What is the Enneagram 9w8 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 9w8 is a blend of the Enneagram 9 and the Enneagram 8, meaning this profile falls fully into the Gut Triad.
We’ll start by talking about how this profile is composed of 9 and 8, then talk about its core traits. We’ll round off with a field manual for the Enneagram 9w8: a summary of its core strengths, weaknesses, fears and desires.
What is the Enneagram 9w8 Type?
First, let’s clarify what the Enneagram 9w8 is. It means an Enneagram 9 with an 8 Wing. It helps if you understand the 9 Enneagram Profiles in some depth.
If you have a 9w8 personality, it means you’re predominantly an Enneagram 9, but exhibit some traits from the adjacent profile, number 8. It’s also possible to be a pure 9, or a 9w1.
If you want an approximation of what a 9w8 looks like, take the core 9 and 8 traits and blend them together, with 9 dominating. If you know somebody who is primarily a 9 but has significant 8 traits, they might well be an 9w8.
The folks at personalitydata.org found that only 0.3% of Enneagram 9s exhibit a 8 wing. 93.6% are pure 9s, while the other wing type, 9w1, makes up the remaining 6.1%.
Remember, the 9w8 is predominantly a 9 but shows significant 8 traits.
9s seek tolerance, calm and interpersonal harmony (The Peacemaker), while 8s desire power, and are hard-working, competitive and supremely pragmatic (The Challenger).
9w8s are predominantly a 9, so tend to be calm and composed, and great at resolving conflict and building connections. bullish, self-assured and fiercely practical side. They tend to be a little more bullish and self-assured than a typical 9, which can sometimes be an advantage and sometimes a disadvantage.
In a nutshell, the 9w8 aims to keep the peace and get everyone on the same page, like a quintessential 9. Yet it also inherits a fair deal of the standard 8 traits, so it shows greater inner strength and assertiveness than a 9 would.
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 9w8.
The Core Traits
The Enneagram 9w8 Type is called the Advisor because it’s calm and collected, socially endowed and seeks to maintain harmony, yet also firm, powerful and visionary. Its basic desire is to keep things in balance, though it also wishes to assert itself and take charge.
The typical 8 fear of being dominated or outwitted by others lives on. It likes to be in charge and call the shots. This desire for control and its need to impose can clash with 9’s drive for harmony.
As with all Enneagram Profiles, there are downsides to the 9w8. For one thing, the Type 9 can be stubborn in its insistence that everyone should get along.
Combine this with 8’s need to accumulate power and assert itself, and you can get a nasty combination. The 9w8 can wind up like an angry bear, believing it’s doing what’s best, while actually creating conflict and discord. The 9 often forgets to look out for itself, which may jeopardise 8’s need to direct, control and conquer.
The 9w8 is a very rare type for this reason. 8s and 9s in some ways are polar opposites of one another. Having a personality that is a blend of the two can be confusing and contradictory.
Whether we have a 9w8 personality or not, we can learn from its successes and struggles. It’s a universal fact that if our prime directive is to seek harmony and connection while also accumulating power and calling the shots, we can end up torn and divided, tangled up in contradiction.
The best professions for the Advisor are those that take place in slower environments but that require some self-assertion and confidence, like a vet or a therapist.
The Enneagram 9w8 Field Manual
The core fear of the 9w8 is causing excessive interpersonal discord.
Its core drives are to create harmony and find balance.
The strengths of the 9w8 are its calm confidence, people skills and empathy.
Its weaknesses include its insistence on harmony at all costs, and the conflict between its 9 core and 8 wing.
The 9w8 is at its best when it’s in a harmonious environment, playing the role of leader.
Master the Enneagram with my series of articles on the Enneagram Wing Types
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