ATA Enneagram Type 1 Personality Style
ATA Enneagram 1 – Striving to Feel Perfect
ATA Enneagram Ones interact with the world by Striving to feel Perfect.
They are often models of decorum, clear logic and appropriate behavior. They focus on rules, procedures and making sure that they are always doing the “right thing.” When they overdo their Striving to feel Perfect they can become critical, judgmental, and unwilling to take risks. Under stress, Ones may fear that if they have too much fun they will become irresponsible.
Chief Asset: Precision. Ones are precise and methodical in their approach to life. They have an ability to make clear, logical decisions about appropriate action and behavior.
What They Like in Others: Competence, high quality, adherence to principles and procedures.
What They Dislike in Others: Emotionality, illogical behavior, rule breaking.
How They Frustrate Others: Perfectionism, pessimism, rigidity, judging.
Approach to Problem Solving: “We need to be logical about this and do the correct thing.”
Belief About Work: “Things work best when everyone follows the rules.”
How Others See Ones: Rational, proper, conscientious, disciplined, and discerning, but sometimes rigid, critical, condescending, humorless, and remote.
Ones Get Into Trouble When They Tell Themselves: “I know how things should be. I can improve myself, my environment, and others to fit my ideals.”
ATA Enneagram One Leadership & Communication Style
The Type One Leader: The Administrator
The High Side of the Administrator: Ones create order and clarity, and they institute and enforce needed policies and procedures.
The Low Side of the Administrator: Ones can be rigid, inflexible, remote, and uninspiring and may focus on what is wrong rather than what is right.
Where They Shine: Setting and following procedures. Ones are great in roles that require consistency of method and logic.
ATA Enneagram Type One Communication Style:
• Ones tend to be deliberate, unemotional and focused on facts.
• They distrust hype and attempts to sell to them.
• They expect facts to be accurate and details to be available for review.
Derailers for Type Ones
- Meritocracy: The belief that people should be judged solely on “merit” (being right; working harder than others; scoring well on exams; accomplishing tasks on deadline; etc), rather than on things like political connection, likeability, etc.
- Unwillingness to change: Belief that, since “I am right,” others should change, no matter who tells me I’m wrong or that I am the one who needs to change behavior.
- Seeing the world in black and white: Too much focus on right and wrong; inability, or unwillingness, to see life as complex and situational; unwillingness to bend or compromise.
- Not having fun: Being too “serious;” unwilling to relax and be light-hearted; maintaining a stiff and detached façade.
- Perfectionism: Inability to let go of a decision, project, or assignment until the solution is perfect; focus on the mistakes of others rather than their positive accomplishments.
- Always being right: Conviction that your solution is the only correct solution combined with defensiveness about your position. Seeing suggestions and alternatives as affronts to your position rather than being open-minded and looking for ways that your position can be enhanced.
Blind Spot for ATA Enneagram 1: Criticism
in their environment. They feel that they are only trying to be helpful and are often surprised when others interpret their comments as a criticism.
Connecting Points for ATA Enneagram Type 1
Support Strategy at Point 4: Striving to Feel Unique
Ones are often capable of standing up for what they believe in the face of disagreement with everyone around them. Sometimes, however, they become needlessly contrarian and then feel wounded when others don’t appreciate their unique view.
Neglected Strategy at Point 7 – Striving to Feel Excited
While Ones often have a sly and subtle sense of humor and appreciation for life, there are critical times when they resist giving in to joy and excitement for fear of losing self-control.
Listen to the Conversation about ATA Enneagram Type 1
The Awareness to Action Enneagram Podcast
In this episode of the Awareness to Action Enneagram podcast, Mario Sikora, María José Munita, and Seth “Creek” Creekmore start their series discussing the types, aka the strategies, in the Awareness to Action Enneagram model. They start with Enneagram Type One, “Striving to Feel Perfect,” by discussing what it means in theory and through María José’s personal experience.
“One of the things that I’m really proud of is how you can use it in a way that perfectionism doesn’t capture you, but you decide what perfection is.” -María José [05:31],
“It’s fueling your desire for the most ideal situation to occur. I can definitely resonate with that and find myself being paralyzed as well in certain situations.” -Creek [10:09]
“We have to be aware of the complexity of the connecting points to really understand the types, and you can’t understand a One if you don’t understand their relationship to the strategy of Point Seven.” -Mario [32:19]
ATA Enneagram Type 1 Subtypes
The striving to feel perfect in ATA Enneagram Type One is uniquely expressed through each of the three Subtypes.
| PERFECT PRESERVING | PERFECT NAVIGATING | PERFECT TRANSMITTING |
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Explore the Other Types
Growth for ATA Enneagram One: Acceptance
Ones, who are striving to feel perfect, can struggle to manage their frustration with the imperfections they see in themselves and the world around them. They can let this frustration boil into anger, and their anger can cause them to attempt to “fix things” in ways that only make matters worse. Their anger may cause them to become even more perfectionistic and critical, and makes others want to resist them rather than collaborate to resolve the problem. Or their frustration can lead Ones to withdraw and not make the contribution they could.
Acceptance is not the same as resignation, or a belief that things are the way they are for a reason and should be left alone. The guidance is not for Ones to simply give up and learn to live with a problem, it is to understand that their anger or frustration often makes things worse. Acceptance here means engagement without anger. Recognizing the reality of their circumstances unemotionally, or acknowledging their anger and letting it go so they can clear-headedly and effectively work to improve the circumstance.
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A Fun and Informative Deep Dive into Understanding the ATA Enneagram 1
Mario, TJ are joined on this episode of the “Enneagram in a Movie Podcast” by special guest Milton Stewart, Enneagram facilitator, teacher, and coach, as they explore Enneagram Type 1 personality, “Striving to Feel Perfect,” through Spike Lee’s films “Do the Right Thing” and “Get on the Bus.”