Because all of us have far more potential than we dare to believe in...

Connect To Your Potential

© Connect To Your Potential 2010-11. All Rights Reserved.

If you know what you are looking for, search our site here ►

Share |

WELCOME to the Enneagram page.

Personality & Behaviour
PRISM Brain Mapping

The origins of the Enneagram date back thousands of years to Hippocrates, the Greek physician who first started to think of people in 'categories' of personality style. Nine categories were observed. Four main schools of thought evolved during the mid to late 1900s, which have resulted in several books and training courses. Yet the Enneagram is still relatively unknown and easily misunderstood. It is an art and a science.

Each ‘Enneatype’ represents a distinct character, as depicted by our cartoon characters, displaying distinct traits - values, fears, virtues, vices, typical likes and dislikes, focus in life. Move your mouse over each of the cartoon characters above to see their description and get a feel for who they are. Do you recognise yourself, your partner, colleagues, friends...?

So far, so good - it sounds simple! Now for the however... Humans are complex! We are made up of a unique combination of the nine personality types - our blueprint. You may have one dominant type, or be influenced by several.

By investing in learning about the Enneagram and identifying your own unique profile, you can massively increase your own level of self-awareness and facilitate self-development. You also get to understand and learn to accept different perspectives - the models of the world that we all have. This is fundamental to increasing your emotional intelligence.

The Enneagram systematically describes how the different types typically interact with one another, which makes it a very powerful tool for communication, relationships, conflict resolution and team building. Move your mouse over the image to the right to see the Enneagram profile for an entire team. This particular team self-selected to come together - you can clearly see a common profile of person that wanted to join in with the purpose of this team (high 5 & 7). You can also start to identify potential areas of weakness - this team has a predominance of detailed analysers (5) and enthusiastic individualists (7) but may lack drive and completer-finisher characteristics (3) and the team players (6). The team displays a good level of leadership (8) and innovation/creativity (4).

One reason that we love the Enneagram is the unique way that it addresses the interplay between underlying personality and emotional state. This is at the core of our approach to mastering behaviour and unlocking human potential.

We’ve been using the Enneagram extensively since early 2007, initially in our own relationship. You will see our own Enneagram profiles in the two images below (note the graphs are relative, not absolute). See how we ‘stack up’ as a team by moving your mouse over the image to the right →

Having found each other online, with an immediate soul-connection, shared values and purpose, we enjoyed a long distance relationship for six months, during which time we were only physically together for three weeks, before moving in to live together and start our new business.

Once we moved in, our differences became apparent, yet we were not able to understand them or accept them. This caused us some difficulties. Despite all of the personal development that we had done on ourselves, living 24/7 with someone very different to you was a considerable challenge.

 

Each Enneatype has positive characteristics that they can easily embrace when in a positive and resourceful emotional state, or negative traits that come with an unresourceful state. Recognising and managing your state and accepting others states and traits is the key to emotional intelligence.

In 2005-6, Andy had learned to embrace his masculine leadership (8) to be more decisive (3), put boundaries down and be less pleasing and supportive (6 and 2) of everyone else. Andy is clearly very analytical (5) and not very emotional (low score on 2/3/4, the red ‘heart’ types).

Di, on the other hand, is creative and emotional (4), also analytical (5) and has a significant leadership tendency (8).

What happened in the relationship is that Andy initially took charge and Di deliberately stepped back, and in doing so, shied away from her leadership (8) and creativity (4). We did not realise it at the time how inauthentic and stressful this would feel for Di. This caused us both to dip in our emotional states, at which point Andy withdrew (-ve 5) and became critical (-ve 1)

With the amazing insights from the Enneagram, we realised the error of our ways. Only after we had seriously trained in and studied the Enneagram, were we able to understand ourselves and our differences to the point where we could truly accept and embrace them. Phenomenal teamwork followed and our relationship has flourished and flowed.

Since becoming fascinated by the Enneagram and subsequently becoming a huge fan of it, we have tried out and compared many different online tests and assessments, some free, some paid for. Unfortunately, we found them very inconsistent and felt they were unreliable. After further research, we finally came across one that we feel is very reliable; we now offer and highly recommend this online assessment as part of our services. We also include our own tailored reports for you to give you the best insight into yourself and we customise reports for couples and teams.

You can see how the personalities of two more couples that we have worked with ‘stack up’ by moving your mouse over the two graphs above right.

You can buy your very own detailed Enneagram report below for £97 - this includes the standard report, our customised report, plus a 40 minute coaching session to further explain and discuss your personality.

PLUS if you buy the couples option (£197), you get all of this X2 and in addition, a unique couples Enneagram report which highlights your relationship in terms of how your dominant Enneagram types typically fit together in a relationship. You get to see your strengths - individual and combined, how you work together, communication and control issues, how each other thinks and feels, meeting each others needs for timeliness, variety, security etc. This couples report is awesome - it is the closest thing to marriage insurance you can get and is many times better than any form of traditional relationship counselling.

Here’s what one couple said about our Enneagram report and coaching:

"Understanding our Enneagram personality types has completely changed the way we interact with each other. The descriptions are extremely accurate, this is a tool we will continue to refer to and use". Prior to this, our relationship was distant and had become stagnant after 10 years together. We both had expectations of divorce. W & K, Gloucestershire

Now they are falling in love all over again.

Of course if you want to develop your relationship further, then we are top relationship coaches and have a brilliant relationship workshop, which includes the Enneagram reports. If you are not sure about the workshop, or are too far away, then the Enneagram reports are a great place to start, perhaps supported by further telephone coaching. We are happy to discount the report price off the the workshop if you decide to buy them separately.

Enneagram personality profile
Andy Enneagram profile
Diane Enneagram profile
Diane Enneatypes
Couple Arguing

THE NINE TYPES

Each of the nine types has fantastic qualities, core passions and fears which act as motivators, core virtues, typical vices and common pitfalls, which once known can be avoided.

In terms of growth and transformation, for each type there are recommend-ations in terms of focus and strategy to enable you to tap into your most fantastic qualities and to co-operate with the other 'types'. Similarly, there are tips for how to overcome the less enabling aspects of ego yourself and how to deal with others' egos.

Andy Enneatypes
Enneagram relationship
Enneagram couple
Enneagram love

Do you want to increase your emotional intelligence, improve your relationship with yourself and others?

If so, our advanced Enneagram Personality package is for you.

Select your package:
Buy your Enneagram report here