Page 31 - Using the Enneagram System to Identify and Grow Your Leadership Strengths and Achieve Maximum Success

10 What Type of Leader Are You?

4. Did I check 10 or more items in “Areas of Strength” and “Areas
for Development”?

Fours

Fours desire deep connections both with their own
interior worlds and with other people, and they
feel most alive when they authentically express
their personal experiences and feelings.

Core focus: Will I be rejected or not feel good
enough? Can I express myself?

Common labels: Tragic-romantic, artist, aesthete, individualist

Basic Issues for Fours

EXTREMES OF EMOTIONAL LIFE Fours tend to live at the extremes
of the emotional spectrum, with depression at one end and hyper-
activity at the other. Some may swing between the two. Fours
believe that their intensity of experiencing life’s highs and lows far
surpasses the ordinary happiness for which others settle. Many
Fours give the impression that they believe the statement: “I am
my feelings.”

LONGING Fours idealize that which they believe is beyond their
grasp, romanticizing it and/or yearning for it. As a result, the com-
monplace can seem boring and ordinary by comparison. Most
Fours think of melancholy as a positive, or at least not a negative,
emotion that makes them feel both in touch with their deepest self
and very much alive.

AUTHENTICITY Fours are on a continuous quest for the true, the
real, and the authentic. Their primary focus is on the authenticity
of their own self-expression (usually through the arts or interper-