Understanding the Enneagram
Introductory guides

The Enneagram is a tool for exploring personality by looking at recurring motivations and patterns of attention, rather than placing people in nine fixed boxes.

A wing is the idea that the types immediately beside your core type can influence how it is expressed.

Take time to look at underlying reasons that have recurred over a long period, rather than the most appealing description or your recent behavior.

Try using the first type number in your results as a starting point for comparing close candidates, rather than as a conclusion.

Responses to a self-report assessment can be influenced by your current situation and self-image. Start by looking at why the results changed.

The nine types can be grouped into three centers: body (instinctive), feeling and thinking. These are also called the gut, heart and head centers, respectively. Centers are a way of understanding familiar channels of response, not a scorecard.

Core motivation and fear describe what you repeatedly want to gain or avoid beneath surface behavior.

Visible habits change with roles and surroundings. The Enneagram also looks at the recurring reasons behind behavior.

The core type describes a recurring core motivation, while a wing can influence how that motivation is expressed.

Looking only at a recent role, an appealing description or familiar behaviors makes it easy to choose a type that differs from your core motivation.

As pressure increases, familiar ways of coping may intensify, or reactions you usually suppress may emerge, making your type appear different.

MBTI and the Enneagram ask different questions about people. Rather than translating one into the other, distinguish the clues each framework offers.

The nine types can be distinguished by the states they repeatedly try to preserve and their patterns of attention, rather than by behaviors they enjoy.