_{Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán}

Over the past five years, I’ve worked with thousands of people to help them understand themselves better. This work is sacred because you’re dealing with people’s actual lives. The context may be a business workshop, academic setting, or corporate coaching series, but the topic is always personal—let’s talk about you.

When working with people, there are sometimes three big questions that come up: HOW, WHY, and...

Author and Pastor Clare Loughrige invited me to have a conversation with her as part of an Advent Series on unwrapping the presence of Jesus while considering the Enneagram. In addition, we also discussed the connections between Enneagram and Strengths.

Clare is one of the authors of Spiritual Rhythms for the Enneagram, and is the creator of the Motions of the Soul Enneagram certification program, which I attended and highly recommend. 

In our first video, we talk about Generosity:

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Last week we released our study on the associations between CliftonStrengths® themes and Enneagram Types. According to the research, there are two Enneagram Types that share the same five missing strengths themes. In other words, none of the people who identified as these two Enneagram Types have these themes in their Top Five.

What are the Enneagram Types and what are the absent CliftonStrengths® themes? That’s the subject of today’s post.

(By Enneagram types, we...

This week we’re releasing our study on the associations between Enneagram Types and CliftonStrengths® talent themes.

While putting on the finishing touches of the report package—and adding extra value—we revealed some of our findings in a webinar. We also answered for you in a blog post, which Enneagram types share seven top five strengths themes?

In this post, we’ll answer another question: Which surprising Enneagram type has these top strengths?

The answer: Type...

As I’ve worked with both the Enneagram and Strengths, I’ve noticed some tensions between these tools. That’s because while both tools do measure and reveal personality, they focus on different parts of personality.

The Enneagram is oriented around drive and whole-person health while Strengths is oriented around talent and performance. We must not make the mistake of treating both tools the same.

As the finishing touches are being applied to our study of Enneagram and...

We’re about to release our study on the associations between Enneagram and Strengths. We gathered data from over 500 people worldwide from a variety of professions and asked data scientists to analyze the data. What did we find? You’ll have to wait for the webinar which preludes the release of the report package.

But for now, here’s a question, and the answer may suprise you.

Which Enneagram types share seven of the same top Strength themes?

(By Enneagram types, we mean the...

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...

Lots of people have been asking us questions about Strengths and the Enneagram.

Some came from our introductory webinar on the intersection of both tools. Some came from our next-level webinar on taking a deeper dive. Some came from our Enneagram workshop. Some will come from our Strengths workshop. Either way, they're good questions.

If you had one tool to use first, which one would you choose and why?

I would use CliftonStrengths first for several reasons: 1) understanding strengths is...

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,...

Sometimes connections between ideas come when you’re not expecting them, even in front of a room of people. Recently I was leading an introductory strengths workshop for a team. While explaining the concept of talent, I shared Gallup's definition of talent:

Talent by Gallup

“Talent is naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling or behavior that can be productively applied.”

Each of us is naturally good at certain things, and these things fall into one of three...