Enneagram Paper free essay sample

I have encountered and interacted with numerous professors. Like any other profession or industry, every one operates in an individual manner and takes a unique approach to how they interact with peers and subordinates. Every professor has their own teaching style and way they feel they should communicate to students. Since learning of the Enneagram and the different personalities and character traits we all possess, I can now see the differences in professors I have dealt with. The Enneagram has introduced me to the variety of personality types and the ways each do business in regards to communicating and interacting with other personality types. In the following, I will describe four professors and their personality types, discussing interaction and communication with each. In the winter session I had a public speaking class with a professor by the name of Suzy Ismail. Her personality type is that of the Helper, or number two. As I have learned in class and reading, a Helper is generous and they support and empower others. Twos are motivated by the need to feel appreciated and they like to express their positive thoughts to others. Helpers tend to offer compliments and are naturally wired to make people feel welcome and appreciated. One of the greatest traits of twos is their heartfelt desire to work with people and assist others in achieving. Helpers take pride in helping others as they have a need to feel needed. By serving others, they are able to fulfill a need and craving that only helping others provides for them. Twos have an encouraging leadership style and approach. They are known as the cheerleaders of people and manage by portraying enthusiasm and pride. Twos take pride in making a difference in people’s lives and enjoy being acknowledged for doing so. A negative aspect of twos is they may want to change or improve other people for the sake of their own satisfaction. The teacher/student relationship was a positive and beneficial experience for me and I also believe for Professor Ismail. We both have different personality types and I feel this led to my success in the class. I am a nine and I definitely tend to try to keep the peace and an even keel. In this class, I had to speak in front of the class which I felt uncomfortable doing. Professor Ismail was able to help me overcome this fear and create an improved public speaker out of me. She recognized that I was improving and as a two, this was able to satisfy her desire to support and empower others. We were both different in how we approached public speaking; her desire to change/turn me into a proficient speaker did at times make me feel uncomfortable. She had faith in me that I could be a good speaker while I did not have this same outlook. Her persistence and constantly making us speak, sometimes unexpected, led to my discomfort. Looking back now, I appreciate her method and at the end of the semester, I honestly felt like an improved speaker. She possessed strengths such as making me feel like I can accomplish whatever I wanted in the class, making known her desire to help, praise upon doing well, and nurturing me into an improved speaker. Our communication was positive as she was able to effectively communicate her intentions and aspirations for the class. I felt very open with her and expressed my concerns and worries to her without fear or trepidation. In my first semester at DeVry, I had the privilege of learning from Professor Bell who teaches an intro to computers class. Now it is easy for me to recognize that he is the Top Dog personality type. He is a former Marine officer and I wonder if that played any role in shaping him into this type. As we have discussed, eights like to be in charge, feel responsible autocratic and blunt. Eights can be demanding, confrontational and reckless in their approach. They like to think of themselves as above others and their motto is my way or the high way, there is no room for bargaining here. I view this type of thinking as tunnel vision, I like to be able to find a common ground with people and this type of thinking usually does not allow this. Eights view the world as a game of power and they long to be the one in charge and in control. They either do not care or recognize that they can be loud, offensive, reckless and out of control in their approach to how they communicate and deal with others. The teacher/student relationship here was not uncomfortable or lacking much. As a nine, the eight personality type is one of my wings and I share some things in common with the Top Dog. Because I share part of his personality, our lines of communication were open and I felt comfortable discussing anything with him. This allowed me to speak with him in regards to both class related topics and topics that were unrelated to class. I felt Professor Bell was sometimes very forward and loud in his methods at times, but after while I was able to enjoy and learn from him. He possesses a take charge attitude and has vast amounts of energy in the classroom. In my opinion, this helped me to learn and I desired to pay more attention to him because he had character and at the same time, knew in depth what he was speaking on. At times, he could be blunt and insensitive with how he spoke; this was not an issue for me but may have been for others in the class. He did have an autocratic approach to the class which I viewed as a strength because some professors are not as straight forward. I feel this approach allowed him to take proper control over the class and allowed him to carry out the lessons as he saw fit. Professor Douglas Hatler is another professor who has instructed me since my arrival at DeVry. He teaches an intro to business course as well as accounting. He is of the Visionary personality type and these are also known as planners and optimists. Sevens pride themselves on innovation, optimism, planning and being a consultant. Professor Hatler is a seven who fits the bill to the fullest; he also works in financing and investing, thus allowing him to truly consult. Sevens are creative, interactive and imaginative, generous and lively. They have a strong desire to be happy and like to be surrounded by the like. Sevens are cautious risk takers and weigh out all possibilities when taking risks. This personality type suffers some downfalls in the form of short attention spans, sometimes over stimulated, opinionated and impulsive. Sevens have an interesting approach to leadership style as they applaud ideas while balancing different styles of management. They love to tell stories and can sometimes fall off track or topic when doing so. My experience with Professor Hatler was not the best or worst I have ever known, but after learning of his type I can see why nines and sevens are not immensely different. I found that he sometimes strayed from relevant course content with a story, he was trying to make it relevant to the to lesson but I feel it was not always so. I as a nine have trouble with sevens because they are sometimes as uncertain as I am. This can create a bump in the road of communication; one indecisive person is bad enough, let alone two. Since he was well educated on the subject and his personality type liked consulting, it was easy for me to learn and remember the material he covered because he was able to keep my ttention most of the time. I felt a strength he possessed was enthusiasm and he is an idealist. As a Nine, I look for and appreciate these type of characteristics that a seven displays. Overall, communication with Professor Hatler was easy and enjoyable. We are of two different personality types but this does not imply we were unable to effectively communicate. Our personality types allowed us to share some things in common such as: We both like to avoid confro ntation, nines appreciate the idealism of a seven and nines are just as easygoing as sevens. Upon completing the course, I had an overall feeling and sense of accomplishment and that the professor and I shared good communication with one another. The last professor I will speak of is a current instructor, Professor Rasaq. He teaches a computer scripting and database course and I have discovered that he is a Nine. I am familiar with this personality style as I myself am of the Nine personality type. Nines are referred to as peacemakers, negotiators and desire to live in harmony. This personality type is all about avoiding conflict and are the most likely to identify with all other Enneagram types. They believe in staying calm, friendly and maintaining peace and prosperity amongst everyone. Nines are understanding, reliable, steadfast and humble. Some less desirable traits are: problems with anger and self resentment on a regular basis, too accommodating, stubborn, defensive, forgetful and unassertive. The teacher/student relationship here is an awkward one due to the fact we are both nines. This proves to be a challenge and presents some issues in the classroom. Professor Rasaq is laid back and wants to maintain a peaceful and amicable relationship with everyone as nines tend to do. I feel his passiveness allows for a lax learning environment has he does not want to offend anyone or demand too much from the students. The professor and I obviously share some things and traits in common but I believe that both of us being nines make for some clashing of differences. Although we have some apparent differences, there are several characteristics we have in common. Such as we are both open to doing what the other wants to do, we understand our laid back style as nines and we are both calm in our actions. Some strengths Professor Rasaq exhibits in the classroom are: Including all students when asking a question of policy change, offering extra time for students having trouble and he shares credit when students help him with an idea. As a student I look for my professors to be of the authoritarian type that set rules and follow through with them. Having an instructor of my personality type lets me down in that regard since nines tend to be negotiators and do not push the envelope. Our similar personality types mean we likely share many of the same traits and approach to the different types of relationships. On this note, our communication with each other has been one of ease. The problem is not what is being communicated, its what is not being communicated. There is an overall lack of communication on the whole with all the students. I think the low sides of the nine personality type sometimes take the lead in his style. I try to communicate with him to the best of my ability and this is the most I can do. I have learned that even when people try their best, sometimes you just have to accept what is and move on. I have learned from this class and writing this paper that the nine personality types are all unique and interesting in their own ways. Dissecting the types and learning about how other types of personalities interact and communicate has been interesting and rewarding. Applying the Enneagram and the thoughts therein to my professors has opened my eyes to see how different people communicate from each of the personality types. This is an extremely useful tool and can be applied to everyday life in all forms of relationships. The knowledge of these personality types can allow growth and better interaction between all nine types. The more we can learn and understand our difference and how to work around those differences, the better off we all will be.