MG Podcast Feature: 

“Personal development and career development have to go hand in hand. It’s not so much about if you can win the job, but more about if you can you keep it.”

With the Enneagram, there are 9 different numbers; 9 different ways to experience the world. These are the foundations that gauge our motivations as a humans. With the Enneagram, there are also 27 subtypes, made up of 3 variations of each of the 9 personality types depending on which of our 3 instincts are highlighted: self-preservation, one-to-one, and social.

Subtypes describe our major concerns and focus of attention in daily life, giving us the opportunity to really get to know ourselves and what our instinct-based activities are. They all exist within us and stack one on top of the other, with one usually being more prominent. Here’s a little bit about each subtype, which we talk about more in depth in the episode:

1. Self-preservation

• Theme: the right to be alive, experiences of being physically grounded in our bodies and connected to the earth
• Governs our need for food, shelter, and warmth
• Affects how we regulate our daily rhythms of work, home, life, sleep, and self care

2. One-to-one

• Theme: the right to be loved, to be seen and appreciated as an individual
• Governs our sexuality, intimate relationships, and our movement of the life force within our bodies
• Affinity for deep and intimate connections, smaller groups, silence

3. Social

• Theme: our right to belong, our role or place in the world
• Governs our need for belonging and membership within the larger group of a community
• Affinity for bringing people together, desire to be behind the scenes and forming the community, enjoying the energy of a group

Subtypes are another opportunity to see our weaknesses, strengths, and how they show up in our daily life. This is a tool to help grow and understand your self-awareness as well as your empathy and compassion for other people.

“We all come in with our biases and we all come in with a certain amount of knowledge. Imagine that you don’t know as much as you do and come with a posture of openness. Understand there are endless possibilities and we see what we see.”

Tune in wherever you listen to podcasts for more on Enneagram subtypes and personal development that will work wonders for our careers.