One year ago, this happened:

When I was flying home from the Detroit airport, I didn’t expect to create a hero dad moment for my teenage daughter, but that’s what happened. I have the Enneagram to thank…and Jerry from Parks and Recreation. Let me explain.

I was returning home from a training course on the Enneagram called “Motions of the Soul,” by Clare and Scott Loughrige, authors of the new book, Spiritual Rhythms of the Enneagram. As a Gallup Certified...

As a White man, I don’t know what it is to NOT be White. My boys are Brown, adopted from the Philippines. I don’t know what it is to be Brown or adopted.

My nephews are Black and adopted, I don’t know what it is to be either. But I do know there’s an uncertainty that is part of fear for the future of these boys.

It's a fear of unpermitted opportunities. A fear of prejudiced judgments. A fear of aggression against. A fear of unfair standards.

It’s a fear I DO NOT...

Yesterday I walked in the dew with my shoes off. I did this to feel alive, but it almost didn’t happen.

You see, after I eat breakfast, I’m on my way upstairs to get ready for work. My wife asks if I would see her garden. She’s been pulling and planting for days now, her vegetable garden in our backyard.

It won’t take much for me to visit her garden. But I hesitate—I’m already thinking of the work tasks to tackle when I sit down at my desk. They are so...

The great author Annie Dillard wrote, “You were made and set here to give voice to this—to your own astonishment.” We have several of her books at our creek-side cabin, particularly because she writes of her own creek with such intricate detail and breathless joy that you feel you want to participate in the fellowship of the creek with her.

And so we do, and many lines from her writings stick with me. One of them is the above. She suggests, even urges us to give voice to...

We recently did a weeklong series of webinars on the topic of managing stress. We looked at four different approaches to managing stress because each one offers something distinctive—Coaching Approach, Strengths Approach, Enneagram Approach, and Christian Approach.

In this post, we’ll talk about the Enneagram Approach. By the way, if you want to watch any of the recorded videos, click on the words above. When taking an Enneagram Approach, you can ask three...

The Coronavirus is affecting everyone, and with it brings stress: concern for health and safety, loss of work, shift in school, change of routine, uncertainty about the future, grief in relationships…I don’t have to go on. How do you deal with stress? In this blog post, we’ll lay out four suggestions for how to effectively manage stress.

This is an important skill to have, not only in these days of pandemic, but for everyday stress as well. Let's look at four...

After being around for a long time, the Enneagram has gained a resurgence in popularity mostly due to social networks, popular books and podcasts, and word of mouth. While this is good because the ancient personality tool is getting exposure, it can also be detrimental. Lots of folks think they’ve “done the Enneagram” when they really haven’t.

For them “doing the Enneagram’ means taking a free online quiz, laughing and chatting about the results with...

It’s a journey to grow your talents into strengths. Just because you find your talents doesn’t mean they’re that useful yet. You must develop them into strengths. This doesn’t happen automatically; it takes focus and effort.

For example, one of my talents is "being responsible"—I naturally take ownership of what has been entrusted to me, and I can be counted upon to deliver. Sounds great…but it comes with shortfalls:

• I can be really quick to say yes
• I can...

How well do you know yourself?

This may sound like a self-centered question, but it has implications far beyond you. Your level of self-awareness affects your relationships, your productivity, and your workplace. The problem is that most of us don’t really know ourselves.

For example, let’s look at emotional intelligence (EQ). In a study of 500,000 people, only 36 percent were able to identify what they were feeling (Travis Bradbury and Jean Graves, Emotional Intelligence, 2.0)....

As I shared before, self-awareness is critical for success in life, work, and relationships, and there are plenty of great tools out there. If you commit to learn from just one tool, you will be farther along today than you were yesterday, and tomorrow you will be farther along than you were today. So, what tools do I use when I work with people?

The two tools I like best are CliftonStrengths® and the Enneagram—and I’m certified to use both. Rather than use them separately,...