What is the Enneagram 7w8 personality type? What are its key traits, strengths, weaknesses and fears? We’ll answer these questions in this article.
This is one of the 18 Enneagram Wing Types, which don’t exhibit traits of just one profile, but blend two adjacent ones. The 7w8 is a blend of the Enneagram 7 and the Enneagram 8, meaning this profile falls into both the Head triad and Gut triad, which makes for a curious personality.
We’ll start by talking about how this profile is composed of 7 and 8, then talk about its core traits. We’ll round off with a field manual for the Enneagram 7w8: a summary of its core strengths, weaknesses, fears and desires.
What is the Enneagram 7w8 Type?
First, let’s clarify what the Enneagram 7w8 is. It means an Enneagram 7 with a 8 Wing. It helps if you understand the 9 Enneagram Profiles in some depth.
If you have a 7w8 personality, it means you’re predominantly an Enneagram 7, but exhibit some traits from the adjacent profile, number 8. It’s also possible to be a pure 7, or a 7w6.
If you want an approximation of what a 7w8 looks like, take the core 7 and 8 traits and blend them together, with 7 dominating. If you know somebody who is primarily a 7 but has significant 8 traits, they might well be a 7w8.
The folks at personalitydata.org found that 4.1% of Enneagram 7s exhibit a 8 wing. 89.2% are pure 7s, while the other wing type, 7w6, makes up the remaining 6.7%.
Remember, the 7w8 is predominantly a 7 but shows significant 8 traits.
7s are outgoing, larger than life and optimistic (The Enthusiast), while 8s desire power, and are hard-working and supremely pragmatic (The Challenger).
7w8s are predominantly a 7, so are extroverted, live for pleasure and love coming up with plans and ideas, but the 8 wing means they exhibit some of the core Challenger traits. So they’re also bullish, self-assured and fiercely practical. They tend to be more grounded, serious and goal-driven than a typical 7.
In a nutshell, the 7w8 is highly energetic and vivacious, yet also tough and independent. It’s a complex character!
For your information, I refer to personality types as “it” because they’re abstract profiles derived from real-world data, detached from any one person. Though the Enneagram possess huge explanatory power, nobody is a cookie-cutter 7w8.
The Core Traits
The Enneagram 7w8 Type is called the Opportunist because it’s a pleasure-seeker and highly energetic yet also firm, powerful and focused. Its basic desire is to live life to the fullest while making things happen and taking charge.
Like a typical 7, it fears being bored or lonely. This jives with the strong 8 drive to be on the go, accomplish and achieve. That said, its fast rhythm can exacerbate 7’s tendency for hyperactivity and perpetual seeking.
As with all Enneagram Profiles, there are downsides to the 7w8. For one thing, the Type 7 can be polyannish, always on-the-go and ultra-energetic.
Combine this with 8’s need to accumulate power and assert itself, and you can get a nasty combination. The 7w8 can wind up overworking and oversocialising and get burnt out. The 7 is poor at completing projects, which may jeopardise 8’s hard-hitting practicality.
The 7w8 really doesn’t want to be controlled by fears. It needs to feel it’s in charge, respected, the orchestrator. As a result, it can be domineering, stubborn and paranoid. It’s prone to becoming isolated, because it fears that intimacy and openness may expose its weaknesses.
Whether we have a 7w8 personality or not, we can learn from its successes and struggles. It’s a universal fact that if our prime directive is to be ultra sociable and active while accumulating power and getting things done, we can end up overstimulated, anxious and worn out.
The best professions for the Opportunist are those that are active, varied and goal-oriented, like sales and public speaking.
The Enneagram 7w8 Field Manual
The core fears of the 7w8 are to be bored, feel controlled or be exposed as weak.
Its core drives is to live life to the fullest and make things happen.
The strengths of the 7w8 are its enthusiasm, energy and ability to get things done.
Its weaknesses include its rabid aversions to boredom, mediocrity and domination.
The 7w8 is at its best when it’s active, excited, on the move and in charge.
Master the Enneagram with my series of articles on the Enneagram Wing Types
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