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Unpack the hidden drives that shape how your Enneagram type shows up in life and leadership.

Have you ever met someone who shares your Enneagram type but acts nothing like you? You might have thought, ‘Wait — are we even the same type?’ That’s the magic of instincts. Instincts explain why two people of the same type can have totally different priorities, fears, and energy. This is another powerful aspect of doing the work of you – both your core motivation and your dominant instinct act automatically, like how patterns can work as we discussed in ep 4. The drive of your motivation is there to protect you and your instinct works similarly – it’s an unconscious reaction – operating like an animalistic instinct. Both your motivation and instinct can take over and run your life if you’re not aware and don’t learn to manage them…so it’s critical to understand which is your dominant instinct and then how to tame it. Be sure to check out Episode 5 to learn more about the Enneagram model and how it works.

Episode topics:

Each of us has all three instincts, but one is usually dominant, one is secondary, and one is least developed or in psychology terms it’s repressed.

1. Self-Preservation (SP): survival instinct – the drive is meeting individual needs, fear is not surviving

• Focus: well being, physical safety, comfort, security, structure. Energy is more conservative, serious, slow and grounded.

2. Social (SO): drive is the group will prevail – everything for the greater good with a focus on ALL, fear of not belonging

• Focus: belonging, status, group dynamics, big ideas and ideals; energy: externalized, spread wide, can be scattered/confused, political

3. Sexual / One-to-One (SX): the drive is to bond and fuse; fear is not being wanted

• Focus: intimate or intense or energizing experiences and connections with another; energy is passionate, high energy, intense, competitive, faster pace

Learn how to use your 3 instincts for growth and what each instinct looks like when combined with the main Enneagram type (1-9).

Coaching Prompts:

• Which instinct feels most like home to you?
  • If SF: play with going without one of your comforts or routines for a week or try focusing on someone else’s needs or desires over your own.
  • If SX: play with moving at a slower pace and finding something to do alone that brings you joy.
  • If SO: play with prioritizing you over everyone else and not advocating for anything on anyone else's' behalf for a little while.
• Consider which instinct feels least relatable to you and noodle on how that may be impacting you.

Resources | Links:

Episode 5: Why The Enneagram is a Leadership Superpower (overview of the model).

Website | The Enneagram 9 Types

GET YOUR ENNEAGRAM TYPE -- includes the Instinct data; most ideal for professional use: leaders and teams

ALT OPTION FOR TYPING - also includes the Instincts

Book | The Enneagram Guide to Waking Up: Find Your Path, Face your Shadow, Discover Your True Self By, Beatrice Chestnut, PhD and Uranio Peas, MM

The Grow Effect Coaching Model

Instagram | The Work of You

Instagram | Grow Collective

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How's it going for you -- doing the work of you?

As we approach a milestone of 10 episodes coming up this week; I felt called to drop an "off the cuff" bonus episode. In it I share what came up for me after hearing Oprah interview the co-founder of the Hoffman Process, Raz Ingrasci. And this notion of substituting vibrancy and happiness with success. I also check in and reflect on where I'm at in my own inner work journey since attending Hoffman in 2016 and I nudge you to check in by asking -- how's it going for you since you started listening? This is hard work and it's important to me that we all feel and trust that we're in this together.

Resources | Links:

Oprah Podcast - Oprah on the Hoffman Process

Website | The Hoffman Process

The Hoffman Quadrinity™ (scroll to bottom of this page to see the symbol/description of my tattoo)

Website | The Enneagram 9 Types

GET YOUR ENNEAGRAM TYPE

Instagram | The Work of You

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Website | The Work of You

Website | Grow Collective

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Today’s episode is all about connecting with the Enneagram in a fresh and engaging way that sticks while helping you do the work of you by understanding yourself on a deeper level. Jen taps into the best qualities of each Enneagram type by bringing to light some of the most soulful, intuitive and lovable creatures: DOGS. As a passionate dog lover, Jen shares two breeds per type to cover the different expressions of each type’s energy. Be sure to listen closely for some special dog shoutouts (and check the @theworkofyou Instagram page for dog pics)! Remember – not all types look the same – when you add your dominant instinct into the mix it can look different. This is covered briefly in EP 5, and there will be a future episode that dives into the 3 instincts further and the 27 subtypes of the Enneagram. For now in this episode, listen for what overarching pieces feel deeply resonate for you -- which dog breed are you?

Episode topics:

• Dogs are perfect comparison -- because they embody traits we recognize and love.
• Reviewing each of the nine Enneagram types starting with the Heart Center (Types 2,3,4), then the Head Center (5,6,7) followed by the Body Center (8,9,1)
• Each type's core motivation is discussed and the personalities of two different dog breeds per type.
• Remember: Enneagram types (#1-9) are 100% based on your subconscious motivation; not outward behaviors.

Coaching Prompts:

1. Which dog description felt the most like you — and why?
2. Was there a type or dog you felt resistance to? What might that reveal?
3. How do you show up when you’re at your best — and what kind of dog would that be?
4. Who in your life might be a totally different ‘dog type’ — and how does that shape your dynamic?

Resources | Links:

Website | The Enneagram 9 Types

GET YOUR ENNEAGRAM TYPE -- includes the Instinct data; most ideal for professional use: leaders and teams

ALT OPTION FOR TYPING - also includes the Instincts

Book | The Enneagram Guide to Waking Up: Find Your Path, Face your Shadow, Discover Your True Self By, Beatrice Chestnut, PhD and Uranio Peas, MM

The Grow Effect Coaching Model

Instagram | The Work of You

Instagram | Grow Collective

Website | The Work of You

Grow Collective | Coaching

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What if feedback felt inspiring and inviting vs something you dread or want to avoid?

Feedback doesn’t have to feel like criticism. In this episode, Jen explores a new way to think about feedback using the Shift Positive® method — a strengths-based, solution-focused approach she co-created that's centered around creating a supportive feedback experience. Despite the best of intentions most of the feedback methods out there have not been designed with the brain in mind. We'll get into the neuroscience and why it makes feedback feel so hard. Then we'll do into 3 immediate shifts you can make in you approach to gathering and giving feedback to make it far more effective and energizing.

Episode topics:

• Why we are triggered by feedback - the SCARF Model by David Rock and understanding Negativity Bias
• What makes strengths-focused feedback different from positive feedback
• How to give solution focused feedback vs problem focused to set someone up for successful change
• Why support is so important in feedback and how to give it
• Examples of how to give strengths, solutions, and supportive feedback
• Client story about their Shift Positive 360
• How your Enneagram type plays a role in how you receive feedback

Coaching Prompts:

1. What’s a piece of feedback that still lingers for you — and why?
2. Ask someone who's important to you: What’s one thing I could do more of to be even more effective with you?
3. Ask a small group of people you feel safe with for a strength-based reflection of you and one piece of solution focused feedback, one thing you can do differently.

Resources | Links:

Book | Feedback Reimagined by Jen Ostrich + Peter Berridge

Website | Shift Positive Method

Training | Get certified in the Shift Positive 360

Website | Get Your Shift Positive 360 with a Grow Collective Coach

Website | The Grow Effect Coaching Model

Instagram | The Work of You

Instagram | Grow Collective

Website | The Work of You

Grow Collective | Coaching

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Life is not designed to go at alone; neither is change.

This episode drops on my 49th birthday so what better than time than now to pause and reflect on some special people who have helped my growth journey. True growth happens in connection — through allies, mirrors, feedback, and belonging. This episode is a personal celebration and a coaching truth: we do not transform alone. If you're a dog lover - be sure to listen to the very end for Koko’s special birthday cameo.

Episode topics:

• Growth and change is not designed to go at alone and how support can shift our perception of how daunting a challenge appears.
• The CP Enneagram retreat - how 25 peoples' own inner work reflected back to me where I had more work to do; specifically through body sensations and reactions, I discovered what's deeply repressed.
• A light tough on Trauma and how it shows up in our body first.
• Knowing who your people are ...who can show up for you in your darkest moments; and what does "showing up for you" look like?
• The power of coaching and having someone to witness your growth, share how far you've come and shine a light on some blindspots.
• A cameo from my best partner...my canine companion Koko, the role he's played in my life, and why he's the main character in my book manuscript: DATING IN DOG YEARS.

Coaching Prompts:

1. Who has helped you become who you are today?
2. Where are you trying to change in isolation?
3. Who might you ask to walk with you now?
4. Invitation to send a thank-you message or a reminder to someone you love and let them know you're here.

Resources | Links:

Website | The Hoffman Process

Retreat | CP Enneagram

Book | The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk M.D.

Video | Koko Birthday Toast

Instagram | The Work of You

Instagram | Grow Collective

Website | The Work of You

Grow Collective | Coaching

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What if the key to your growth isn't fixing what you've been told is a weakness or an area that you need to improve; instead, it's about doubling down on your strengths?

Today's focus is on strengths and why they matter more than your weaknesses. Strengths are a foundation for self-leadership and growth. This is an invitation for you to, instead of obsessing over where you need to improve or what might be some of your weaknesses, to actually think even more than you ever have before about your strengths. The the work of you is about leading from your core, your authentic core, and your strengths are a huge part of that.

Episode topics:

• What is a strength - considering when you are your most energized and most engaged (vs what you're good at vs bad at)
• When you're in "flow" you are using your strengths
• Per Gallup, your strengths are talents that come more naturally to you and the more you use them in different ways the stronger they become
• Strengths can also be over-used, and like patterns, are things we need to know how to manage in certain situations or for specific desired outcomes.
  • Jen shares one story of a client (Enneagram 7 + WOO strength) who needed to manage his strengths in order to help his team grow and develop further.
• Strengths as doorways to growth - how attaching a strength to another area where you'd like to improve can help you get there.

Coaching Prompts:

1. What are you doing during the times when you feel your most energized or engaged?
2. Journal or spend some time thinking about when you feel like you are in flow - what's that like for you when you're working on something and time just flies by.
3. Are there areas of strengths that you feel you're under leveraging? Particularly if you do take one of these assessments, look at what's in your top five, and ask yourself, am I leveraging each of these strengths on a daily basis?
   1. And if not, where / how could I leverage one of them more?

Resources | Links:

Test | Gallup | CliftonStrengths Assessment Link

Test | VIA | Character Strengths Assessment Link

Book | StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath

Book | Feedback Reimagined by Jen Ostrich + Peter Berridge

Instagram | The Work of You

Instagram | Grow Collective

Website | The Work of You

Website | Grow Collective

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The Enneagram is powerful, but also widely under leveraged and often misunderstood. Let's get into why it's your leadership superpower!

This episode is an introduction to clarify what is the Enneagram (and all of its layers), what it's not AND how to use it in practice. ENNEA (greek word for nine) and GRAM (greek word for diagram) makes the 9 point symbol or diagram that is the Enneagram model. This episode is to ground you in the ways you can use the Enneagram in people and team development and all the aspects that help you to understand yourself. In future episodes we'll dive into the nine types in addition to going deeper in each of the layers of data that are available to do the work of you.

Episode topics:

• The Enneagram looks at a core fear which drives a core motivation, your personality, and defense mechanisms -- all in your subconscious -- and then how all of this shows up in your behaviors (what you do consciously)
• Think of the Enneagram as a developmental map
• Enneagram shows you your habitual patterns – by connecting the dots from your underlying beliefs centered around that core motivation and how that drives your behaviors.
• Explains the WHY (motivation) behind WHAT (behaviors) you do
• Based on we are 3-brain beings with 3 primary intelligences: IQ, our intellect (Head Center), EQ, our emotional intelligence reading our own feelings or emotions of others (Heart Center), and BQ, our body awareness using our five senses and inner knowing/gut instinct (Body/Gut Center)
• 3 centers of intelligence: how you take in and experience the world
  • The Body/Gut Center = Types 8,9,1; primary need for autonomy and agency
  • The Heart Center = 2,3,4; primary need for attention and connection
  • The Head Center = 5,6,7; primary need for information/certainty for safety
• Inside each of the 9 types live 3 Instincts: Self Preservation, Social, and Sexual or One-on-One - we have all 3 instincts yet one is our dominant one that colors how we move through the world, then we have a secondary and a repressed instinct
• Taking an Enneagram assessment (see below) can provide this data and more to understand your belief system and how your motivation is driving your behaviors.

Coaching Prompts:

1. When you consider how you experience the world and take in information, what feels most important to you: having certainty and safety, being in connection and feeling seen/valued, or being in control of your environment?

2. What might your go-to strategy be to ensure this in your life today? Feeling safe, seen or in control?

3. What patterns, ways of being or acting does this bring out in you – at home? At work? With your team?

Resources:

Website | The Enneagram 9 Types

GET YOUR ENNEAGRAM TYPE -- includes the Instinct data; most ideal for professional use: leaders and teams

ALT OPTION FOR TYPING - also includes the Instincts

Book | The Enneagram Guide to Waking Up: Find Your Path, Face your Shadow, Discover Your True Self By, Beatrice Chestnut, PhD and Uranio Peas, MM

The Grow Effect Coaching Model

Instagram | The Work of You

Instagram | Grow Collective

Website | The Work of You

Book Enneagram Coaching Session with Jen

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What if your patterns — even the ones that trip you up — are actually trying to protect you?

Let's dive into personality patterns -- what they are, why they are essential to understand about ourselves and how to learn how to manage them. I share the single most profound developmental experience I've been through, the Hoffman Process (link below) where I came to terms with my patterns and learned how to manage them. We'll dive into how to identify yours and tools to learn how to recognize when and where they are showing up. Always remember -- you are NOT your patterns; they are a part of you...but not all of you.

Episode topics:

• What are patterns - essentially automatic ways of being/acting/believing/feeling
• How patterns come to be from early on as a child - what it looks like to adopt, rebel or react patterns
• You are NOT your patterns - they are a part of you but not all of you
• Patterns were created as a protective measure - as a means to feel safe, loved, etc. Why it's so helpful to understand what yours is and how it's trying to protect you
• Example of 9 motivations and fears of the Enneagram - where your patterns live
• My experience in the Hoffman Process - where you learn how to face your patterns and learn how to manage them
• Specific questions and prompts to recognize your own patterns and how to manage them

Coaching Prompts:

1. What’s one pattern you keep running that feels familiar and automatic?
2. When did this pattern first show up? What could it be protecting you from?
3. What would it feel like to thank that pattern for the role it’s played to date and then try a different response and see how that feels.

Resources | Links:

Website | The Hoffman Process

The Hoffman Quadrinity™ (scroll to bottom of this page to see the symbol/description of my tattoo)

Website | The Enneagram 9 Types

GET YOUR ENNEAGRAM TYPE

Instagram | The Work of You

Instagram | Grow Collective

Website | The Work of You

Website | Grow Collective