Introduction To The Awareness To Action Enneagram

The Awareness to Action
Enneagram:
The Approach for Business
By Mario Sikora
President, Awareness to Action
International
Introduction
The Enneagram of Personality is a model of understanding human nature that is becoming

increasingly more popular. At the same time, there are a lot of misunderstandings about the
system, and people may not be aware that there are different approaches to the system. This
article is a intended to briefly introduce the Enneagram in general but, more importantly to
explain one distinct approach to the system—The Awareness to Action Enneagram—and how
(and why) it differs from other approaches.
The Enneagram Model of Personality
The Enneagram is, in my experience, the single most-effective way to understand the habitual patterns
of personality. A skilled user of the Enneagram has profound insights into the strengths and
vulnerabilities of their own patterns, as well as a deep understanding of why other people do the things
they do. A coach or consultant using the system can accelerate their understanding of their clients and
use it to pinpoint interventions that will get results quickly. The Enneagram helps individuals grow and
mature in their work and personal lives, it helps leaders become more effective, and it helps teams and
organizations become more collaborative and coherent.
The Enneagram serves as a psychological and organizational

problem-resolution protocol. In the same way that the IT person
always tells us to “reboot” as the first step to trying to fix every [T]he phrase “the”
gadget problem because they know it is the most-likely fix for the Enneagram is something of
problem, we can use the Enneagram to point us to the most likely a misnomer, in that when it
cause of the friction we experience in our interactions with life. It comes to the Enneagram as
points us to the habitual personality patterns that tend to cause us a model of personality there
trouble and tells us what we can do to fix them. are multiple perspectives
In other words, it helps us see ourselves more clearly, create and multiple approaches.
change, and make that change last.
That said, it is important to understand that the phrase “the” Enneagram is something of a misnomer, in
that when it comes to the Enneagram as a model of personality there are multiple perspectives and
multiple approaches. All approaches to the Enneagram are not created equal and do not share the same
focus. While this may be frustrating to people new to the system, it is the reality of an open-source body
of knowledge that was not really set up as a proprietary model in the way that many other personality
systems were.
There are positive and negative aspects to this fact.
On the positive side, it allows for creative innovation, growth, and maturation of the system. People find
ways to use it as an ancillary tool in many environments, and the original ideas become revised and
improved as they are analyzed from many different angles. The diversity of perspective also serves as a
proof of concept—if the Enneagram teaches us anything it is that there are different ways of viewing the
world and, in some areas, different views can be equally valid.
“The Awareness to Action Enneagram: The Approach for Business” 2
Copyright 2019. Mario Sikora. All rights reserved.
The negative side is that not all approaches to the Enneagram are accurate and rigorous. And because
the Enneagram is not a proprietary model there is very little that stops people from claiming to be
knowledgeable about the system and posting their thoughts on the internet. Thus, when learning about
the Enneagram it is important to heed the admonition of caveat emptor—the buyer must beware. When
learning about the Enneagram, it is important to understand the roots of the specific approach to the
system one is learning.
This article is intended to explain, briefly, what the Enneagram is in general and, more specifically, what
the Awareness to Action Enneagram is and how (and why) it is different from other approaches to the
system. I will start off with a short history of the system and then look at how my approach developed
as a response to using the system with a more pragmatic audience (primarily, but not exclusively, a
business audience).
The Awareness to Action Enneagram is taught exclusively by consultants and trainers from
Awareness to Action International. For more information about our programs, email us at
info@awarenesstoaction.com or call +1.267.304.1234.

WHAT IS THE ENNEAGRAM?
“Ennea” is Greek for “nine,” and “gram” for “lines” or “drawing,” so the Enneagram is generally
considered to be a model of nine personality types or styles. The types are mapped to a diagram with
nine interconnected lines within a circle. (See Figure 1.) The word “type” can be problematic because, to
some people, it implies something fixed and unchanging. Humans are complex and putting them into
boxes is a fool’s errand, but there is no arguing that people tend to have noticeable and relatively
consistent patterns of habitual behavior. Yes, people will act differently in different circumstances and it
is almost impossible to predict how a person will act in the future, but most psychologists agree that
many of our personality characteristics are somewhat stable over time.1
At the same time, the lines of the diagram represent the complexity of human behavior, indicating that
people psychologically “move,” showing different tendencies at different times but in a somewhat
consistent way. The Enneagram is a way of describing nine patterns of habitual thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors and it shows how each of us tend to demonstrate one of these nine patterns more
consistently than the other eight. When someone uses the term “Ennea-type,” they are not suggesting
limitations or fixed patterns, they are simply referring to people in the subset of the population who
tend to display one of nine these patterns with some regularity.
While the Enneagram is traditionally viewed as a model of nine “types,” there is another fundamental
element to of the system—the three Instinctual Biases. The biases, as we shall see shortly, relate to the
aspects of life that we value or place importance on; whereas the types are how we go satisfying those
values.
Thus, I view the nine Ennea-types as being rooted in specific adaptive “strategies,” thematic approaches
to meeting our needs and solving the problems that life brings our way. These strategies are not
conscious and deliberate, they are habitual tendencies that have worked for us in the past and feel
comfortable and sensible. They make life easier because we don’t have to think about them—we just do
them.

We can’t be conscious and thoughtful all the time; we spend much of our time on autopilot, reacting to
life as we try to get through our day. When we are in this autopilot mode, some part of our brain is
seeking to feel a certain way in an effort to create a state of consistency and equilibrium. This desire to
feel a certain way causes us to think in ways that will help us achieve that feeling, and we will act in
ways that are consistent with how we think and feel. Thus, our Ennea-type is rooted in one of nine
strategies--those patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting that make us feel like everything is right in our
world. The problem is that, although these patterns are often comforting, they can be
counterproductive and ineffective—an attempt to solve new problems in old ways. They are often the
root of our suffering and dissatisfaction so we would do well to understand them and learn to manage
the strategies instead of being managed by them.
Other authors use different terminology to describe the core dynamics of the Ennea-types. Some focus
on a particular set of basic fears and desires; others on lists of common traits. The original developers of
the system focused on a set of psycho-spiritual vices and fixations.
Each of these are helpful to understand, but they don’t work well in
the business world or with more pragmatic audiences. There is a lot of mythology
There is a lot of mythology about the origins of the Enneagram. about the origins of the
Some of this mythology is made up, some based on speculation, Enneagram. Some of this
and some based on misinformation. What we know for sure is that mythology is made up, some
the Enneagram as a personality model2 began with a Bolivian based on speculation, and
philosopher named Oscar Ichazo in the late 1960s and early 1970s. some based on
Ichazo’s work was substantially altered by Claudio Naranjo, a misinformation.
Chilean psychiatrist who lent Ichazo’s esoteric model a more-
psychological focus while still embracing its esoteric roots.
Naranjo taught the model to, among others, a group of people in Berkeley, CA in the early 1970s and the
Enneagram started to spread across the US from there.3
The Enneagram came to be taught in ways that included the basics of Naranjo’s teachings along with
innovations of the early teachers of the system. For much of the mid-1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s
there were a handful of popular and prominent approaches to the system.4 With the advent of the
internet, the creation of more and more Enneagram training programs, and the intermingling of
students from different approaches, new innovations and thoughts on the system started to proliferate
(again, for better and worse).
DEVELOPMENT OF THE AWARENESS TO ACTION ENNEAGRAM
I was introduced to the Enneagram by Robert and Dennis Tallon in 1994. (I went on to co-author my first
book, “Awareness to Action: The Enneagram, Emotional Intelligence, and Change with Robert in 2004.)
They had trained with the Enneagram Institute, which I also did a few years later.
I became obsessed with the Enneagram, as I had never encountered anything that described me and the
people around me in such vivid detail. I consumed everything I could find about the Enneagram at the
time—primarily books and cassette recordings since this was in the pre-internet days and not much
information was publicly available about the system.
In 1997 I started my work as an executive coach and leadership-development consultant. I quickly saw
that the Enneagram could be a powerful way to help my clients see themselves and the obstacles they
put in their own way to growth, as well as helping them see the reasons why they might misinterpret
the actions or intentions of their coworkers. My clients loved the Enneagram as a way to understand
themselves, their peers, and their teams. (They also find that it provides illuminating insights about their
spouses and children!)
However, as I worked with the Enneagram in organizations I started to encounter some challenges.
While I always considered myself to be a good critical thinker who could effectively challenge the
concepts I was taught, I realized that I had a lot to learn from my clients in this regard. All successful
business people, they had educations and experience that predisposed them to question everything.
(Many have science or finance backgrounds, both of which do not incline people to take claims at face
value or on faith.) If something smacked of “new-age speak” they were relentless in their search for
evidence of its effectiveness. While I have met many strikingly intelligent people in self-help and
spiritual circles from which the Enneagram sprang, the truth is that the majority of the people in those
circles tend to be less critical and are more willing to overlook ideas that might not completely ring true.
The business, science, and academic fields do not operate that way.
Because they have a responsibility to ensure that what they spend their time on adds value to the
organization, my clients want to see results rather than just abstractions, and they want clarity and
simplicity so they can apply the ideas amidst the chaos of
daily life.
The Awareness to Action
I realized that if I was going to be able to share this model Enneagram was not just designed
with people who were pragmatic, rigorous, and critical I
for business audiences. I have
was going to have to learn to describe the system using
taught it in university psychology
language that appealed to those qualities. Thus, the
departments, self-help audiences,
genesis of the language and concepts that have evolved
into the Awareness to Action Enneagram was an attempt and in various faith communities,
to satisfy a few specific needs: but my basic rule for everything I
teach is that it has to work in the
• It had to be accurate. I could not claim anything business environment as well.
that is not precise and justifiable.
• It had to use language that was relevant to, and
comfortable for, a business and science-minded audience.
• Anything I taught them had to lead to some kind of practical output. Knowledge and speculation
for their own sake are wonderful things, but they should not be paid for with the company’s
money.
• My claims did not need to be “scientifically proven” but they could not violate what we do know
via science. (The broader Enneagram literature is rife with unscientific claims that are
demonstrably untrue, either about the system itself or about practices with which the
Enneagram is sometimes paired.)
• The model has to be simple and easy to remember.
This last need—the need for simplicity—has led some to believe that the Awareness to Action
Enneagram is simplistic—simple in a way that lacks an appreciation for nuance and the complexity of

human nature. I would argue the opposite, that it takes
deep understanding to find the simplicity in a body of
Deeper understanding of ourselves knowledge, and that a simple, elegant model that can be
and others has value only insofar as transmitted to others is far more helpful than a convoluted
we use that understanding to system that few can apply in a realistic way.
improve our situation—to become
An important point bears highlighting: The Awareness to
more effective at interacting in the
Action Enneagram was not just designed for business
world, build better relationships, audiences. I have taught it in university psychology
and increase a sense of flourishing departments, self-help audiences, and in various faith
and happiness. communities, but my basic rule for everything I teach is that
it has to work in the business environment as well.
The name “Awareness to Action Enneagram” is meant to suggest that the value of the Enneagram is
found in what we do with the knowledge we gain from it. Deeper understanding of ourselves and others
has value only insofar as we use that understanding to improve our situation—to become more
effective at interacting in the world, build better relationships, and increase what the Greeks called
“eudaimonia,” a sense of flourishing and happiness. These improvements affect our work life for sure,
but they make every other aspect of life better as well.
COMPONENTS OF THE AWARENESS TO ACTION ENNEAGRAM
Some approaches to the Enneagram have a variety of components that (depending on your view) add
either depth or complexity to the system. Depth is good, but with any model it is important to evaluate
how much value each component offers. Over time I have observed which components survived the
rugged corporate environment and which have diminishing returns in relationship to the degree of
complexity they create. Thus, the Awareness to Action Enneagram relies on a handful of elements based
on simple-but-robust first principles. Three of these elements are descriptive (they describe the internal
states the individual experiences and the effects of those states in our lives and relationships) and three
elements are prescriptive (they point to things we can do to grow).
The three descriptive elements are:
• The Instinctual Biases (see p. 8 and 31)

• The Strategies (see p.10)
• The Core Qualities (see p. 13)
The three prescriptive elements are:
• The Awareness to Action Process (see p. 18)

• The Accelerators (see p. 21)
• The ATA Personal and Professional Leadership Competencies (see p. 24)
Taken together, these elements combine for a very robust and sophisticated model for growth and
development. The pages that follow offer a brief introduction to the elements of the Awareness to
Action Enneagram and how they fit together rather than a detailed description of system, which will
require a much longer work.
UNDERSTANDING OURSELVES AND OTHERS: THE THREE
DESCRIPTIVE ELEMENTS OF THE ATA ENNEAGRAM
THE THREE INSTINCTUAL BIASES
The instinctual biases are deeply ingrained tendencies to find certain aspects of life more important than
others and to focus our attention accordingly. In short, they are at the heart of our systems of values—
the fundamental biological needs that matter most to us. These instinctual concerns fall into three
broad domains—Preserving, Navigating, and Transmitting. We all pay some attention to each of these
domains, but we tend to focus on them unequally and we are biased toward one of the domains
noticeably more than the others.
Let’s look a little closer at the three biases:
• Preserving. Those with a dominant bias toward Preserving tend to focus on ensuring that they
and those they care about have sufficient food, shelter, and all the other resources that not only
sustain life but make it comfortable. They are attuned to needs related to their health and well-
being and they are often collectors or cultivators of the traditions and artifacts that create a
sense of continuity with the past. They can fall into the trap of over-doing their preserving
tendencies, never feeling that they have quite enough of what they need, that something may
disrupt their comfort or well-being, or believing that resources are scarce even when they are
not.
• Navigating. Those with a dominant bias toward Navigating tend to focus on the workings of the
group and their status in it. They want to understand the group hierarchy, the interrelationships
of the members of the group, and how they can fit into it better. They are “soft networkers”
who don’t push themselves on others but maintain connection with a broad and loose network
that allows for a flow of information about trust and reciprocity issues. (It is important to note
that Navigators are generally more interested in collecting information that may or may not be
useful in the future than they are in talking about themselves.) They can overdo their navigating
tendencies and become gossips, or become overly concerned with how others perceive them.
They may tell people what they want to hear (rather than the whole truth) or seem like snobs
who look down on those who don’t meet their criteria for inclusion into the group.
• Transmitting. Those with a dominant bias toward Transmitting tend to focus on demonstrating
their charm, charisma, and accomplishment. They are both broadcasters and narrow-casters—
they non-consciously transmit signals to attract attention and then home in on individuals who
are receptive to the signals, establishing intense connection with specific individuals, even if
only for a short time. The transmitting instinctual bias also compels them to leave an impression
on their world, creating a legacy that ensures that part of them lives on. They can overdo their
transmitting tendencies and draw too much attention to themselves, taking up all the “space” in
the room and leaving others feeling unimportant or ignored or, conversely, smothered by the
intensity of the transmitter.

The instinctual biases have a profound impact on our work and personal lives. They influence what
interests us and, accordingly, what we spend our time on. They influence what skills we develop and
what skills we tend to neglect developing. They influence who we tend to get along with and who we
often come into conflict with.
The instinctual biases are crucial to the Awareness to Action Enneagram and I have not written about
them as much as I have the strategies. Therefore, I am including an appendix to the end of this article
that goes into more depth on instinctual biases, particularly as they relate to our work lives.

THE NINE STRATEGIES AND THE ENNEA-TYPES
If the instinctual biases point to our fundamental values (those aspects of life we think are important),
the strategies are how we go about satisfying those values. The strategies are covered at length in my
book, “Awareness to Action: The Enneagram, Emotional Intelligence, and Change.”
It’s the nine types that are the traditional focus of the Enneagram—the theme of the habitual pattern of
thoughts, feelings, and actions that we use to satisfy our values (I.e., get the things we want in life) and
address the problems that life brings our way. While we use all nine of the strategies to some extent, we
tend to over-rely on one of them—it becomes our default strategy for interacting with the world. Our
Ennea-type, the overall pattern or theme of our personality, is rooted in the non-conscious reliance on
this strategy.
The nine Ennea-types are:
• Ennea-Type One—Striving to Feel Perfect: The desire to feel perfect means that Ones are often
models of decorum, clear logic, and appropriate behavior. They focus on rules, procedures and
making sure that they are always doing the “right thing.” When they overdo their Striving to feel
Perfect they can become critical, judgmental and unwilling to take risks. Under stress, Ones may
fear that if they have too much fun they will become irresponsible.
• Ennea-Type Two—Striving to Feel Connected: The desire to feel connected means that Twos are
often selfless, caring, and nurturing. They focus on helping others meet their needs; they build
rapport easily and enjoy finding a common bond with others. When they overdo their Striving to
feel Connected they may fail to take care of their own needs and end up becoming emotionally
dependent on others. Under stress, Twos may fear that if they are not closely connected to
others they will become isolated.
• Ennea-type Three—Striving to Feel Outstanding: The desire to feel outstanding means that
Threes work hard to exceed standards and to be successful in whatever they undertake. They
place high value on productivity and presenting an image of being a winner in whatever
environment they are in. When they overdo their Striving to feel Outstanding they may become
attention seeking and may value image over substance. When stressed, Threes may fear that if
they are not making great efforts to be excellent they will become mediocre.
• Ennea-Type Four—Striving to Feel Unique: The desire to feel unique means that Fours generally
approach their lives creatively, in fresh and interesting ways. They gravitate toward things and
experiences that are elegant, refined, or unusual. When they overdo their Striving to feel Unique
they may feel misunderstood, and they may withdraw from others and become isolated. When
stressed, Fours may fear that if they do not put their own special touch on their world and their
experiences their individuality will become repressed.
• Ennea-type Five—Striving to Feel Detached: The desire to feel detached means that Fives are
usually observant, logical and generally reserved. They tend to focus on problem solving,
innovative ideas, and data gathering. When they overdo their Striving to feel Detached they can
end up being dull—out of touch with their experiences and emotions. When stressed, Fives may
fear that if they do not remain detached and guarded they will become uncontrolled.
• Ennea-Type Six—Striving to Feel Secure: The desire to feel secure means that Sixes often find
security in being part of something bigger than themselves, such as a group or tradition. They
are careful, responsible and protective of the welfare of the group. They focus on maintaining
consistency, tradition and cohesion. When they overdo their Striving to feel Secure they may fail
to take the risks necessary for high performance and settle for mediocrity. When stressed, Sixes
may fear that if they relax their guard they will be vulnerable to possible dangers.
• Ennea-Type Seven—Striving to Feel Excited: The desire to feel excited means that Sevens are
often upbeat, enthusiastic, optimistic, and curious. They focus on possibilities and options and
keeping others entertained. When they overdo
their Striving to feel Excited they may fail to follow-
While we use all nine of the
through, become easily distracted, and act
irresponsibly. When stressed, Sevens may fear that strategies to some extent, we tend
if they do not fill their heads with many thoughts to over-rely on one of them—it
they will miss out on something. becomes our default strategy for
• Ennea-Type Eight—Striving to Feel Powerful: The interacting with the world.
desire to feel powerful means that Eights are
action-oriented self-starters who love to be in
charge. They focus on getting things done and overcoming obstacles that may lie in their way.
When they overdo their Striving to feel Powerful they may not adhere to the rules or norms that
others expect them to follow and their behavior can become uncontrolled. When stressed,
Eights may fear that if they become too connected to others or experience their own emotions
too deeply they will become dependent on others.
• Ennea-Type Nine—Striving to Feel Peaceful: The desire to feel peaceful means that Nines are
calm, pleasant, and charming. They focus on maintaining a sense of inner harmony by
minimizing their own needs and concentrating on the needs of others. When they overdo their
Striving to feel Peaceful they can become passive, relying on others to make decisions for them.
When stressed, Nines may fear that if they place too much importance on themselves they will
be seen as attention seeking.

No one is one-dimensional, of course, and we use all the strategies to varying degrees and in varying
circumstances. When one strategy isn’t working we will often (often without thinking) switch to
another, at least temporarily. But one of them feels like “home base” to us, more like the “normal me.”
It is the default approach to life that we tend to over-rely on.
The Awareness to Action Enneagram helps us see how we use this default, the Preferred Strategy, in
often-maladaptive ways (ways that actually bring us more trouble than benefit). It also helps us to see
how we often use, reject, or misuse the other strategies to help us re-regulate back to the default
strategy. This is especially true of the strategies found at the points that connect to ours on the diagram.
For example, the Ennea-type Five, who is Striving to Feel Detached, can use, reject, or misuse the
strategies at points Eight (Striving to Feel Powerful) or Seven (Striving to Feel Excited) in a non-conscious
attempt to feel more detached.
You can find out more about the nine strategies here6 or in the book “Awareness to Action: The
Enneagram, Emotional Intelligence, and Change” by Robert Tallon and Mario Sikora. (If you do read the
book Bob and I wrote, you will notice that we talked about the strategies as something we are “striving
to be;” I subsequently changed the language to “striving to feel” as I think this better captures what is
happening inside of us.)
SUBTYPES
When the instinctual biases (what we value) and the strategies (how we get what we value) are
combined, we end up with 27 variations or “subtypes.” It is here that we really get to understand the
depth and subtlety of the Enneagram. We start to understand why the real reason why there is such
variation among people of the same Ennea-type, why this Seven doesn’t quite look like that Seven. In
my experience, there is a lot of mistyping in the Enneagram world, even among experienced Enneagram
teachers. Most of this mistyping is because people either don’t take the instinctual biases into account
or don’t fully understand them.

THE CORE QUALITIES
The instinctual biases and strategies tell us a lot about how our minds work, but the Awareness to
Action Enneagram offers a deeper glimpse as well. The third descriptive element of the system is
comprised of nine Core Qualities5—deep-seated aspects of human nature that make up the best of what
we are and point to the potential of what we can be. (See Figure 3.) They are vivid states that we
experience when we gain some freedom from our habitual patterns and that comprise our core sense of
self.
THE DEVELOPMENT AND STUNTING OF THE CORE QUALITIES
When we are born, we possess these core qualities in an immature form and, with proper conditions
and nurturing, they mature as we advance through life. However, the socialization process—our
parents’ and other caretakers’ attempts to help us prepare for the harsh realities of being a productive
member of the tribe—tends to stunt the development of these qualities. We get messages that they can
actually cause us harm, that if we allow ourselves to experience the qualities we may be rejected by
those we love and need for our survival.
Take the Core Quality of Vitality, for example. The unfiltered immature energy and exuberance of the
child can be exhausting to the parent. In response to this unchanneled vitality, the parent gets angry or
shows other signs of displeasure and the child learns that it is best to stifle their natural vitality if they
want to be loved. Something similar happens with each of the Core Qualities. As a result, we continue to
age but often feel a sense of loss or wounding related to the qualities. Growth involves nurturing the
development of the qualities to heal these wounds.
A useful metaphor for understanding this evolving and developmental nature of the core qualities is the
acorn and the oak tree. The maturation of an oak tree depends on a number of factors. The genetic code
needs to be intact, with the oak tree having passed on a complete set of developmental instructions to
its offspring. Likewise, external factors have to be just right—the acorn must find its way to fertile soil
and then be blessed with adequate water and sunlight. Working together, these factors affect the
growth of the acorn, determining whether it takes root at all, whether it grows tall and strong, or
whether its growth is stunted. The fundamental components of the oak tree are contained in the acorn
and under the right conditions the acorn will eventually grow into an oak tree, but the acorn is not an
oak tree when it falls from the tree to the ground.
The Core Qualities work the same way. For example, the quality of Benevolence, our basic goodness and
positive intent toward others, is an inherent aspect of the human condition and it is found in every child,
but it looks very different in an infant than it does in a 15-year old, and it looks different yet again in a
mature 50-year old. These qualities cannot be rushed into maturity; they need seasoning and
experience to come to full fruition. You can no more force their development than you can get an oak
tree to grow by pulling on its branches. You can only create favorable conditions for and minimize
impediments to their growth.
The metaphor of the oak tree, like all metaphors, is imperfect. Our experience of the Core Qualities is
not as linear as an acorn growing into an oak tree. Sometimes we feel or express them in more-mature
ways and sometimes in immature ways. How we express them depends on what issues we are dealing
with at the moment. Under stress or during periods of dysfunction the immature versions will come out;
when we are at our best we will see a more developed version. When we are in a reflective and
introspective mood, however, or things are simply not
working in our lives, we will feel a sense of loss or shame,
or even despair, due to the stunting of the Core These qualities cannot be rushed
Qualities—we feel like something crucial is missing. into maturity; they need seasoning
It is at the level of the Core Qualities that the Awareness and experience to come to full
to Action Enneagram goes from being an interpersonal fruition. You can no more force
model (identifying different kinds of people) to being an their development than you can get
intrapersonal model that describes nine aspects of each an oak tree to grow by pulling on
of us. While people of a given Ennea-type tend to feel the its branches.
stunting of the Core Quality correlated to that point most
acutely, we all feel the stunting of all nine qualities to a
greater or lesser degree and we all benefit from nurturing the maturation of all nine of them.
A life of flourishing depends on paying attention to the Core Qualities and nurturing their growth. The
developmental components of the Awareness to Action Enneagram can help us do just that.
The Nine Core Qualities are:
• Point 1—Objectivity: Seeing things as they are, free of our prejudices, preconceptions,
projections, and transferences. When Objectivity is stunted we mistake our prejudices, biases,
uninformed opinions, or our adherence to internalized societal rules for clarity of perspective.
• Point 2—Compassion: Union with the emotional states of others. When Compassion is stunted
we feel out of contact with others, we can harden our hearts to them, and feel unloved and
unappreciated by others.
• Point 3—Value: Feeling of innate worth, independent of accomplishment, identity, or external
validation. When Value is stunted we feel that our worth is dependent on our accomplishments,
yet no accomplishment ever feels fully gratifying.
• Point 4—Individuality: Unmanufactured, inherent uniqueness. When individuality is stunted we
feel that we have lost our independent identity, that our sense of self is driven by comparisons
to others; we struggle with feeling like we are either too much like those around us or focusing
on how we can show that we are not like them. Both of these traps keep us from truly
experiencing the fullest range of our potential.
• Point 5—Intuition: Non-conscious competence and insight. When Intuition is stunted we can
either over-rely on our naïve intuition and prematurely “trust our gut” or we fail to trust our
non-conscious reactions to the world—even when they have legitimate lessons to teach us.
• Point 6—Confidence: Trust in one’s ability to survive and thrive. When Confidence is stunted we
are driven by fear and uncertainty, either fleeing from that which scares us or reactively and
recklessly leaping into situations in order to mask our lack of confidence.
• Point 7—Joy: The strong feeling of well-being independent of external or internally
manufactured stimulation. When Joy is stunted we turn to external stimulation in an effort to
satisfy an internal need; our happiness becomes fleeting, causing us to jump from this to that
but often feeling that life disappoints us.
• Point 8—Vitality: The feeling of “aliveness” and flowing energy. When Vitality is stunted we feel
an inner numbness that we try to overcome by excess and conflict. We vacillate between
feelings of emptiness and overflowing with little in between.
• Point 9—Benevolence: Basic goodness; the absence of ill intent; the presence of good will
toward others. When Benevolence is stunted we retreat from the world—even while being
physically in the midst of it—and avoid placing demands on others or asserting our own needs.
We feel unlovable for simply being who we are so we seek to please others, and if that is not
possible or too much work, we simply seek to not be a burden.
While we all feel the stunting of all nine of the Core Qualities, we feel the pain of the stunting most
acutely at the point of our Ennea-type, followed closely by the two connecting points. When doing deep
self-exploration, it helps to look at all three points and find how the stunting of the qualities at those
points contributes to our deeper existential anxieties.
If we look at the Ennea-type Nine, for example, we find that their most significant stunting is in the
Quality of Benevolence—the don’t feel good or lovable. But they also feel significant pain related to the
stunting at the connecting points—Confidence (point Six) and Value (point Three). Thus, when Nines get
in touch with their deepest feelings they encounter a sense that they are not good, they don’t have
value, and that they are not sure they have what it takes to survive. Sixes and Nines share these same
critical concerns, but in a different proportion. (Sixes notice the fear about survival first while Threes
first notice the absence of self-perceived value.)
*****
One might be asking at this point, “What does all this have to do with life at work? I thought this
approach was focused on the pragmatic…”
Business people are people. People are not as good at separating their work life from their personal life
as they often think they are. Our sense of life satisfaction or flourishing (eudaimonia, to again use that
wonderful Greek term) influences ALL aspects of our lives, not just our personal life. While one can
always point to successful leaders who are psychologically dysfunctional, narcissistic, angry, and abusive,

they are the exception rather than the rule. In my experience, the best leaders are those who are
content, mature, and well-adjusted people. Working with the Core Qualities helps us become this kind
of person.

HOW WE GROW: THE THREE PRESCRIPTIVE ELEMENTS OF THE
ATA ENNEAGRAM
Self-awareness is important, but is of limited value if it doesn’t help us become more skillful at acting in
the world with increased wisdom and compassion. The goal of the Awareness to Action Enneagram is to
provide us with tools to see the world more clearly and to act accordingly, to become self-aware people
who act upon our worlds in ways that make it a better place for ourselves, our families, our coworkers,
etc.
The three foundational prescriptive tools of the Awareness to Action Enneagram are:
• The Awareness to Action Process

• The Accelerators
• The Personal and Professional Leadership Competencies
Let’s look at each in turn.

THE AWARENESS TO ACTION PROCESS
When it comes to change, we often know what we should do but struggle to actually do it. One of the
reasons we struggle is because any effort to change brings with it a sense of loss of some part of
ourselves, a part of us that often served an important purpose in our past even if it has grown to be
counterproductive over time. For example, the bullying behavior sometimes seen in Ennea-type Eights
can often be the unfortunate result of a need to feel some sense of power—order and control over
one’s environment, the need to have an impact. They know the bullying is not a positive behavior, but
they find it difficult to stop because some part of them fears they will lose that feeling of power that is
so central to their sense of psychological well-being. Likewise, for all of us, attempts to change create an
internal, and often unrecognized, conflicting commitment between a desire to change and a fear of
losing something we value.
In order to change we must resolve that conflict and make sure that we are addressing the underlying
need, but doing so in a way that satisfies the need in a more productive way. In the case of the Eight,
they need to recognize their need for order, control, and impact and find positive ways to create it, such
as practicing kindness as a way to build stable and harmonious relationships.
The irony is that this approach—recognizing and respecting the underlying need—lowers our
defensiveness and the need loses its grip on us over time. In practicing these more adaptive behaviors
the Eight begins to feel less and less need for control. We cannot simply reject these needs—we have to
recognize why we have them, respect them as legitimate, and resolve them through new, appropriate
behaviors.
Unfortunately, it can be very difficult for us to recognize our

habitual patterns, how they are rooted in an internal
The irony is that this approach— narrative we have constructed and fortified over time, and
recognizing and respecting the how those narratives are often rooted in a particular
underlying need—lowers our interpretation of the preferred strategy. The Awareness to
defensiveness and the need loses Action Process (ATAP) helps us overcome this difficulty.
its grip on us over time. The ATAP is mapped to the inner triangle of the Enneagram
diagram. This inner triangle represents how we “go to sleep
to ourselves,” how we fall into the traps of habitual,
conditioned behaviors rather than being aware and intentional in our interactions with the world. Point
Nine of the triangle represents our tendency to go on autopilot for much of our daily lives; Point Six
represents the anxiety we experience when we wake from the autopilot and are startled by the
circumstances we find ourselves in; Point Three represents the narratives we tell ourselves to make the
anxiety go away and that allow us to go back on autopilot.
A common example of this pattern is experienced by many of us who, upon driving to work in the
morning “wake up” half way into our journey to realize we hadn’t been paying attention and are not
sure where we are. In order to make that feeling of anxiety go away we look around for familiar
landmarks—buildings, trees, signs—that reorient us, giving us the sense of comfort that allows us to go
back on autopilot.
The Awareness to Action Process is series of antidotes that changes the autopilot-uncertainty-story
pattern by reversing the steps. (See Figure 4.) It involves three parts:
• Awareness. Awareness is the antidote to coasting on autopilot. Represented by Point Nine,

awareness here is when we decide, either based on feedback from others or on our own
dissatisfaction with some part of our lives, that we need to make a change. We become aware
that something needs to change and begin to pay attention to what we are experiencing. We
recognize our habitual personality patterns and how they contribute to the problem we are
experiencing. We set a goal for change.
• Authenticity. Authenticity is the antidote to the false or limited narratives we adopt at Point
Three, and creates alternatives to our limiting beliefs. At Point Three, we learn to challenge the
comfortable narratives we have convinced ourselves to be true. At this stage we identify resolve
the conflicting commitment between the change we want to make and the outdated belief to
which we have unwittingly become attached. We do this by recognizing the limitations of the
way we implicitly define our preferred strategy and redefining the way we carry out the
strategy. In the example of the Eight above, we go from believing “I feel powerful when I push
people around” to “I can be more powerful by being nice to people.” Authenticity, in this case,
refers to the fact that we honor our nature, rather than try to work against it, and as well as
recognizing that our new story is truer (more authentic) than the old one.
• Action. Action is the antidote to the uncertainty and paralysis we feel at Point Six. At Point Six,
rather than giving in to the paralysis of fear, we take action. In fact, none of this matters if we
don’t take action. We need to create and execute an action plan that helps us see the reality and
effectiveness of our new narrative. The mind changes in response to a positive feedback loop—
when we experience positive results it is much more likely that the mind will make the new
story the default and this new narrative will begin to positively influence our behaviors in many
areas.
(It is important to see here that there is a difference between the “Points” on the diagram and the
Ennea-types they are associated with. As we have seen, the Enneagram is a multi-faceted model and can

be used for a variety of purposes: as an interpersonal model of nine different “types” of people; as an
intrapersonal model that represents different facets of each of us; and now as a dynamic model that
demonstrates relationships between various phenomena represented by points on the diagram—in this
case Point Nine leading to Point Three leading to Point Six leading back to Point Nine, etc..)
The Awareness to Action Process is not something we should do once and forget—it is something that
becomes a way of life. We learn to become more and more attuned to what is working in our lives and
what causes friction. We learn to continually challenge and rewrite our narratives and create simple
action plans that move us toward our goal while honoring our nature.
There are those who would encourage us to simply reject

and demonize those aspects of ourselves that fall short and
It is better to practice acceptance… become trapped in ineffective habitual patterns. But such
and self-compassion while demonization usually makes things worse—we feel shame
recognizing the need to grow from and feel like we are rejecting ourselves. It is better to
where we are. practice acceptance (an idea we shall revisit shortly) and
self-compassion while recognizing the need to grow from
where we are. Shame and self-criticism make us feel bad
and we end up pushing the awareness of our shortcomings (and any desire we might have had to
change) into the far corners of our mind where they will continue to haunt and disrupt us.
This constant cycle—paying attention, rewriting our narratives, taking action accordingly—is the only
way to steadily dismantle the confines of our habitual, conditioned personality structure. In time, the
narrow, implicit definitions of our Ennea-type strategies start to broaden and clarify (to become free
from impurities). We maintain our sense of self without being constrained by it; we become flexible and
responsive without feeling like we have lost a sense of our fundamental values.
Working with the ATAP helps us become more effective in

our interaction with the world around us—as well as
This constant cycle—paying
improving our relationships at home and at work. It also
attention, rewriting our narratives,
helps to nurture the Core Qualities. Because we received
messages in our childhood that the Core Qualities could be taking action accordingly—is the
threatening, we learned to stifle or reject them when we only way to steadily dismantle the
start to experience them. Continually working to clarify our confines of our habitual,
narratives related to our strategies reduces that feeling of conditioned personality structure.
threat and gives us the comfort and confidence to allow
ourselves to experience these deeper qualities.
Finally, with a slight modification, the ATAP can be applied to working on our instinctual biases as well.
This article explains how.7
For more on the ATAP, you can watch this video8 or read this article9 or the book “Awareness to Action:
The Enneagram, Emotional Intelligence, and Change.”

THE ACCELERATORS
Working with the ATAP helps to create the comfort in our psyches for the Core Qualities to emerge; the
Accelerators speed the process of their maturation. The Accelerators are helpful practices that change
the psychological conditions from one that rejects (or feels some shame about) the Core Qualities to
one that seeks out and embraces them.
If we extend our analogy of the acorn and the oak tree, the ATAP clears the ground and gives the young
sapling the light and “breathing room” it needs; the accelerators are the abundant sunlight, water, and
nutritious soil that make growth happen faster.
The Accelerators are mapped to the diagram in a specific order, designed to help nurture a specific Core
Quality and assist the growth of the corresponding Ennea-types. (See Fig. 5.) That said, each of the
Accelerators are useful practices for anyone, regardless of Ennea-type.
The Accelerators are:
Point 1—Acceptance: Embracing the world (including yourself) as it is, without disappointment or anger.
Remembering to act calmly to change the things you can and accept the things you can’t, and, yes,
developing the wisdom to know the difference.
Point 2—Cognitive Empathy: Seeing others’ actual emotions and needs rather than projecting onto them
what they “should” be experiencing (or what you are experiencing). Consciously fact-checking our
intuitions about other people’s emotional states so we can act toward them appropriately.
Point 3—Purpose: Developing an explicit sense of meaning that ties together your actions and
accomplishments, allowing you to focus on what really matters and letting go of activities that don’t
serve your most-meaningful objectives.

Point 4—Individuation: Becoming comfortable with your-self by letting go of your comparisons and
identifications with other people and ideals.
Point 5—Conscious Practice: Deliberately engaging in real-

world activities rather than merely learning about them;
The Accelerators are helpful creating a true “inner knowing” and ability to interact with
practices that change the life based on experience rather than abstractions or
psychological conditions from one hypotheses.
that rejects (or feels some shame
Point 6—Evidence: Explicitly gathering a record of
about) the Core Qualities to one accomplishment so you can develop confidence based on a
that seeks out and embraces them. history of past success, or an accurate understanding of any
gaps that exist between your abilities and your goals (so you
can methodically work to fill those gaps).
Point 7—Enjoyment: Being present with one’s current experience rather than anticipating the next one.
Slowly extending the amount of time and attention you can dedicate to the activity of the moment.
Point 8—Self-discipline: Channeling one’s energy by engaging in regular, structured activities and the
sense of union with or belonging to something larger than oneself.
Point 9—Generativity: Legacy building by working to develop and nurture the next generation. Using the
wisdom and insights you have gained in mentoring, coaching, advising, etc., with no expectation of
recognition or reward.
All nine of the Accelerators are useful practices for each of us, but I have found that we benefit most
from first practicing the accelerator at the point that corresponds to our Ennea-type, as well as the two
connecting points. The practices are designed to be mutually supportive with those at the connecting
points. For example, the Ennea-type One benefits from practicing:
• Acceptance, by recognizing and letting go of their anger and frustration at themselves and
others for not being perfect. Remembering the “Serenity Prayer” is helpful here, but so is
developing a solid understanding of the mental and psychological imperfections built into
human nature.10 When we understand that the cognitive structures of the brain make it
impossible to be perfect, it becomes easier to accept our flaws and calmly work on the ones that
truly need to be fixed.
• Individuation, by recognizing and letting go of the superego’s internalized messages that
become such a part of the One’s self-identity. We do this by recognizing that these messages are
often “implants” from others in our childhood or reactions to flaws we perceived in ourselves or
the world around us and then beginning to gently challenge their validity. How do I know this
belief to be true? Are there exceptions to this rule I have established? Who and how would I be
if I was free from this limiting belief.
• Enjoyment, by recognizing that an important part of a well-rounded (i.e., more-perfect) life is to
play, to take pleasure in and be present to the simple things of life, that “good” people make
others feel good as well and we can’t do this if we do not enjoy life in healthy ways.
When we practice the Accelerators we will start to feel the Core Qualities emerge from the shadows
into which we have pushed them. We see that they have value and are part of a richer existence. We
start to see more opportunities for safe ways to express the qualities and the mature expression of them
will naturally occur. We also find it becoming easier to work on the authenticity stage of the Awareness
to Action Process—we recognize the conflicting commitments more easily and find it easier to rewrite
our limiting narratives.

THE PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL LEADERSHIP
COMPETENCIES
There are many ways to be successful as a leader, and I find leadership styles or tactics that work in one
environment may not necessarily work in another. Thus, leaders need to continually be assessing
themselves, finding gaps in qualities or skills they need in their current role, and working to close those
gaps. There are no secret formulas to being a leader, it requires constant work and adaptation to the
demands of the present.
Working with leaders over many years, however, I started to notice important common leadership
dynamics that I could map to the Enneagram. I found certain competencies had a dynamic relationship
to others and that taken together they provided a useful framework upon which a leader could continue
to develop useful skills over the course of his or her career.
As I began to teach these competencies to my clients they began to comment how they did not apply
only to leadership, but to living an effective life in general. Based on this feedback, I came to see them as
“personal” leadership competencies (in that they help us take control of our own lives) in addition to
being beneficial for professional leaders.
The twelve competencies are divided into four groups—Self-

Mastery, Leadership Thinking, Leadership Relationships, and
Here again, the multi-dimensional
Preparing to Scale—and while they can (and should) be
developed on their own, each competency is enhanced when
nature of the Awareness to Action
it is developed in relationship to the two other competencies Enneagram is seen.
in the group.
Here again, the multi-dimensional nature of the Awareness

to Action Enneagram is seen. While it is easy to see the similarity to the Ennea-types (and instinctual
biases) in some of these competencies, it is best here to focus on the dynamic nature of the diagram and
the interrelationship of the competencies independent of Ennea-type, at least for the first three groups.
Awareness to Action International provides leadership-development programs that feature all of these
competencies, either in a full program that covers the whole system or in shorter individual modules
covering specific topics.
The competencies are described below.
Self-Mastery: Awareness, Authenticity, and Action
We have already seen how Awareness, Authenticity, and Action, which I have associated with Points
Nine, Three, and Six of the Enneagram, work together to help us take better control of our lives and
change our behavior. In the Awareness to Action trainings related to the leadership competencies we go
deeper into them individually before putting them back together as a process.

Awareness
Using the Awareness to Action Enneagram we work to develop three qualities identified in Ellen
Langer’s book “Mindfulness.” The first is the ability to be present to our experience, which is aided by a)
techniques for uncluttering the mind (traditional mindfulness techniques that help us embrace the
moment we are in and let go of it when it is over), and b) techniques for directing our attention to and
keeping it where we want it to be. Langer’s other qualities are the practice of noticing the details and
nuances of our environment and the skillful processing or contemplation of our experience.
Authenticity
Leaders need to envision both who they need to become and who they want to become in order to be
successful. In order to be effective, a leader needs to “look” like a leader—to embody the basic
characteristics the people they are leading are looking for in their leader. There are tangible and visible
aspects to this—good posture, proper self-care, etc.--but there are also less-tangible aspects such as
confidence, skill, or intelligence. A leader must project an image that makes others feel comfortable and
confident in them. Sometimes we want leaders to be warm and supportive, other times we want them
to be directive and decisive; sometimes we want them to be “one of us,” sometimes we want them to
be somehow “above” or better than us. A leader has to provide all of this at the necessary times without
seeming artificial and losing the core of who they are.
This presents a dilemma for many leaders—they worry that

if they “change” to meet the expectations of others they are
Leaders need to envision both who being untrue to themselves. Some leaders respond by
they need to become and who they simply saying, “I can’t help it, this is just who I am” when
want to become in order to be they are faced with the need to change their behavior or
successful. approach. These leaders eventually fail.
The competency of Authenticity in the Awareness to Action

model is the ability to find synergy between who we are and who others need us to be—to find ways to
be true to yourself (i.e., to be authentic) while giving others the confidence that you can adapt to the
changing demands of your environment.
Action
We are not exercising self-mastery—the ability to manage our behavior and act according to the
situation—if we do not take the action to change. This competence involves being able to capably apply
the Awareness to Action Process to one’s own development or to the development of others.
Applying the ATAP to oneself is challenging—we are so entrenched in our own non-conscious narratives
that we don’t even see them. (It helps to have a coach until we learn to do it on our own.) However,
once we understand the process we can help others improve by working with them to rewrite their
narratives in a way that allows them to welcome and embrace new behaviors while satisfying their
fundamental values.
How Leaders Relate to Others: Power, Connection, and Detachment
Points 8, 2, and 5 of the diagram represent the dynamics of leadership relationships in the Awareness to
Action Enneagram. As with the Awareness to Action Process, there is a dynamic relationship between
Power, Detachment, and Connection, the competencies corresponding to these points. That relationship
is seen in Figure 6.
Power
Power is the capacity to produce a result. We tend to be distrustful or fearful of power because it can be
so easily misused, but we can’t get anything done without it. An integral part of effective leadership is
the ability to acquire power and to exercise that power ethically and fairly. While we want to avoid
leaders who exercise power ruthlessly, we also don’t want to work for someone who is unable to get
things done in the organization. In order to be effective in their relationships with their subordinates,
leaders need to have power and influence but use it wisely. They also have to know when to step in and
be directive toward their subordinates, pushing them when they need it or drive them past an obstacle,
and when to be hands off or empowering, letting people stretch and grow without interference or
micromanagement. Developing the ability to either direct or empower, and to what degree to do either,
is represented by the vertical arrow in Figure 6.
But there is more to the leader’s relationships than power, and in this model power rests on a
foundation of connection and detachment.
Connection
If people fail to connect with the leader, they will not follow. People want a leader who has some degree
of warmth and empathy. People will follow a highly competent leader who is not particularly warm, but
only until a better opportunity or better boss comes along. Aloof leaders generally have only self-
interested and unenthusiastic subordinates, people who have no other options. It is the ability to
connect to a boss—to feel that someone cares about their interests, their work, their well-being—that
brings out the best in people gets them to stay in an organization through challenging times.
Detachment
If we are too emotionally connected to people, however, it becomes very difficult to make tough
decisions that might negatively affect them. Part of a leader’s responsibility is making decisions that may
upset some people, such as approving one project or expenditure but denying another, promoting one
person out of a group of candidates, or even terminating someone’s employment. If they don’t have the
ability to emotionally detach, leaders can become paralyzed in the face of these choices, slowing down
the business and losing the respect of everyone around them.
Connection and Detachment need to be in a dynamic tension with each other—the leader has to do
both at the same time and in the right amount (the horizontal arrow in Figure 6 represents that tension).
Connection without detachment leads to the inability to make difficult decisions; detachment without
connection undermines the emotional investment people have in their jobs and reduces commitment.
Awareness to Action Enneagram teaches leaders how to develop their skills in each of these areas. At
Point 8 we learn how to understand, gain, and appropriately use power; at Points 2 and 5 we learn how
to develop empathy and non-attachment—and how to use all three in conjunction with each other.
How Leaders Think: Rigor, Curiosity, and Creativity
In the same way that Points 8, 5, and 2 of the Awareness to Action Enneagram depict the relationship of
competencies that affect relationships, Points 1, 7, and 4 of the diagram are used to depict the way a
leader should think. (See Figure 7.)
Rigor
Leaders do not need to be the smartest person in the room, but they do need to be committed to
rigorous, clear, and critical thinking. It is their responsibility to question, probe, and challenge
information that is presented to them. The leader has no one else to blame if mistakes occur because no
one took the time to ask the right questions. Thus, they need to develop a robust toolbox full of critical
thinking, decision-making, and logic-analysis tools. (My short book, “How to Think Well, and Why” can
be helpful in developing this toolbox10.) Of course, leaders must also use discretion on how aggressively
to challenge data; their time is limited and they can’t obsess over the details of every decision. A general
rule is that greater potential consequences require greater rigor and matters of lesser consequence
require less rigor; a request to spend $1 million deserves more rigor than a request to spend $100. The
vertical arrow in Figure 7 represents the idea that the
leader must know when to be more rigorous and when to
be less so. [W]here a non-curious person sees
data points, the curious person sees
Curiosity
a web of connections and
As with power in our previous set of competencies, rigor relationships.
rests upon two other competencies—in this case curiosity
and creativity. Curiosity and creativity must both be
present in dynamic tension if the leader is to be a truly skillful thinker.
Curiosity is hunger for novelty, openness to experience, and the desire to learn and gather information
for its own sake. Curiosity broadens our world and deepens our ability to perceive nuance and context.
The more we add to our experience, the more background we have for the things we encounter; where
a non-curious person sees data points, the curious person sees a web of connections and relationships.
Non-curious people see a world of black and white, curious people see a world of color. When we are
curious we make better decisions because we understand how all the pieces fit.
Creativity
Creativity has two main definitions. The first is the ability to create—to make something exist that didn’t
exist before; the second is the quality of being creative or innovative, to make things differently than
they were before. Good leaders have an appreciation for innovation (to change the way things are done)
and to bring something new into existence. The best have a need to envision a future where something
is different than it is today and then make these differences a reality.
Like connection and detachment, curiosity and creativity must be in a dynamic tension. If we don’t have
curiosity we don’t know what innovations are possible or necessary. But if we don’t have creativity we
never get around to making something happen in the world—our thoughts about the world as it is don’t
transform into action toward the world as it could be.
Here again, the Awareness to Action Enneagram teaches us how to think about the world the way a
leader should. At Point 1 we learn the skills to think clearly and rigorously; at Point 7 we learn how to
enhance our curiosity and see the world through new eyes; at Point 4 we learn how to turn our vision
into a reality.
Preparing to Scale: Process and Structure; Nurturing Talent and Relationships; Networking and
Personal Brand Management
With this group of competencies we move from the Enneagram diagram to competencies that can be
understood through the lens of the three Instinctual Biases. These competencies help us scale—take on
more and more responsibility as we grow. I have found them to be crucial skills for leaders as they rise
through the ranks, but they also apply to our lives outside of work.
Process and Structure
Process and structure—creating systems to save time, energy, and resources (especially on repetitive
and predictable tasks); improving quality through standardization and disciplined execution; reducing
complexity; etc.—are the skills that allow some people to get so much more done than others. As the
scope of what we are responsible for expands (anything from becoming a parent to doubling or tripling
your P&L responsibility), we need tools to help us accomplish more within the same 24-hour days we
are all given. Leaders skillful in the Preserving domain behaviors know how to focus on the systems that
need to be put into place to enable efficient and timely action. The Awareness to Action Enneagram
takes principles rooted in the Preserving instinctual domain and applies them to developing this ability.
Nurturing Relationships and Talent
The gifts of our evolutionary adaptations in the Navigating domain include cultivating and nurturing
long-term strategic relationships. Leaders can’t scale if
they don’t have talented people around them, so the
best leaders learn to master the art of finding, Whereas the Navigating domain is
developing, and deploying the best people they can find.
focused on nurturing long-term
They also take it upon themselves to coach and mentor
relationships, the Transmitting
people, ensure they are given stretch assignments, and
help them manage their careers. Further, leaders who
domain is about establishing those
Navigate effectively play the long game and keep an relationships in the first place and
open mind to a variety of potential future, nurturing the quickly finding people who can be
wide variety of relationships that might someday be of use to them in the near-term.
useful. They keep in regular contact with people and
know the details of their lives, doing favors and storing
up good will, staying in the information loop and tracking organizational politics.
Networking and Personal Brand Management
Whereas the Navigating domain is focused on nurturing long-term relationships, the Transmitting
domain is about establishing those relationships in the first place and quickly finding people who can be
of use to them in the near-term. Leaders skilled in this domain are hunters when it comes to
relationships—zeroing in on people of interest and not hesitating to go after what they want—whereas
the navigators are farmers, cultivating seeds for future harvesting. Leaders who transmit effectively
know how to be noticed in the right way for the right things. They understand how to appeal to and
persuade people, to make people feel special, to get them excited about possibilities. They leverage this
ability to meet desirable people and establish a connection with them that can often create
opportunities for everyone around them.
All three of these competencies have potential misuses—we can become too structured and rigid in the
Preserving domain, spend too much time gossiping and politicking in the Navigating domain; focus too
much upon ourselves and our own needs in the Transmitting domain. The Awareness to Action
Enneagram helps us avoid these potential hazards and develop the skills that make long-term career
growth easier.

CONCLUSION
The Enneagram of Personality is a powerful typology, but

The Awareness to Action most approaches to the system are not designed for the
specific needs of the workplace. Based on over two decades
Enneagram provides both robust
of using the system in organizations around the world, the
descriptive tools that help us
Awareness to Action Enneagram maintains depth and
understand the complexities and richness but dispenses with the confusing and superfluous
nuances of human nature and ideas that can make the system seem too unwieldy in a
personality dynamics and offers pragmatic and results-based environment.
time-tested and practical tools for
The Awareness to Action Enneagram provides deep insights
creating change.
into human nature in clear and direct language, helping
people develop actionable awareness of their own habitual
tendencies as well as the personality patterns of their coworkers. It provides an interpersonal model
that helps explain why people are the way they are, and an intrapersonal model that explains our
deepest insecurities and helps us tap into our greatest potentials. It also provides a map of the dynamic
relationships between seemingly disparate aspects of ourselves that and shows us how to take
advantage of and manage these synergistic dynamics rather than let them undermine us.
Finally, the Awareness to Action Enneagram provides both robust descriptive tools that help us
understand the complexities and nuances of human nature and personality dynamics and offers time-
tested and practical tools for creating change.
We make all of these insights and tools available in a variety of in-house and public programs that can
help individuals, teams, or organizations achieve breakout performance.
Contact us for more information.
Awareness to Action International
info@AwarenesstoAction.com
+1.267.304.1234

Appendix: More on the Instinctual Biases
Human nature is a very complicated combination of our evolutionary legacy of biological adaptations—
behaviors and traits that helped our ancestors survive and reproduce—interacting with external (and
psychological) forces at play in our life circumstances. The result is a rich stew of our nature being acted
upon by the environment we experience. The behavioral impulses resulting from that stew exist on a
continuum from the reflexive and (nearly) uncontrollable to the manageable. Examples of the former
include blinking at a sudden gust of air toward our eyes, kicking our leg when the doctor taps our knee
with a mallet, and pulling our hand from a hot stove. Examples of the latter include deciding whether to
eat a bowl of ice cream.
But even with manageable impulses we fight the forces of our evolutionary heritage: we find it difficult
to resist the ice cream in the freezer because we have evolved to crave sweets and fats, the main
sources of nutrition for our ancestors.
Evolution results in biological mechanisms that increased our ancestors’ chances of reproduction. The
behaviors related to the so-called “instincts” (as many Enneagram teachers refer to them) are the result
of a plethora of mechanisms (called “adaptations”) that we have inherited from our ancestors. These
evolutionary adaptations are many, but they fall into three broad domains—the aforementioned
Preserving, Navigating, and Transmitting.
By way of analogy, imagine watching a documentary about peacocks in order to understand these
domains.
The first part of the documentary focuses on the nesting and nurturing adaptations of the peacock—
how they make their nest, feed and groom themselves, care for their offspring. This is the Preserving
domain.
The second part of the documentary focuses on the orienting-to-the-group adaptations of the
peacock—how they identify social mores (such as they are) and their place in the pecking order of the
muster. This is the Navigating domain.
The third part of the documentary focuses on the attracting

and bonding adaptations of the peacock—how they attract
By way of analogy, imagine
the attention of peahens in the area with the hope of
establishing a connection so they can pass on their genes.
watching a documentary about
This is the Transmitting domain. peacocks in order to understand
these domains.
Humans are more complicated than peacocks, but our
evolutionary adaptions fall into the same three broad
categories: Preserving, Navigating, and Transmitting. Such adaptations, sometimes colloquially referred
to as “instincts,” are ways that nature equipped our ancestors to increase their chances of survival and
reproduction. In us, they are sometimes beneficial (feeding ourselves and those around us, getting along
with the people in the group, finding deep connection); other times they can work against us (too much
junk food, too much Facebook, too much need for attention and co-dependence).

I purposely chose verbs for describing these domains to
indicate a focus on what people do rather than how they
Some other approaches to the
feel about what they do. I frequently have people tell me
Enneagram have an outdated view
that although they may tend to transmit a lot, they are
really “Navigating” because (fill in the rationalization). I am of biology, assuming that we only
more focused on what people do rather than what they say have three “instincts” and using
they are. In biology, we call something a duck not because that language that, in my view, is
of its inherent essential “duckness” but because it looks like confusing and does not capture the
a lot other things we label duck, it acts like a duck, and it breadth of what we experience in
quacks like a duck. It doesn’t matter if the duck thinks it is a these domains.
dog. Likewise, in my mind, if you Transmit more than you
Preserve or Navigate, you are a Transmitter no matter what
you consider yourself to be on the inside.
Each of us is influenced by the impulses in each of these domains, but we do so in varying degrees and
have a non-conscious and habitual “bias” toward one of the domains over the other two. It is the
dominant bias to which we pay most attention and on which we tend to place the highest value. I refer
to these non-conscious preferences as instinctual biases when discussing them independently of Ennea-
type and I refer to the combination of the instinctual bias and Ennea-type by the more-conventional
term subtype.
Some other approaches to the Enneagram have an outdated view of biology, assuming that we only
have three “instincts” and using that language that, in my view, is confusing and does not capture the
breadth of what we experience in these domains.
To truly understand the instinctual biases, we need to break away from the concept of there being three
(and only three) discrete instincts and instead think about clusters of evolutionary adaptations that fall
into three domains. It is also important to understand that these adaptations are sometimes
contradictory because they have evolved to meet unique but similar needs, leading to the contradictions
and dissonance often seen in people regarding the biases.
For example, in the Preserving domain we have adaptations that drive us to crave sweets and fats and
we have other adaptations that drive us to attend to our health. Thus, we want that ice cream but feel
guilt for eating it. We want to share, but we also want to ensure we have what we need first.
In the Navigating domain, we want to reveal good things about ourselves to others to gain acceptance
from the group but we want to hide those qualities or behaviors that could lead to ostracism. As a
result, we are never really sure how much information is too much to share. We want to be open and
connect to people, but we are also internally judging them and placing them into systems of categories
that exist in our head.
In the Transmitting domain, we want to connect deeply with someone who interests us, but we also
don’t want to cut off our options. Thus we are constantly caught between sending signals out into the
ether in the hope that someone will notice us and focusing on that one special person who holds our
attention. We want to connect to others by remarking on how special they are, but once contact is
made we end up talking about ourselves.

Our behaviors when acting out of these domains is often contradictory, but there is a logic to the
contradictions and understanding the logic helps us understand ourselves and others much more
clearly.
I divide each of the three instinctual domains into three loose subdomains of behaviors and focuses of
attention, with the understanding that the categories are not rigidly fixed and the same behavior may
satisfy different adaptive needs. (A love of cooking, for example, is something that could satisfy needs in
each of the three domains in different ways.) Each of these subdomains is refined further by identifying
three additional refinements of clusters of adaptations.
In the Preserving domain, our behaviors and attention are focused on:
• Security—attempts to keep ourselves, our loved ones, and our resources safe from harm. This
includes safety, supportive relationships, and risk-avoidance.
• Well-being/Resources—attempts to be comfortable and healthy and to acquire “enough”
resources without risking those we already have. This includes comfort, supply, and health.
• Maintenance—attempts to fix and improve those things which make the first two possible. This
includes feathering the nest, traditions, and repair.
In the Navigating domain, our behaviors and attention are

focused on:
Our behaviors when acting out of
• Trust/Reciprocity—attempts to understand who is these domains is often
trustworthy and can be safely transacted with. This contradictory, but there is a logic
includes information exchange, group coherence, to the contradictions and
and trade. understanding the logic helps us
• Status/Identity—attempts to understand where
understand ourselves and others
everyone (especially oneself) fits into the social
much more clearly.
order. This includes pecking orders, role clarity, and
reputation management.
• Power/Influence Dynamics—attempts to understand
who has power and who can be used to promote your agenda. This includes group politics,
social intelligence, and hierarchy management
In the Transmitting domain, our behaviors and attention are focused on:
• Broadcasting/Narrowcasting—attempts to send attention-getting signals to the broadest group;

once a signal is received by someone the attention goes to that individual. This includes
signaling, seduction, and intense “one-to-one” relationships.
• Asserting—attempts to get what one wants, often with little inhibition. This includes needs
satisfaction, low inhibition, and ambition.
• Impressing—attempts to “leave one’s mark” so one is remembered or leaves a legacy. This
includes legacy, charm, and impact.
We act to satisfy needs in all three instinctual domains based on life’s circumstances. Further, we often
lean on or act out our non-dominant instinctual biases in a way that is in service of the dominant bias.

Here is how it tends to work:
• Preservers will express Navigating behaviors more than they realize (though often experiencing
either internal stress or ambivalence about it) and usually in a way that directly or indirectly
supports their preserving needs. For example, they ensure that they have a handful of close
friends that serve as a support network, but they don’t let that circle become so large that it
starts to require a lot of effort to maintain. They will seem to have little interest in the
Transmitting domain, though when they do express it, they tend to do so in support of
Preservation.
• Navigators will express the Transmitting domain more than they realize, but often experience
either internal stress or ambivalence about it and often in a manner that supports Navigating.
For example, they like attention and may awkwardly seek it if they feel they are being
overlooked and losing their position or status in the group. They rarely express interest in the
Preserving domain unless it supports their ability to Navigate.
• Transmitters will express the Preserving domain more than they realize and often experience
the same internal stress or ambivalence the others experience in their secondary domain. For
example, they will talk about their diet and exercise habits or lack thereof, their homes, etc. in a
way that both helps them dominate the conversation while expressing a feeling of charming
inadequacy or self-deprecation. And while they often see “Social” as second in their “stack,”
they actually show little interest in the concerns of the Navigating domain beyond the way that
it supports their inclination to Transmit.
(It is important to note that even though, in general, we

show little interest in the third domain, it becomes a big
For example, [Preservers] ensure focus when needs related to it are acute—we all become
that they have a handful of close Preservers when we realize we haven’t eaten all day—but
friends that serve as a support we will return to focusing on our dominant domain when
network, but they don’t let that those fundamental needs are satisfied.)
circle become so large that it Leaders and the Instinctual Biases
starts to require a lot of effort to
maintain. In general, people may not be necessarily skillful in
addressing the needs found in their dominant domain, even
when they tend to be very focused on that area. For
example, a given Navigator may not necessarily be “good at” Navigating, though they spend a lot of time
thinking about it or attempting to do it. Leaders, however, tend to get to leadership positions because
they are effective people, so they are typically very effective in their dominant domain, to the point
where it often becomes an overdone strength.
Preserving Leaders
Preserving leaders tend to be drawn to the fundamental, “nuts and bolts” issues related to business and
organizations. They tend to be more cautious and conservative, and more risk-averse in general. They
tend to want to ensure that administrative issues are in order and that procedures are being followed.
They can be resistant to change and new ways of doing things, and they often like to be the Devil’s
Advocate who challenges new ideas. They usually prefer tradition to risky experimentation. These
tendencies can make them good leaders for organizations that need stability and order. The downside,
of course, is that they can be too resistant to change, conservative, and tradition-bound and may
struggle in a fast-changing environment.
Preserving leaders often neglect the leadership behaviors related to their third domain—those very
leadership capabilities that are typically the focus of the Transmitting leaders. They tend to be
understated and conservative, focused on process to the
neglect of inspiration. They may neglect the “selling”
component of leadership, failing to focus enough on Transmitting leaders are often
marketing and sales or the organization’s vision. They are charismatic and bold. They are
often ambivalent and conflicted about the needs often good at articulating a goal
addressed by the Navigating domain of adaptations—they or vision and moving others
have some tolerance for the organizational politics but toward it, seducing some and
often see it as an unpleasant diversion; they may driving others as necessary.
understand the value of “management by walking around”
or talking with people to gauge the emotional
temperature of the team but frequently find reasons to neglect doing so.
Navigating Leaders
Navigating leaders are drawn to issues related to group dynamics and interpersonal communication.
They track group cohesion and status changes; they tend to be attuned to organizational politics,
intuitively knowing which levers to pull in order to move projects around obstacles. They are able to
instinctively read the pulse of the group, assess morale, and know who needs to be pushed, who needs
to be nurtured, and who the influencers are. They tend to be good at identify the needs of the various
constituencies in the organization and finding ways to satisfy them. Navigating leaders tend to be good
in the “forming” stage of team dynamics, where the group is finding its identity and ways of working
together. They may, however, become too focused on the political dynamics of the group and spend
more time on the politics than on the organization’s ultimate business goals.
Navigating leaders frequently neglect those activities addressed by their tertiary instinctual domain—
the Preserving adaptations. They may fail to appropriately value or follow process, overlook threats to
the company’s competitive position, and ignore details that could be the signs of bigger problems. As in
Aesop’s fable, they can be the grasshopper who wants to chat and enjoy the sunshine rather than the
preserving ant who is preparing for the winter. They are often conflicted in the leadership areas of the
Transmitting domain. They want to shine, but are hesitant to draw too much attention to their gifts;
they may want to drive the company’s (or their own) vision, but worry too much about the political
impacts of doing so.
Transmitting Leaders
Transmitting leaders are often charismatic and bold. They are often good at articulating a goal or vision
and moving others toward it, seducing some and driving others as necessary. They often intuitively
understand the mind of the market and the customer and are persuasive sellers of the product,
company, or dream. They can be competitive and are often the alpha males and females of the group.
Transmitting leaders tend to be good in the start-up phase of a business when the organization needs an
inspiring vision to rally around. On the downside, the transmitting impulses can cause these leaders to
focus too much on themselves, their accomplishments and their desirable qualities.
Transmitting leaders, though seeming outgoing and “social,” typically neglect the leadership duties
supported by the Navigating domain. They have little time for gossip or organizational politics beyond
what it takes to directly and immediately advance their agenda. Their social interactions are usually
transactional and have a definite purpose—to charm and sell their ideas when necessary—but they are
not usually great listeners and quickly grow weary of listening to social chit chat and small talk. They are
conflicted in the Preserving domain—they want to accumulate the resources necessary to fill their goals
and they want to be comfortable and pampered, but they can be reckless—aiming to acquire the whole
pie rather than only the amount they need—and forget to be appropriately conservative when
conservatism is called for.

NOTES
1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality
2There is a difference between the Enneagram as a diagram and the Enneagram as a personality system.
For our sake, when I refer to the Enneagram I am referring to the system of personality and not the
process model.
3Naranjo taught all over the world and there are many outside the US who added to the teaching of the
Enneagram, but the most popular books and most well-known teachers had a direct or indirect
connection to that original Berkeley group.
4The two main schools in the US during this period were the “Narrative Tradition” school led by Helen
Palmer and David Daniels and the “Insight Approach” of the Enneagram Institute of Don Richard Riso
and Russ Hudson. Jerry Wagner and Tom Condon are also early and long-time thought-leaders whose
work is also worthy of serious consideration.
5The Core Qualities are derived from the concept of the “idealized aspects” that Sandra Maitri writes
about in her book, “The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram.” For philosophical reasons beyond the
scope of this article, I have changed the names and altered the descriptions. You can read more on my
rationale at http://www.awarenesstoaction.com/blog-enneagram-learning-
international/?p=857&lang=en.
6https://youtu.be/xgqgEyE6Fms.
7 http://www.awarenesstoaction.com/ataconsulting-blog/how-to-grow-in-our-second-and-third-
instinctual-biases/?lang=en
8https://youtu.be/ruivZNwrTf4
9http://www.awarenesstoaction.com/ataconsulting-blog/the-missing-piece-in-creating-
change/?lang=en
10A
good introduction to these limitations is my short book, “How to Think Well and Why: The
Awareness to Action Guide to Clear Thinking,” which is available from amazon.com.


Introduction To The Awareness To Action Enneagram

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Introduction To The Awareness To Action Enneagram

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The Awareness to Action

The Enneagram of Personality is a model of understanding human nature that is becoming

The Enneagram serves as a psychological and organizational

There are positive and negative aspects to this fact.

“The Awareness to Action Enneagram: The Approach for Business” 3

“The Awareness to Action Enneagram: The Approach for Business” 4

DEVELOPMENT OF THE AWARENESS TO ACTION ENNEAGRAM

“The Awareness to Action Enneagram: The Approach for Business” 6

COMPONENTS OF THE AWARENESS TO ACTION ENNEAGRAM

The three descriptive elements are:

• The Instinctual Biases (see p. 8 and 31)

The three prescriptive elements are:

• The Awareness to Action Process (see p. 18)

THE THREE INSTINCTUAL BIASES

Let’s look a little closer at the three biases:

“The Awareness to Action Enneagram: The Approach for Business” 8

“The Awareness to Action Enneagram: The Approach for Business” 9

The nine Ennea-types are:

“The Awareness to Action Enneagram: The Approach for Business” 11

“The Awareness to Action Enneagram: The Approach for Business” 12

THE DEVELOPMENT AND STUNTING OF THE CORE QUALITIES

The Nine Core Qualities are:

“The Awareness to Action Enneagram: The Approach for Business” 15

“The Awareness to Action Enneagram: The Approach for Business” 16

• The Awareness to Action Process

Let’s look at each in turn.

“The Awareness to Action Enneagram: The Approach for Business” 17

Unfortunately, it can be very difficult for us to recognize our

• Awareness. Awareness is the antidote to coasting on autopilot. Represented by Point Nine,

“The Awareness to Action Enneagram: The Approach for Business” 19

There are those who would encourage us to simply reject

Working with the ATAP helps us become more effective in

“The Awareness to Action Enneagram: The Approach for Business” 20

The Accelerators are:

“The Awareness to Action Enneagram: The Approach for Business” 21

Point 5—Conscious Practice: Deliberately engaging in real-

“The Awareness to Action Enneagram: The Approach for Business” 23

The twelve competencies are divided into four groups—Self-

Here again, the multi-dimensional nature of the Awareness

The competencies are described below.

Self-Mastery: Awareness, Authenticity, and Action

“The Awareness to Action Enneagram: The Approach for Business” 24

This presents a dilemma for many leaders—they worry that

The competency of Authenticity in the Awareness to Action

How Leaders Relate to Others: Power, Connection, and Detachment

How Leaders Think: Rigor, Curiosity, and Creativity

Process and Structure

Nurturing Relationships and Talent

Networking and Personal Brand Management

“The Awareness to Action Enneagram: The Approach for Business” 29

The Enneagram of Personality is a powerful typology, but

Contact us for more information.

Awareness to Action International

“The Awareness to Action Enneagram: The Approach for Business” 30

The third part of the documentary focuses on the attracting

“The Awareness to Action Enneagram: The Approach for Business” 31

“The Awareness to Action Enneagram: The Approach for Business” 32

In the Navigating domain, our behaviors and attention are

• Broadcasting/Narrowcasting—attempts to send attention-getting signals to the broadest group;

“The Awareness to Action Enneagram: The Approach for Business” 33

(It is important to note that even though, in general, we

“The Awareness to Action Enneagram: The Approach for Business” 36

“The Awareness to Action Enneagram: The Approach for Business” 37