Questions To Find Your Client/Self

Since each of our 9 Enneagram temperaments seems to have a unique driving force toward the gift of each style, I pose a question about a life situation in my seminars. In my 30 years of leading Enneagram seminars, these questions have elicited a common response from each temperament style. Here are the common participants' answers to two of my general questions. Before you read each answer, answer the questions for yourself.

1. What’s the first thing you do or say as you walk into a restaurant with a group of friends?

1s notice the table setting and arrangement of tables, approving or disapproving, 2s ask everyone how they are doing or if they like this restaurant, 3s decide who they want to sit next to in order to network, 4s have an opinion about the uniqueness or not of the restaurant, 5s are quiet and notice what’s happening, but only share their observations when asked, 6s know where the Exit signs are and sit with their backs to the wall, 7s are making everyone laugh as they walk to their table, 8s march ahead of the others, pass the server, choose a table, organize the chairs and tell everyone where to sit, 9s amble along being distracted along the way.

2. You are on an elevator with a group of strangers going up to the top floor of a 10-story building to an important meeting. Suddenly, the elevator stops, and the lights go out. What’s the first thing you think, feel, or do?

1s say they will find out who’s at fault once they are out of the elevator, 2s ask if everyone is ok, 3s are annoyed that they might miss their important meeting, 4s often say, “How cool,  that’s never happened to me before.”, 5s stay quiet observing, 6s know where the telephone is in every elevator, they enter and jump toward it, passing other people to ring the management, 7s tell a joke, 8s say they can climb up the wiring and get help, or try to open the doors, 9s are pleasant and feel fine.