Enneagram Type 3 - The Performer

Explore all nine Enneagram types

Overview

Threes are feeling-based types, but they channel their emotional energy into getting things done. They take the initiative and work hard to accomplish their goals. They are highly adaptable, and they excel at “feeling out” and meeting the expectations of others when that will lead them to success. They like to stay active and on the go, so it’s hard to stop or slow down. Their focus on keeping up their image and achieving results can get in the way of personal needs and health.

American business is a particularly strong Three culture where performers get a lot of positive reinforcement for being productive and efficient. A danger for Threes is concentrating on external praise or material rewards while losing contact with who they are inside. It’s difficult for them to step out of their roles, feel their own feelings, and decide for themselves what is important.

Strengths

Successful, energetic, high achiever

Problems

Over worked, impatient, competitive

Speaking style

Enthusiastic, motivating themselves and others for success

Lower emotional habit

Vanity, based on keeping up a good image and always being successful

Higher emotion

Truthfulness, which is the willingness to go beyond appearances and develop personal authenticity

Archetypal challenge

To let go of image and social persona and find one’s inner essence

Psychological defenses

Threes use the defense mechanism of identification to avoid failure and maintain a self image of being “successful.” (Identification is a kind of pervasive role-playing and losing oneself in image).

Somatic patterns

As feeling types who put everything into productivity and results, Threes can accrue a lot of tension around their chest and heart. They are the original “Type A’s” and need to watch out for early heart attacks or a weakened immune system. Underneath a strong layer of chest tension there is usually deep sadness from loss of contact with the inner self.

What type Threes tell us about themselves

  • I identify with accomplishment and success.
  • My image drives my need to work hard and look good.
  • I seek approval and acceptance based on performance.
  • I am highly competitive and love winning.
  • I feel constant pressure to perform.

Tips for Relating to Threes

  • To create rapport: Appreciate their work; speed up in talking to them.
  • Try to avoid: Getting in the way of their forward momentum or taking too much of their time.
  • Join them: Being active, getting results, earning recognition
  • To handle conflict: Allow for aggressive exchanges while staying on track with goals. Remind them that successful results can come with many different styles, and that people are important. Challenge their rhetoric or propaganda while allowing them to save face. 
  • To support their growth: Help them look inside and tell the truth about who they really are; support them in having feelings, especially about their failures; encourage them to slow down and pay attention to their health. Value them for who they are, not only for what they accomplish.

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