Ian Morgan Cron: The Road Back to You

Ian Morgan Cron is a bestselling author, speaker, trained psychotherapist, songwriter, and Episcopal priest, but he may be best known for popularizing the Enneagram. The Enneagram is a personality typing system identifying nine types of people and how they relate to one another and the world. His popular Enneagram book, The Road Back to You* gave fresh language and interest in this assessment.

Ian enjoys sharing about the Enneagram with audiences of all sizes because of its power for igniting personal growth, and how it can enrich our personal and professional lives. His newest book The Story of You* helps people go a step further, using Enneagram wisdom to uncover and rewrite our own false narratives so we can live life more fully.

In this conversation, Ian and I look at the core aspects of the Enneagram model and how it can help us understand ourselves better so we can also support others more effectively. We highlight the nine Enneagram types and their key traits and distinctions. Then, we discuss how the first steps leaders might take in order to start raising their own self-awareness.

Key Points

Too often we believe that how we see the world is “normal” instead of recognizing that there are many normal ways to see the world.
Personality is like the rooms of our home. We have a favorite room but we still use all the other rooms when its appropriate.

The 9 Enneagram Types

The Perfectionist – Ethical, dedicated and reliable, they are motivated by a desire to live the right way, improve the world, and avoid fault and blame.
The Helper – Warm, caring and giving, they are motivated by a need to be loved and needed, and to avoid acknowledging their own needs.
The Performer (or Achiever) – Success-oriented, image-conscious and wired for productivity, they are motivated by a need to be (or appear to be) successful and to avoid failure.
The Romantic (or Individualist) – Creative, sensitive and moody, they are motivated by a need to be understood, experience their oversized feelings and avoid being ordinary.
The Investigator – Analytical, detached and private, they are motivated by a need to gain knowledge, conserve energy and avoid relying on others.
The Loyalist – Committed, practical and witty, they are worst-case-scenario thinkers who are motivated by fear and the need for security.
The Enthusiast – Fun, spontaneous and adventurous, they are motivated by a need to be happy, to plan stimulating experiences and to avoid pain.
The Challenger – Commanding, intense and confrontational, they are motivated by a need to be strong and avoid feeling weak or vulnerable.
The Peacemaker – Pleasant, laid back and accommodating, they are motivated by a need to keep the peace, merge with others and avoid conflict.

Resources Mentioned

The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery* by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile
The Story of You: An Enneagram Journey to Becoming Your True Self* by Ian Morgan Cron
Take the Integrative Enneagram iEQ9
Typology Institute Enneagram courses

Related Episodes

Enhance Your Self-Awareness, with Daniel Goleman (episode 353)
The Way to Be More Self-Aware, with Tasha Eurich (episode 442)
Discover Who You Are, with Hortense le Gentil (episode 459)

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