The Nine Enneagram Types

Type 1 carries an inner critic that measures the world against a standard of how things ought to be.

Core drive: To live up to an inner standard of rightness and leave things better than you found them.

Type 2 reads a room's needs almost before they're spoken and moves to meet them.

Core drive: To secure a lasting place in people's lives by being the one they can lean on.

Type 3 becomes whatever a situation rewards, reads the room for what success looks like, and gets there efficiently.

Core drive: To earn your worth by winning, delivering, and being seen to succeed.

Type 4 builds identity around what feels missing and searches for depth, meaning, and the authentically personal.

Core drive: To live as unmistakably yourself and be understood at real depth.

Type 5 conserves energy and privacy, preferring to master a subject before engaging with it.

Core drive: To understand things deeply enough to feel self-sufficient — without being drained.

Type 6 scans for what could go wrong and prepares for it, which makes you loyal, responsible, and questioning.

Core drive: To feel secure by lining up support and getting ahead of what could go wrong.

Type 7 reframes pain into possibility and keeps life full of options, plans, and stimulation.

Core drive: To stay free and stimulated, with more good options than you can use.

Type 8 moves first and protects its own, treating intensity as a form of honesty.

Core drive: To stay strong and in charge of your own life, and to shield your people.

Type 9 merges with others' agendas to keep the peace, staying steady, absorbing, and hard to rush.

Core drive: To keep things calm and connected, inside yourself and all around you.