As a Creative Enneagram Type 3, The Producer, your motto might be: It’s all about results. Nothing else matters. Other people make excuses, but you get it done, whatever it takes. You are very image conscious and would rather die a thousand deaths than be viewed as unsuccessful. It’s very important that you excel at whatever you do and so sometimes you care more about how you stack up to other creators around you instead of measuring yourself against God’s calling on your life.
A pragmatist at heart, you don’t even hesitate when cutting a few corners here and there is what it takes to get to the top. You are very controlling, both of your creative impact on the world, and of those around you. When things don’t turn out as anticipated, you feel like blowing a gasket is just what needs to be done to make sure the people working with you are motivated to aim as high as you are.
You’ve rationalized so many different things away that you can rationalize rationalizing itself. In rare reflective moments, you worry that the unintended consequences of your work will have far-reaching negative implications, but hey, at least you are doing big things in the world, right? When you submit yourself to your Creator’s divine calling and do things God’s way and in God’s timing, trusting Him for the results, then your creative drive can truly be world changing.
The Creative Enneagram Type 3, The Producer, has both healthy and unhealthy manifestations.
The Creative Enneagram Type 3 – Healthy
You are driven to succeed in every creative pursuit. You do whatever it takes to “ship”. You image our Creator’s active involvement in the world around you.
The Creative Enneagram Type 3 – Unhealthy
You can trample others in order to achieve your creative vision. You are so concerned with your image and the trappings of creative success that you miss the broader implications of your work. You even sometimes become morally and ethically flexible in service of seeing your creative vision come to life.
Famous Enneagram Type 3 – Molly Fletcher
Molly Fletcher set down her phone, a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. The look in her mother’s eyes was almost unbearable.
You just don’t get it, Molly.
She was young in her career as one of the world’s only female sports agents. CNN would go on to call her the “female Jerry Maguire” and she would successfully negotiate over $500 million in contracts for hundreds of sports biggest names. But today, she was just a daughter at lunch with her parents. Parents that had traveled 775 miles to spend time with her, and she had just spent the first 45 minutes of their lunch taking “important” phone calls—a baseball player client worried about trade rumors, a broadcaster client wanting to add more games to her schedule, a golfer client needing new logoed apparel—an endless stream of high-powered and famous people needing her time and attention, but none more important than spending time with her parents.
“It was a moment I will never forget. A moment I realized I wasn’t being present with who mattered most. I had been afraid to not answer the calls, but as soon as I ended the last one, the truth hit… I was acting just like one of those people quick to wear business as a badge of honor, but in that moment, my parents took me back down to earth.” [1]
When she’s not closing multi-million-dollar deals, Molly Fletcher is writing, speaking—she’s a sought-after keynote speaker for many of the Fortune 500’s biggest brands—and serving on the advisory board of Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) and the Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA).
She’s the kind of person who takes up tennis after being told as a child by parents and older brothers to just be the ball girl. She remembers that day clearly. After chasing down balls and watching them play, “I looked at all of them at the end of the match and said, ‘Hey, I just want you guys to all know that it won’t be long before I’m beating every single one of you.” [2] It should come as no surprise that she would go on to not only do so but captain an NCAA Division I women’s tennis team at Michigan State University.
No one would ever dispute the impact Molly has made on the world, but it was only when she slowed down, controlling her energy and her time, living in collaboration and even recuperation mode instead of making everything a competition that she began aligning her creative vision with the Creator’s in order to use her Creative Type to truly create for change.
More than voting. More than arguing on social media. Committing to real cultural change requires so much more. Discover your creative calling today.
Discover How You Can Create for Change
[1] Molly Fletcher The Energy Clock: 3 Simple Steps to Create a Life Full of ENERGY – and Live Your Best Every Day Simple Truths (January 2020) p. 1
[2] https://www.typologypodcast.com/podcast/2019/03/10/episode03-010/mollyfletcher