growth comes from understanding and balancing these aspects. By approaching this framework with curiosity and compassion, we can deepen our relationships with ourselves and others. Whether used for leadership coaching, facilitation, or team development, the Enneagram supports professional growth and helps individuals and teams thrive.