The Power of Personality Testing
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We generally think of "personality” as the positive (and not so positive) qualities we use to describe individuals. However, in personal and professional self-development work with a skilled professional, personality style centers on the following:
â–ª Identifying our patterns of thinking, feeling, and behavior
â–ª Exploring how those patterns are productive or unproductive
â–ª Releasing the ineffective patterns and develop productive patterns
â–ª Choosing a customizable personality model that will yield effective,
efficient, and cost-effective results for clients
Using a model that combines personality testing and self-development, such as the Enneagram system, directs clients to recognize and work with common human patterns, in ourselves and when interacting with others. Equipped with these insights, clients are able to engage with their relationships, work, and leadership roles in new ways that foster success and fulfillment.
This means the habitual pattern of our personality style is not fixed as our identity. Instead, it identifies a pattern of "how” and "why" we are a certain way when we are on "automatic-pilot". Our personality style guides our reaction in life and work when under stress, and many of these reaction strategies are largely ineffective. New and effective patterns can be established through coaching and training that targets personality style.
The Enneagram Personality & Behavior-Change System
The popularity and success of this system is growing both nationally and globally and has been applied across a wide spectrum of disciplines and industries.
The Enneagram system is a unique, engaging, and powerful personality and behavior-change model that leads us to identify and change habitual patterns that keep us from the things we desire most: health, positive relationships, satisfaction, success, and fulfillment.
Over the last decade, the Enneagram has become a premier tool for self-development. It guides individuals, teams of any kind, businesses, and organizations to learn about their ineffective habitual patterns in a meaningful and applicable way. Many personality models simply do not have a strong application beyond being interesting or descriptive of individuals' observable behavior.
When we understand ourselves fully, we are equipped to learn how to make optimal choices when adjusting to new goals, demands, challenges, and stress, as well as when exploring our own commitments, goals, and desires. Self-understanding is a skill to be built, like any other skill.
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The Enneagram Components
In this day and age, much of our behavior is on "automatic pilot" (without conscious consideration of all the factors or options), because we have a lot to accomplish in one day. The well-developed automatic patterns we use support our sense of who we are, what we value, and what has worked for us before in some way. Yet, the familiarity and comfort of acting on auto-pilot is the very thing, the blind spot, that obstructs the desire for enduring change and long-standing goals.
The Enneagram system sorts human nature into 9 distinct patterns, which we can then use for creating targeted change-based action plans for individuals, teams of any kind, and entire organizations:
9 reasons we continue ineffective
behavior & the corresponding motivations for change
The High Impact of Using the Enneagram
Using the Enneagram system in coaching, consulting, and training, has proved to be extremely effective. The system's ability to hone in on clients' specific areas for growth has proven to yield better and faster results at significantly lower costs for clients.
Learning and development work is customized, engaging, meaningful, and easily applicable, unlike results from using other personality or behavior-change models, where information can remain unused and forgotten.
Using the Enneagram, clients target the exact obstacles holding them back from what they desire. The Enneagram system has a built-in map and tools (such as process mapping) that guide the new approach to living and working. This system guides clients to:
â–ª Learn their strengths and where to find motivation and inspiration
â–ª Recognize ineffective patterns and their negative impact on their lives, relationships,
work, leadership, and productivity
â–ª Learn skillful customized strategies to try instead of old patterns
â–ª Develop strengths to include the skill set that they or the team/organization are
currently missing, but need
â–ª Commit to self-development and accountability and support the commitment of others
â–ª Identify support strategies and tools to keep them on track