This week on Through the Marketing Lens podcast, I interviewed Karissa Harrison, an incredible coach that uses the Enneagram personality framework to guide her clients through customized development plans. We spoke about the personal and professional growth one can achieve by learning more about your Enneagram type.
First of all, what the heck is an Enneagram?
The Enneagram is an ancient personality framework that believes everyone is born into one of nine types. It is different from many other types of personality tests because rather than just describing aspects of each type's personality, it helps you to understand the motivating and driving factors behind how you think, feel and behave.
If you don't know your Enneagram type yet, Karissa has a free guide available on her website that can help you figure it out. She also recommends The Enneagram Institute to learn more or to take their online test.
There's so much juicy information in this podcast episode! Here are three of my favorite things I learned from Karissa about the Enneagram and how it can help your business:
1. Your Enneagram won't change over time.
Most experts within the world of the Enneagram agree that your Enneagram type is something that you're born with. It is the hard-wired view through which you experience your whole life. That being said, some people might have been mis-typed in the past or as they learn more about themselves might find that a different type fits better.
You also shouldn't want your Enneagram to change over time. There are no good or bad types, and none is better than the other. So the goal with learning about your Enneagram is to become the best possible version of that type you can be, not to change to a type you view as more desirable.
2. It gets way more nuanced than just the nine types.
A question that might have popped into your head at some point while learning about the Enneagram is, can there really only be nine types of people? Humans are so much more complex than that!
That's where subtypes and wings come in. There are several different subtypes that dictate which of your needs is most important to you and also your type's "wings" (the two types on either side of yours). Your wing can change over time or with active development if you wanted to lean more heavily into one wing or the other.
3. You can use your Enneagram to create a custom plan for personal growth.
Using the knowledge that you have of your type, your core fears, motivations, and desires, you can then apply that to how you want to improve and grow. It's an incredibly vulnerable process, because you're uncovering things that have been hidden deep within you for a long time. Go into from a place of acceptance and love.
Once you know your core fear you can ask yourself, how has this been influencing my behavior? How does my type impact me and impact those around me? What are some of the automatic reactions to things that I have that I'd like to change? What feels out of alignment in my life?
This interview was FILLED with quality info like this. It was such an amazing conversation and I truly learned a ton from Karissa. If you're interested in learning more from Karissa about personal development using the Enneagram, you can check her out on Instragram, @karissaharrison.
If you want to hear more of this conversation, I HIGHLY recommend checking out this recent episode of Through The Marketing Lens podcast, where Karissa and I go even deeper into the world of the Enneagram.
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