Last week, a young leader I am working with called me to discuss some changes she was thinking of making in her career. As part of our work together she has been introduced to the Enneagram to better understand what drives and motivates her as a leader and the impact she has on others. As a result, she wondered whether the changes she was considering were being prompted by a desire to ‘avoid emotional pain’ – a trait often associated with her Enneagram type.

For me, ‘personality profiling’ – whether it be the Enneagram or any other development tool – has always brought a mix of curiosity on one hand and hesitation on the other. I’m always slightly wary of being ‘put in a box’.

In the Global Leadership Foundation’s world of leadership and its development, we often use the Enneagram to provide insight for ourselves and the people we are working with. It is important for all of us to be aware of what drives and motivates us in order to be the best we can be.

However, we don’t want to forget that each of us is more than just a personality profile or set of capabilities. Individually we are the result of an amazing set of life experiences that, combined, contribute to the way we work and the choices we make.

The young leader’s question got me thinking about my own career, particularly as she and I share the same Enneagram type (type Seven). How much had my personality played a role in the decisions I had made?

Most of the jobs I held early in my career were for no more than three years each. This certainly fits the picture of ‘keeping my options open’ and ‘seeking variety’ – both characteristics of a typical Enneagram Seven. In this period I was looking for opportunities to test and use my skills and capabilities in new situations.

But when I thought about my reasons for leaving a job during this time, one of the most common ones was a ‘clash’ around values – the things I would not compromise in the way I led and engaged others and the way in which we worked together to achieve results. This is not necessarily associated with a particular Enneagram type: we often have discussions around principles and values with leaders of all types.

As I moved into my early forties and onwards, I started to find more stability in my career choices – something emphasised recently by Global Leadership Foundation’s tenth anniversary. This stability has perhaps had more to do with my finding work that provides the opportunity to truly make a difference rather than personality type. This is especially the case now, with the work we are doing focused on raising emotional health levels across the planet through our leaders, their organisations and the wider communities in which they operate.

Another thing that has contributed to my career choices, which again goes beyond personality, are appreciating and reflecting on the bigger development patterns in my life.

I have always paid attention to the notion of a seven year cycle, a concept originally suggested by Ptolemy and expanded in the early twentieth century by Rudolph Steiner. Looking at what occurred up to age 7, 14, 21, 28 etc., and also around the mid point between each of these, I can see significant patterns that enable me to better understand my own development and that of others.

So what did I tell the young leader who asked me about her career decisions?

While the choices we make will certainly be influenced by what drives and motivates us – by our personality – we are much more than that. We need to be able to ‘click on’ to our inner observer and:

  • reflect on where we are and what we hold dear
  • understand the bigger patterns that we are both in and are influenced by, and
  • identify our level of emotional health and what keeps us there.

All of these combined are able to provide a much broader perspective on what is important to us right now, and what choices we might make as a result.