WHAT'S YOUR ENNEAGRAM PERSONALITY TYPE?

Welcome back my blogging personas!

Hope all is well!

Hopefully, you have a better idea of who you are based on your core values and the amount of time you spend to prove that you're a person who abides by your personal core values. Now that we've knocked out the two subtopics of the individual perspective of the Social Change Model, Commitment and Congruence, we'll now shift our focus to the last subtopic of the Individual perspective, Consciousness of Self.

Recall that in my last blog post, I provided a link for you all to take the brief Enneagram Personality test here. Did you take a screenshot of your results? That's okay. We can use my results as a demonstration. Before I show you my results, however, let me explain to you what the Enneagram is and why I think it's significant to help an individual have a better idea or consciousness of his/herself. (I'M LITERALLY OBSESSED WITH THE ENNEAGRAM!!! I FIND IT SO ACCURATE!!)

We're all familiar with the popular Myers-Briggs Personality Test, right? Although the Myers-Briggs test measures an individual's natural personality and characteristic traits, the Enneagram test measures an individual's personality based on how the individual was raised or nurtured. For instance, my Myers-Briggs personality is ESTJ. In other words, I'm a natural born Extrovert that processes information by using common Sense such as facts and statistics rather than my intuition and I make decisions based on objective logic (Thinking) rather than values and subjective Feelings.  I prefer to live a lifestyle that is well-planned, organized, and structured (Judgement) rather than go with the flow of the social norm for flexibility purposes (Perception).

However, I was raised a type 1 (The Reformer) personality based on the Enneagram.  Both of my parents are die hard type 1s. A current co-worker of mine, who happens to be a Psychology graduate student, is a die hard type 1. Once I introduced them to the Enneagram test, they became obsessed with it. Provided below is a visual of the 9 personality types that make up the Enneagram diagram.

Keep in mind that each of us all have a little bit of each personality type in us, but we are all born with one personality type that is more dominant than others. Also, keep in mind, that the point of the Enneagram is not to compare which personality is better than the other, because each personality type brings a handful of strengths and weaknesses to the table. Therefore, different situations demand different types of leadership styles and behaviors. We're all human. We all have our own personal flaws and insecurities, so don't be ashamed that you're just like everybody else. Feel free to be a little vulnerable with yourself. I find the Enneagram very useful, especially in teams. That way you have a good, general idea of what each of team member brings to the table and what ticks-off each team member so that you know how to work around their ticks. Take a look at my recent results below and observe and analyze it for a bit. 

Based on my report, I'm 74% of the time a type 1, 58% of the time a type 3, followed by 58% of the time a type 7, etc. I've taken the Enneagram like a million times. I recall when I initially took it like three years ago and I've always scored a type 1 personality type. Some people find it shocking that I'm a type 1. My response and explanation to them is that they only see me in social scenarios where my type 7 really comes out. I also blame my ADHD for my strong type 7 personality as well. But I have no shame in being a type 7. I enjoy being a type 7! I don't think I 've ever experienced the unhealthy side of the type 7 personality. Being a type 1, however has its pros and cons. When I'm a healthy type 1, I'm extremely organized, reliable, and am true to myself. However, whenever I slip into my unhealthy type 1 side, I can be very critical, judgmental, and perfectionistic. I've always had high standards and expectations of the people and situations I surround myself with, because I enjoy surrounding myself with people that lift me up and bring genuine, positive, uplifting vibes only. The moment I realize I don't enjoy being in the presence of an unfavorable situation or person that doesn't seem to improve based on my observations (HENCE: the type 5 in me) and efforts, I silently distant myself from the situation or person (HENCE: the type 9 in me).

Ironically, type 8s are my favorite people at least the healthy to average healthy type 8s I've encountered in my life. I don't think I've ever encountered an unhealthy type 8, because supposedly the unhealthy type 8s can become murderous, barbaric, and vengeful. Healthy type 8s are the most authentic human beings who seem to have the most kindest, genuine, and loving hearts even though their intimidating, bossy approach may contradict it, but their actions prove that they want to get the job or mission done usually for a good purpose or reason no matter what. The Grinch would be a great example of a type 8 personality. Even though he started out as an unhealthy type 8 as a mean-green monster that wanted to destroy Christmas and chose to use intimidation as an approach to getting the job done out of revenge for being bullied in school, he transitioned into a healthy type 8 by saving Christmas once he gained unconditional love and forgiveness, but he still maintained his sassy, bossy, stubborn attitude, because he raised himself to be that way for so long that being a type 8 became a habit for him ever since he was bullied in school for being green.

If I had the time, I would rant on and on about all 9 of the enneagram personalities. I know it inside-out, but if you'd like to discuss more about it with me, please feel free to reach out, because I'm obsessed with it!!!

Now that we've completed the individual perspective, how does an individual's perspective contribute to the group perspective? Tune in for next time.

XOXO,
MW

A SEQUAL TO APPLIED LEADERSHIP 101: WHAT ARE YOUR CORE VALUES?

Hi there family and friends!

Long time no speak, but thank you for your patience! I promise I didn't forget about my leadership development project regarding the Social Change Model provided below. 

Recall that each blog post of mine will be based on components that make up the Social Change Model. There are 3 components (perspectives) that make up the model. They are the values of the individual, group, and society/community. Each perspective is comprised of various subcomponents. I will be blogging about each subcomponent and each subcomponent will have some type of interactive leadership development activity incorporated into it. 

Let's begin with the individual perspective by focusing on the Consciousness of Self. In this leadership development activity, I hope to help you find out what your core personal values are.

Keep in mind that the ultimate goal of the creative process of leadership is change--whether it be a good or bad change it depends on your personal, logical view of what is "good" and "bad." For instance, some people today think that our our current President is a great leader for our nation, because maybe they share similar values with Donald Trump. Others may disagree, however, because they may hold completely different values than Donald Trump and may believe that he's making our nation worse.

First of all, what is leadership TO YOU? What does leadership look like TO YOU? What characteristics/traits do YOUR role models possess? What is it about your role models that you look up to for? Why do you look up to them? Could it be, because you both share common or similar values? Possibly. On second thought, what are YOUR PERSONAL values? On another thought, what are YOUR PERSONAL top 3 values? Don't know? That's okay. Consider a list of personal core values listed below.

If you’d like to get involved with me in my project, please feel free to print out this chart by clicking right here. (P.S. I added a few more values to the chart)

After printing out the list of values, carefully follow these steps:

(You may want to do this activity with a group of at least 4 people)

1.) Circle and pick YOUR PERSONAL top ten core values.

2.) Of your selected 10 personal corse values, eliminate 3 of them.

3.) Of the 7 values, eliminate 2 of them

4.) Of the 5 values, eliminate another 2 values

5.) Discuss with someone how it felt narrowing down your top values. What was their technique or logical explanation for why they eliminated certain values over others? While explaining, consider the following question: Are your values congruent in your actions? In other words, do your actions and/or habits show that you’re a person who highly values honesty, communication, optimism, collaboration, flexibility, etc? Do most of your actions reflect your personal values?

To find out, write out what your general week is like. For instance:

Sunday - do laundry, clean up my house, prepare for work for the week, workout
Monday - go to work, workout, etc.

After writing out your general week, take a moment and observe it. Ask yourself "Are my actions congruent with my core values?"

You know what they say, actions do speak louder than words. 

Bottom line, I think it’s important for a leader to identify their personal values and reflect whether their actions are congruent in their values. If not, what can they do to fix it? How committed are they to improve their weaknesses everyday?

Overall, I hope you enjoy the rest of this applied leadership project with me. Tune in next time as we continue to elaborate on the individual perspective of the Social Change Model.


TaTa for now!