This week, we carry on with the second case study of my use of the Enneagram personality assessment tool to help better understand my clients and restore order and a sense of fulfillment in their lives. Nancy and I started working together around four years ago. She appeared to be really happy with her work, but, as we engaged, I uncovered the toll it had taken on her. Today, I describe Nancy's story in detail, and demonstrate how we used the Enneagram to assess Nancy's personality, brainstorm solutions, and alleviate her agony.

I kick off this episode with a timely reminder of She Doesn't Settle—The Experience program in January. After that, I dive right into the case study of Nancy, whose role was in developing and fundraising at a nonprofit. She appeared to enjoy her work, but I later found out that she had a tough time sleeping, didn't have the energy to take care of herself, worked many hours every day, and lost connection with the thing she enjoyed doing—her work. Nancy brought to light the feeling of enthusiasm she felt on the weekend to wake up early, and yet she dragged herself out of bed on weekdays. In today's episode, I chat about how I came to understand Nancy's personality using the Enneagram which, in turn, helped me appreciate her distress and work to relieve it. In the end, Nancy's situation significantly improved - listen in and hear how!

And, as always, if there is ever a topic you would like me to discuss, a guest you'd like me to interview on the podcast, or feedback you wish to offer, please feel free to contact me at [email protected] - I would love to hear from you!

The Finer Details of This Episode:

o Case study of an Enneagram 6—the strategic thinker

o Appreciating the risk-averse personality

o The journey from overthinking to action

o Dealing with the feeling of not being valued, heard, and taken seriously

o Appreciating the one who likes things done in a very structured way and doesn't like spontaneity and flexibility

o Dealing with people who find it difficult to trust others and their opinions

o The Enneagram release and stretch line

Quotes:

"Career change does not have to be some dramatic, drastic change. It can literally be staying in the same organization but having a different job."

"And so while she felt like she wasn't being heard, she also began to recognize that the organization's values and mission were changing, and it was very much not aligned with her own."

"Her personality enjoys being of service to a group or an organization or community. And they take responsibility and do things really well and willingly. They're also all about upholding order and law. And they use lessons from their past to basically stabilize their future. And they really prefer clear structures."

"I knew that Nancy might think in a very structured way. This tends towards pessimism."

"It was important for me to take things slow for us to lay out a plan very meticulously, to allow for contemplation, and also work to help her not rely on rationality for everything."

"That was a big trigger for her personality because they're very precise and careful in the things they do, following rules, processes, duties. And they feel safe with those standards in place,

"When she's at her best, she can model reasonable and thoughtful actions. She can show rules-based approaches to forming work and managing others. So a really wonderful leader, when they're at their best, and a great model."

"When you over-rely on thinking, you might over plan, you might delay decisions. But when you're in a good place, expressing your thoughts intelligently, you can bring quiet clarity and curiosity, and you can reflect and move to decisions and action. And that's where I wanted to keep her."

"That meant we needed to get her into her body and out of her head more."

"What I needed to work with her on is to make her see that she could actually act as her own authority."

"Have I worked with folks who have made dramatic career shifts? Yes. Have I made a dramatic career shift myself? A hundred percent. But my personality is all about change. I thrive on change. I prefer to be challenged. I get bored very easily."

"The point of all of this is we are all different. We all have different personality types. We all think and feel and take action differently, and all of these are really critical pieces to know and understand."

"I think it's important to bring out these examples because you can understand that this work is really based on who you are and how you operate. There's no cookie-cutter approach. And that's important because, in a world where everything feels like it's cookie cutter and it doesn't work most of the time, it's important to know some options are not cookie cutter."

Show Links:

Kelly's homepage - www.kellytravis.net

She Doesn't Sette - The Experience - www.kellytravis.net/sds

Social: @kellythealth