ATA Enneagram Type 9 Personality Style
ATA Enneagram 9 – Striving to Feel Peaceful
ATA Enneagram Nines interact with the world by Striving to feel Peaceful.
Nines are calm, pleasant, and charming. They focus on maintaining a sense of inner harmony by minimizing their own needs and concentrating on the needs of others. When they overdo their Striving to Feel Peaceful they can become passive, relying on others to make decisions for them. When stressed, Nines may fear that if they place too much importance on themselves they will be seen as attention seeking.
Chief Asset: Balance. Nines have a capacity to remain immovable, solid, and unfazed by the changes in life. They can make people feel safe and have a calming, anxiety-reducing effect on others.
What They Like in Others: Optimism, humility, consistency.
What They Dislike in Others: Confrontation, arrogance, turbulence.
How They Frustrate Others: Passive-aggression, withdrawing, indecision.
Approach to Problem Solving: “Let’s get together and hear what everyone has to say.”
Belief About Work: “Things work best when there is harmony and nobody makes waves.”
How Others See Nines: Pleasant, likable, levelheaded, and easy-going, but sometimes unfocused, stubborn, and forgetful.
Nines Get Into Trouble When They Tell Themselves: “Other people’s needs are more important than my own and I should just go with the flow.”
Enneagram Nine Leadership & Communication Style
The Type Nine Leader: The Consensus Builder
The High Side of the Consensus Builder : Nines gain commitment through inclusion and participation and make others feel valued by seeking their perspective.
The Low Side of the Consensus Builder : Nines can be indecisive and conflict averse, and may seem to lack their own opinions and vision.
Where They Shine: Helping people feel comfortable. Nines are great at making people feel included and part of a team. Their calm rubs off on others and helps them relax.
Type Nine Communication Style:
- Nines generally seek to avoid offending others or causing conflict.
- They are generally slow to state their opinions, often holding back initially and weighing all options before commenting.
- They tend to be self-deprecating and are put off by what they see as arrogance.
Derailers for Type Nine
- Self deprecation: A tendency to subtly put oneself down and minimize your accomplishments.
- Holding back: Unwillingness to assert oneself fully out of self-doubt or fear of appearing arrogant.
- Avoiding conflict: Letting conflict or potential conflict fester unaired and unresolved.
- Passive aggressiveness: Getting your way through inaction; punishing others or proving points indirectly; stating uncomfortable comments through sarcasm or “humor.”
- Fuzzy around agreements and details: Conveniently forgetting unpleasant details; relying on non-affirmative responses to signal negatives.
- Losing temper: Letting unresolved conflicts and unexpressed anger build to a volcanic climax.
- The Nice Guy Syndrome: Seeming to lack the killer instinct and high self-regard often looked for in leaders.
Blind Spot for ATA Enneagram 9: Passive-Aggressiveness
Nines are often unaware of their tendency to get their way passively rather than actively and the impact this has on their relationships. For instance, they may get out of performing an unpleasant task by dragging their feet, being forgetful, making promises that they do not keep, and so forth. Others are often frustrated by their seeming stubbornness.
Connecting Points for ATA Enneagram Type 9
Support Strategy at Point 6: Striving to Feel Secure
Nines often have an ability to identify and mitigate risk, having a calming effect on others and making them feel like everything will be fine. Sometimes, however, they become overly vigilant and combative toward things that could upset the status quo, resisting change and becoming angry with those who try to impose it.
Neglected Strategy at Point 3 – Striving to Feel Outstanding
While Nines are often accomplished and ambitious people who set high expectations for themselves, there are critical times when they resist asserting themselves out of a fear of having other people see them as arrogant or overly assertive.
Listen to the Conversation about Enneagram Type 9
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 speak with Seth Abram, co-host of Fathoms | An Enneagram Podcast, about Enneagram Type Nine, “Striving to Feel Peaceful.” They discuss this type’s desire to feel inner harmony and how they can be self-deprecating and resistant to change. Seth shares how being a Type Nine shapes how he approaches things, as well as debunks misconceptions about this type.
“He is the reason that I know about the Enneagram. I will admit that.” -Creek [01:36]
“Everybody thinks ’Oh Nines are easy going and get along with everybody, and they’re nice.’ They are until they aren’t. Most Nines when you get to spend some time with them, you will see flashes of temper. You will feel anger. You will see assertiveness that comes out, but it’s usually in response to not feeling peaceful.” -Mario [10:31]
“There’s no such thing as a Nine. There’s a person. There’s an individual who has some patterned way they express themselves, but there’s no such thing as a Nine. And I just think that when people confuse a person for this type, you don’t let me be anything else than the idea you have in your head. And that limits me, and I hate being limited.” -Seth [45:26]
“So much of what you were describing as Nine-ish is also very similar to navigating, so that might be one of the reasons why it’s hard to see the navigating, because it might be seen or perceived as Nine-ish. Some of the things, at least.” -María José [1:03:33]
Enneagram Type 9 Subtypes
The striving for peace in ATA Enneagram Type Nine is distinctly expressed through the three Subtypes.
| POWERFUL PRESERVING | POWERFUL NAVIGATING | POWERFUL TRANSMITTING |
|
|
|
Explore the Other Types
Growth for ATA Enneagram Nine: Generativity
Nines, who are striving to feel peaceful, frequently fail to appreciate their value to others and can fall into a pattern of self-deprecation—minimizing their importance with the words and by reflexively appeasing others. They can fall into the trap of starting to believe that they don’t have anything of substance worth contributing to others. They can begin to fade into the background, becoming frustrated with not being recognized, but not wanting to be seen as seeking recognition.
Generativity is the concern for establishing and guiding the next generation. It is giving of one’s wisdom and experience without an expectation of something in return. Nines benefit from practicing generativity—they can mentor, coach, and support younger people and contribute to making the world a better place while working through others. The effect of this generativity is to remind the Nine that they do have value and a contribution to make. This realization that they do have something to offer also inspires them to be more proactive in asserting their opinions and desires.
Start Your Journey Today
Executive Coaching
Preparing high-performing
leaders to scale effectively.
Group programs
Creating understanding around group
behavior through the Enneagram.
Enneagram OnDemand
Our asynchronous, self-directed introduction to personalities at work.
A Fun and Informative Deep Dive into Understanding the ATA Enneagram 9
While known for his tough-guy roles as cops, cowboys, and soldiers, Clint Eastwood’s as a director actually illustrates the fundamental elements of Enneagram Type Nine. Join Mario and TJ as they discuss Type Nine, Clint Eastwood, and the movies “The Outlaw Josey Wales,” “Unforgiven,” “Million Dollar Baby,” and “American Sniper.”