Introduction
Leadership is a very important human trait in today’s world. True leaders know how to involve different people and are much more likely to succeed in their projects and endeavors by realizing their goals. Is it possible to become a leader without understanding yourself? Beatrice Chestnut believes that person needs to look deeply into their soul, as she says in her famous book The 9 Types of Leadership.
The Major Themes of the Book
The first of the two books’ important topics is to convey the essence of the Enneagram of personality to the reader. This tool for analyzing a person’s underlying feelings and thinking is rooted in long-standing philosophy and is a road map of the individual (Chestnut, 2017). The second important theme touched upon by Beatrice in her seminal book is how to teach readers how to use enneagrams of personality for their personal and professional growth to develop true leadership. These topics will be dealt with in detail later in this book review.
Enneagram System of Personality Type and the Enneagram 3 “Centers of Intelligence”
What is an Enneagram, and what does it mean? The word has Greek roots, where “Ennea” is nine and “gram” is what is written. According to the theory of personality, which is based on the Enneagrams, there are nine personality types (Owens, 2021). And each of these personality patterns has its own unique underlying beliefs. They form a person’s worldview, the prism of their perception of the people and situations around them, as well as their fears and prejudices about life and life events.
Understanding one’s Enneagram type helps each individual to broaden their life perspective, to cope more effectively with difficulties, and to deal with conflict situations. It means that the Enneagram can remove certain stumbling blocks that hinder and limit personal growth and the development of new skills (Chestnut, 2017). Beatrice argues that understanding leads to improvement and enlightenment, not dread and fear of the unknown. The engram is a circle with numbers representing a person’s personality types. The personality types are numbered from 1 to 9 clockwise around the ring. There is a triangle between points 9, 3, and 6, and an irregular hexagon connects the other points. The process represents the wholeness and unity of human life, while the other figures represent its division.
The Personality Enneagram is also closely linked to the concept of the “three centers of intelligence”. This idea implies that people process information coming from the outside world into three points, which are effectively the three “brains” of a person. The author of the book refers to these centers as the head, body, and heart of each individual (Owens, 2021). The numbers 1, 9, and 8 refer to the center of the body. In turn, personality types 5-7 gravitate to the head center and the heart center, the second, third, and fourth types. The gravitation of personality to any of the basic nine patterns forms a pattern of human perception of the world, and different personality types tend to be active in various intelligence centers.
9 Leadership Types and Their Characteristics
As mentioned above, there are nine main personality types, according to engram theory. It is time to examine them in more detail, based on the knowledge gained (Chestnut, 2017). It is necessary to go through each of the personality patterns, briefly describing their main features and characteristics—people with the first personality type value quality, moral principles, and ethical behavior above all else. Suppose a person has an inner critic who constantly monitors actions and gives feedback on how they handled the situation. In that case, that person is likely to have type one leadership (“perfectionism”).
The second kind of personality is the ‘giver’ leader style. The main motivation is the desire to please and do something good for others, and life is seen through the prism of relationships (Chestnut, 2017). Such people need to offer their support to others to be fairly appreciated and loved. The feature of the third type of person is the archetype of the achiever. Such people must set global goals, achieve them, and appear successful and confident. They try to be as effective as possible in their field of activity.
The next vantage point is number 4. Four people tend to idealize what they do based on their internal experience. In interpersonal relationships, the main value is the ability to feel the emotions of others and the desire to know the other person more deeply. The archetype of the fifth person is called the “Observer”. Work is viewed through the prism of information that must be mastered to complete the task (Chestnut, 2017). Such people are happier with numbers and facts than they are with other people. The sixth type is interesting because it has predominantly negative thinking. The world around them is constantly analyzed for possible difficulties and pitfalls. It is, therefore, necessary to be patient when communicating with such people and to allow time to develop trust in others.
Before analyzing the seventh and eighth personality patterns (the reviewer will reveal them in detail later), it is necessary to focus on the ninth archetype. People representing this group are oriented toward achieving harmony and positively resolving conflicts between others (Chestnut, 2017). Therefore, a person who is a consensus leader genuinely likes it when others are content to interact with each other, are constantly relaxed, and feel the support of friends, colleagues, and relatives.
Leadership Style from the Book Author Relates to Most
The seventh and eighth leadership styles were purposely omitted because they are closest to the author’s review of this book. These two archetypes have the most vivid emotional coloring. The man of seven is that possessor of character who wants to enjoy life, and his main idea is happiness (Chestnut, 2017). Sevens are cheerful, and their attention is often drawn to exciting and vibrant ideas and events. On the other hand, the eighth personality pattern is the boss pattern. “Bosses” or “Pretenders” think big, want to be strong leaders, and solve ambitious problems. Therefore, the combination of the traits of these two styles is a very good help to build a successful career.
Creating a Culture of Conscious Professionalism
The information extracted from this book is very important both for personal development and for building interpersonal relationships, creating a culture of conscious professionalism. By working hard on himself and knowing the problems and peculiarities of personality type, a person can acquire new useful skills and character traits that should help in professional activity and personal life (Chestnut, 2017). At the same time, finding an approach to other people, knowing the features of their emotional background and the system of views on the world, allows for creating harmonious interpersonal relationships, for example, in the work team. It will make it easier to solve tasks and cope with difficulties.
Conclusion
A couple of important things need to be said at the end of this review. Firstly, the book’s author does an excellent job of exposing the essence of Enneagram Theory and its practical benefits to society. And secondly, everyone can learn suitable lessons from the book to make their lives brighter, richer, and happier.
References
Chestnut, B. (2017). The 9 Types of Leadership: Mastering the Art of People in the 21st Century
Workplace, St. Hill. Press., p. 1-30.
Owens, M. (2021). What is the Enneagram of Personality. Web.