The Enneagram
The Enneagram As A Tool For Growth
The Enneagram is a powerful growth tool used in coaching to help you understand the deeper patterns that shape your leadership – your drivers, your blind spots and the places where doubt tends to show up.
You can use it individually or with your team to create deeper understanding, stronger relationships and space for real growth.
Certified Enneagram Practitioner
The Enneagram In Business
Chestnut Paes Academy
Why I Use The Enneagram In My Work
I often describe the Enneagram as the operating system running quietly in the background of your mind. Much like a computer programme, it shapes how we process information, respond to pressure, and make sense of the world, often without us realising it. In my enneagram coaching work, this lens helps surface the core motivations and blind spots that quietly shape behaviour.
I use the Enneagram as a growth tool, not a typing exercise. It helps leaders and teams recognise these underlying patterns, particularly when things feel messy or uncertain, and creates more choice in how they lead, decide and relate. Put another way, it helps us understand what additional “code” we can write into our own operating system to support us to lead at our best.
My passion for the Enneagram is also personal. Discovering I was a “work in progress” Type 9, it was the first framework that helped me make sense of the paradoxes in my own thinking, and, crucially, showed me what to do with that insight in practice.
Working With The Enneagram
Individually
Used one-to-one, the Enneagram supports deeper self-awareness, particularly in moments of leadership stretch, transition or self-doubt. Where helpful, Enneagram assessments can be used to support this exploration, helping leaders understand their default patterns, explore their personality type, recognise what happens under pressure, and explore more intentional ways of leading.
With Teams
With teams, the Enneagram creates a shared language for difference. It supports empathy, reduces misinterpretation, and helps teams work more effectively with tension, uncertainty and change — without personalising what is often systemic.
A Few Words About Working With The Enneagram And Teams
What Is My Type? — A Short Guide
What is my type? is a short, accessible guide exploring the 9 Enneagram Types. It offers a practical introduction to how each personality type shows up at work — how they lead, interact with others, and where opportunities for personal growth lie.
The guide can be read on its own, or alongside Brilliant Doubt, offering a more personal lens on the ideas explored in the book. For many coached clients, it becomes the starting point of a journey of self discovery, helping translate insight into everyday awareness and choice.
Thinking Out Loud about The Enneagram
The Enneagram Types Relationship to Doubt 3: The Head Centres (Types 5,6,7)
In The Enneagram Types…
The Enneagram Types Relationship to Doubt 2: The Heart Centres (Types 2,3,4)
In The Enneagram Types…
The Enneagram Types Relationship to Doubt 1: The Body Centres (Types 8,9,1)
In The Enneagram Types…
What My Clients Say About Working With The Enneagram
FAQs
What is the Enneagram and how do you use it in coaching?
The Enneagram is a brilliant way of spotting the patterns we’re all a bit too close to see — the habits that serve us, the ones that sabotage us, and the stories we keep running in the background.
I use it in Enneagram coaching because it cuts through the noise. It helps you understand why you react the way you do, why certain people wind you up, and why some situations feel harder than they should.
It’s a deep psychological tool that shows us where we can grow, what reliably gets us into bother, and — most importantly — what we can do about it.
Do I need to know my Enneagram type before working with you?
The short answer is No.
You don’t need any prior knowledge of the Enneagram to begin coaching. When it’s used, the Enneagram is introduced carefully and only where it adds value — as a tool for insight and growth, not as a label or requirement.
For some people, the Enneagram becomes a helpful lens within the coaching; for others, it plays a much lighter role or isn’t used at all. The focus remains on what will be most useful for you, your context and the questions you’re working with.
How do you use the Enneagram in coaching without putting people in boxes?
I always think of your Enneagram type as a starting point, not a definition.
Understanding your type offers a place to begin — a way of noticing the patterns that tend to shape how you think, respond and lead, particularly under pressure. In my experience, this awareness doesn’t limit people; it creates more freedom. It helps you recognise when you’re on autopilot and opens up new ways of responding.
In my coaching, the Enneagram is used to widen possibilities rather than narrow them — supporting insight, choice and development without reducing anyone to a label.
I am interested in finding out more about the Enneagram can you recommend any other resources to learn about it?
Yes — there are many thoughtful and well-respected resources available, and people often find it helpful to explore a range of perspectives.
For those looking for a solid foundation, the Enneagram Institute offers a well-established introduction to the system. The Paes Chestnut Academy provides deeper psychological and developmental perspectives, particularly useful for those interested in growth and transformation.
The Enneagram in Business is a helpful resource for exploring how the Enneagram can be applied in organisational and leadership contexts.
