ATA Enneagram 4 Personality Style
ATA Enneagram Type 4 – Striving to Feel Unique
ATA Enneagram Fours interact with the world by Striving to feel Unique.
They generally approach their lives creatively, in fresh and interesting ways. They gravitate toward things and experiences that are elegant, refined, or unusual. When they overdo their Striving to Feel Unique they may feel misunderstood, and they may withdraw from others and become isolated. When stressed, Fours may fear that if they do not put their own special touch on their world and their experiences their individuality will become repressed.
Chief Asset: Originality. Enneagram 4s have a heightened ability to see the uniqueness and specialness in themselves and others. They are great creators and appreciators of beauty and originality.
What They Like in Others: Refinement, sensitivity, creativity.
What They Dislike in Others: Coarseness, conformity, superficiality.
How They Frustrate Others: Moodiness, withdrawing, self-absorption.
Approach to Problem Solving: “I’m going to do this in a way that no one has ever done it before.”
Belief About Work: “Things work best when I have the opportunity to put my own touch on them.”
How Others See Fours: Empathic, creative, unique, and refined, but sometimes moody, dramatic, self-absorbed, and melancholic.
Fours Get Into Trouble When They Tell Themselves: “I’ll never get what I truly want, but I must not stop hoping that someone or something will rescue me.”
Enneagram Fours Leadership & Communication Style
The Type Four Leader: The Visionary
The High Side of the Visionary: Fours create a vision of what the organization can be and move others toward a shared dream.
The Low Side of the Visionary: Fours can be impractical or become dispirited and resentful when their dream is not shared.
Where They Shine: In creative environments. Fours love opportunities to express their originality and creativity, so they do well when they can add their own flair to projects.
ATA Enneagram Type 4 Communication Style:
- Fours tend to vacillate between introversion and communicating with great passion and strong opinions.
- They often slowly feel others out, looking for “authenticity.”
- They are put off by things or people that they consider to be banal, preferring to focus on issues they find important.
Derailers for Type Fours
- Rebellion for rebellion’s sake: Anger at not feeling “special” causes you to act our and rebel against sources of authority and the status quo.
- Making it different: The desire to be seen as unique causes you to separate your way of doing things from the way that everyone else does things, whether this adds value or not. This sometimes means you make things more complicated than they need to be.
- Insistence on being right: Insistence on being right; defensiveness about position; hostile negativity toward other opinions or ways of doing things.
- Slow to decide: A lack of confidence leads to the inability or unwillingness to make decisions quickly.
- Drama: Excessive displays of emotion; often making problems and slights out to be greater than they really are.
- Resentment: Hostility toward and downplaying of accomplishments of others; feeling that you are not appreciated for your special qualities and others are getting all the credit or lucky breaks.
Blind Spot for ATA Enneagram 4: Self-absorption
Connecting Points for Enneagram Type 4
Support Strategy at Point 2: Striving to Feel Connected
Enneagram 4s have a great capacity for empathy and they can be quite nurturing to those in need. Sometimes, however, this impulse to connect can be a strong need (and demand) for empathy and attention from others.
Neglected Strategy at Point 1 – Striving to Feel Perfect
While Fours often have high standards for quality in their work and high expectations of others, there are times when they neglect holding themselves to the same standards as others, choosing instead to focus on how their inherent shortcomings (real or imagined) make it impossible to meet those standards.
Listen to the Conversation about Enneagram Type 4
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 discuss Enneagram Type Four, “Striving to Feel Unique,” through the personal experiences of Creek. They share how the Type Four appears in the workplace, what drives them, and growth strategies.
“I think a lot of times Enneagram 4s feel like they’re the most tapped into reality because they see more of the darkness of life. Depths do contain darkness, but just because you’re tapped into darkness doesn’t mean you’re tapped into depth.” -Creek [13:07]
“For me, the growth for the Four is in realizing that most of what they’re doing is just derivative of say Holden Caulfield in ‘Catcher in the Rye.’” -Mario [14:27]
“I think we all have beliefs that are our biases given by our type. In the case of Type Four, while striving to feel unique, when you think that your situation is more difficult, tougher, you suffer more, and it is a misrepresentation of reality. And my experience is that Fours who are able to see that and be more objective about situations they’re in have a better time responding to it. They’re more adaptive because they see more objectively and they suffer less.” -María José [43:38]
ATA Enneagram Type Four Subtypes
The striving for uniqueness in ATA Enneagram Type Four is distinctly expressed through each of the three Subtypes.
| UNIQUE PRESERVING | UNIQUE NAVIGATING | UNIQUE TRANSMITTING |
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Explore the Other Types
Growth for ATA Enneagram 4: Disidentification
Fours, who are striving to feel unique, are often wrestling with their analysis of the ways in which they are so much like, or unlike, other people. In an effort to establish their uniqueness, they become trapped in a pattern of constant comparison to and contrast with others. This leads to repetitive thoughts of “I am not that, but I am this,” keeping them trapped in a series of identifications that limit their ability to engage in life and grow in their own truly unique way. Their identity can become a reaction against something rather than an expression of something original.
Disidentification is the act of intentionally letting go of those thoughts. Fours benefit from learning to recognize the labels they put on themselves and recognizing that identity is not fixed, that being authentic is not about returning to some “true self” but involves becoming the person you want to be. Enneagram 4s grow when they take a disciplined approach to focusing on who they want to become rather than obsessing about who they are, who they believe they are, and how they are different from others.
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A Fun and Informative Deep Dive into Understanding the ATA Enneagram 4
Mario and TJ explore Enneagram Type Four, “Striving to Feel Unique,” on this episode of the “Enneagram in a Movie Podcast” through the films of Wes Anderson, starting with “Rushmore.” Wes’ body of work in the last 25 years has his distinct fingerprints in his writing, his directing style, and the unique aesthetic filled with vivid primary colors. All you have to do is look at a single frame and say “That’s Wes Anderson.”Join us as Mario and TJ discuss these comedies that are also woven with melancholy, tragedy, and romance.