How the Enneagram Can Transform Your Career and Life
If you are new here, welcome to my blog! Monthly musings on all things Enneagram, leadership and mindset related, with an occasional dusting of transformational life lessons and self-help book recommendations.
Why am I so obsessed with the Enneagram? Because it is like a Google translator for personal and professional development. Whether it is enhancing workplace communications, aligning your career path, deepening human connection, enhancing your leadership or amplifying your confidence, the Enneagram has the power to unlock barriers and evoke sustainable change.
I know why I react the way I do, how people perceive me and what things I want to work on, and when to let go. Doing your Enneagram assessment is like a year of therapy packed into one 23 page document. (Get your IEQ9 Enneagram assessment here).
In brief, this is how the Enneagram changed my life and I know it can change yours, too.
When I understood WHY I do the things I do, it helped me become more present and improve areas in both my professional and personal life. My core motivation is freedom and my deepest fear is confinement (hence my backpacking excursion to Europe when I was 19, I needed the freedom to explore who I was without the restriction of societal expectations). It explains why I work for myself and not others, why I am an optimist yet a realist, and how seeing possibilities is the guiding light that serves me and my work with my clients.
Perception is everything! We all perceive things differently based on our Enneagram types and our human experiences! I cannot count the amount of times a person has walked away from a team building event saying “I had no idea that we all have different ways of viewing, solving and reacting to the same problems”. It seems so obvious, but it is not.
I learned how to accept my strengths and weaknesses and use them to improve myself as a mother, partner, and businesswoman. The Enneagram sheds light on complementary skills and I now understand the type of leadership skills I would need to build my team should I decide to scale my company. (Enneagram 1s and 5s, I am talking to you!)
The Enneagram does not put you in a box. It identifies the box you are living in and then presents ways to unlock the door and expand beyond your default motivations. Channeling the other types allows you to have a more holistic approach to your life and your work.
If you want to do a deeper dive into The Enneagram, check out “Cracking the Code of Personality with Enneagram Expert Ali Dunn” on The Best Guest podcast or head to the “Attune And Align” podcast where Marisa LaValette and I talk all things related to the Enneagram, Burnout and Confidence.
Photo Credit: Cameron Cressman Photography