Enneagram 3
PERFORMANCE
Welcome to Your Comprehensive Enneagram Guide
Get ready to dive into clear, practical insights for each Enneagram type. Whether you want to understand yourself, strengthen your team, or boost your leadership, you’ll find valuable information beyond the basics. Discover key traits, motivations, challenges, and actionable tips to make impactful decisions and foster growth.
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PERFORMANCE can be used to create excellence and adapt to a variety of situations and challenges. It motivates and inspire others to a common goal. It prioritizes tasks and work efficiently.
PERFORMANCE can be used to overwork and neglect other needs or relationships. It can set impossible standards leading to disappointment and frustration while avoiding fears and other emotions.
An Enneagram 3 might think:
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Ambitious and Goal-Oriented: I have a strong drive to achieve, I can be quite competitive. I love seeing the completion of a task or to-do list.
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Concern for Efficiency: I prioritize productivity and strongly dislike having my time spent inefficiently. This tendency has frequently resulted in overworking across various aspects of my life.
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Fear of Failure: Because of my desire to do well in life, I am very sensitive to failure. I prefer to examine and talk about the successful moments of my life and have been known to seek external validation for my achievements.
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Adaptable and Versatile: I am great in social situations. I am very capable of adjusting my approach to fit whatever situation I find myself in.
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Positive and Upbeat: I love life. I am known for my positive and upbeat demeanour. I love to cheer people on in their success and be part of uplifting communities.
Centre of Intelligence: Heart Type
Heart Types lead with their emotions and feelings. They are often very aware of matters of personal identity and self-image. They are driven by connection and impacted by the dominant emotion of sadness.
Enneagram 3s use their emotional intelligence to navigate social dynamics and project success. They focus on achieving and maintaining an image of competence and effectiveness, often avoiding deeper emotional vulnerability to stay focused on their goals.
Dominant Emotion: Sadness
Enneagram 3s experience sadness when they feel like their efforts are not recognized or when they fail to meet their high standards for success. This emotion can drive them to push harder and become even more determined, often leading to overwork.
Sadness can lead to empathy and greater connection but can also decrease motivation and lead to disengagement and low morale.
Central Focus:
I focus on producing things of value for others.
Important Values:
I value attentiveness, efficiency and encouragement.
Danger Zone:
Adapting Behaviours - the need to adjust how things appear to feel successful.
Antidote:
Truthfulness - focusing on an unfiltered and honest view of the situation.
Distorted Lens: Appearance
Each Enneagram type has an emotional filter effecting thoughts, feelings and actions. It is automatic and unconscious, created from core fears and desires. In traditional Enneagram language this is referred to as a “passion.” The Passion is our attempt to recreate a version of our true nature when life becomes overwhelming.
The distorted lens for Threes is appearance. Appearance refers to the need to present an image of success in work, social engagements or personal relationships.
True Nature: Truthfulness
The true nature of each Enneagram type is referred to as their “virtue.” The virtue is the exact opposite and antidote to our distorted view on the world.
The true nature of Threes is truthfulness. Truthfulness is the unfiltered view of humanity both inside and out. Truthfulness is saying, “I am me.” Truthfulness is acknowledging that we are exactly who the world needs for it to unfold perfectly. No need for stress or struggle, every action naturally rippling outward to affect the greater whole.
At My Best:
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Driven and Ambitious: Enneagram Threes are highly motivated and goal-oriented, always striving for success and excellence.
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Efficient and Productive: They are adept at managing their time and resources, making them incredibly productive.
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Confident and Charismatic: Threes exude confidence and charm, making them natural leaders and effective communicators.
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Optimistic and Positive: They maintain a positive outlook, inspiring and motivating those around them.
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Adaptable and Flexible: Threes can quickly adapt to new situations and challenges, showing great versatility.
Under Stress:
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Overly Competitive: Enneagram Threes may become overly competitive, focusing too much on winning and losing sight of collaboration.
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Workaholic Tendencies: Threes might overwork themselves, neglecting their health and personal life in pursuit of success.
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Fear of Failure: Under stress, they can develop a paralyzing fear of failure, leading to anxiety and burnout.
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Superficiality: They might focus on appearances and superficial achievements rather than meaningful accomplishments.
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Impatience: Threes can become impatient with themselves and others, expecting quick results.
Working with Threes:
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Leverage Their Drive: Threes are motivated and goal-oriented. Recognize their achievements while encouraging them to take breaks and pace themselves.
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Clarify Goals: Ensure they know what success looks like in a project. Threes thrive on clear objectives and deadlines.
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Focus on Authenticity: Challenge Threes to connect with their deeper values and not just external achievements. This supports long-term fulfillment.
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Collaborate on Tasks: Threes work well in teams and appreciate recognition. Encourage them to share successes and value the process as well as the outcome.
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Balance Achievement and Rest: Promote downtime and personal reflection to help Threes balance their productivity with well-being.
Subtypes: Different Takes on Success
Each of the three subtypes below are slightly different ways Enneagram 3's approach success. These subtypes are created when we combine the distorted lens of the type, appearance, and an “overdoing” of one of the natural human survival instincts for self-preservation, social safety and one-to-one bonding and relationship.
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Self-Preservation 3's work for success to support the people around them - providing physical and material security for others.
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Social 3's work for success by securing visible roles in social and professional capacities
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One-to-One 3's work for success in one- on-one relationships - helping specific others achieve success.
Read through the descriptions below and consider which subtype description fits best - you may see characteristics of yourself in more than one.
Success in Hard Work and Family Security
SP3's are the quiet achievers - they're not out there broadcasting their wins, but they're constantly getting things done. Family and stability matter big time to them. They might not realize how much they work, but they know they feel most settled when they're being productive and reliable. Less flashy than other Threes, they let their consistent results speak for themselves.
*This is the counter-type: a subtype driven by the same motivation but expressing it in seemingly opposing ways.
Self-Preservation
Success in Leadership and Prestige
Masters at reading what success looks like in any room they walk into. SO3's naturally adapt to whatever's valued in their environment - whether that's being the hardest worker, the most polished presenter, or the team player. They might not notice how quickly they shift gears, but they always seem to know what impresses. They're particularly good at managing their image, though they might not realize how much energy goes into keeping up appearances.
Social
Success in Important Connections
OT3's shine brightest in one-on-one connections. They often find themselves helping others succeed and actually enjoy seeing others do well - especially people they're close to. While they might not catch themselves doing it, they can get competitive for attention from their inner circle. More emotionally expressive than other Threes, though they might not always know what to do with those feelings when they pop up.
One-to-One
Wing 2:
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RELATIONSHIP: Threes can use this wing to discover the beauty of relationship. They pause in their doing to experience connection.
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LISTENING: With this wing, Threes become more open to expressions from the heart. They see how natural it is for them to connect with others through their emotions.
Using Your Wings
The numbers on either side of your Enneagram number are referred to as your wings. These two adjacent numbers flavour your main number and add to your growth and development.
Wing 4:
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DISCLOSURE: Threes can use this wing to get in touch with their hard feelings. They value depth of emotion and begin to disclose more of their inner world.
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TRUER SELF: With this wing, Threes tune into the importance of authenticity. They recognize there is success in learning how to be more yourself.
Point 6:
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HEALTHY FEAR: Threes can use this arrow point to engage in an evaluation of healthy fear. Looking at the possible risks rather than charging ahead.
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QUESTIONING: With this arrow point, Threes are able to see potential problems ahead, ask questions and examine other options. They grow in their trust of themselves and others as they engage in a deeper way.
Using Your Arrows
The inner lines connecting your Enneagram number to other numbers around the circle are referred to as your arrow points. These two numbers can be incorporated into your self-development work for significant and lasting change.
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PATIENCE: Threes can use this arrow point to develop patience with themselves and others. They can relax, take time to observe what is already happening and join in where it fits for them.
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MODERATE: With this arrow point, Threes slow down their usual quick pace. They embrace the ebb and flow of life, finding balance in doing and pausing.
To The Threes:
Threes, you are awesome; just who you are is awesome. If you woke up tomorrow and didn’t accomplish anything, we’d still think you were awesome. It isn’t the tasks, projects, accomplishments or awards that we see when we look at you, we see someone who is far more than what they can do, we see someone that has unique thoughts and feelings that are inherently valuable and interesting. Take a moment between your tasks today to take a deep breath and see what else is going on inside.
Embrace Your Path to Growth
The Enneagram is more than just a tool—it’s a roadmap to exceptional personal and professional awareness. Explore the intricacies of your type to elevate your leadership, strengthen team cohesion, and foster authentic growth.
Why the Enneagram:
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Pinpoints the motivations that fuel your decisions
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Uncovers hidden obstacles limiting progress
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Equips you with targeted strategies to amplify strengths
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Enhances communication for greater influence and connection
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Don’t stop at surface-level understanding. Harness the Enneagram’s depth to uncover the best version of yourself and inspire those around you.