Becoming Essential

Amazon ceo Jeff Bezos isn’t in my top ten list of business leaders, but he hit the nail on the head when he said, “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

Reputation and brand are one.

Brands are shared cultural goods. You can own trademarks, patents and a global fleet of trucks, but your brand will never entirely belong to you. It’s a partnership with your audience. It isn’t you, and it isn’t them; it’s the thing that lives between. One plus one equals three.

I often tell clients it isn’t my job to create their brand, strictly speaking. If you’re a brand manager, I can help you create a brand strategy and identity, launch it and cultivate it. I can help you define your promise, purpose and value proposition, but it’s your job to follow through and build trust with your audience.

If you want to form connections with actual human beings – customers – then your brand storytelling and identity should also be based on actual human beings. So how do we go about this?

Many employ Jennifer Aaker’s “Big Five” dimensions of brand personality – Competence, Excitement, Ruggedness, Sincerity, Sophistication. Others use psychoanalyst Carl Jung’s twelve mythological archetypes. The Caregiver, the Hero, the Sage and so on. I’ll compare and contrast these methods another time. For now, I want to tell you about my approach, the results my clients have seen and how we practiced what we preach for Steel Brothers’ own brand.

The typologies listed above are all diagnostic. You’re an extrovert, she’s more of a thinker than a feeler, he’s compassionate, our company culture skews toward dominance. Well and good. But why do we do what we do? What drives us? This is where the Enneagram shines.

According to Enneagram theory, there are nine observable personality types in the world. Each type’s behavior and worldview stems from an unconscious motivation that develops during childhood and becomes the animating force of our lives. As the author Dane Ortlund says, this force is “What gets us out of bed in the morning and what we daydream about as we drift off to sleep.”

I use the Enneagram to give brands human souls. As a result, these brands drive business by drawing ideal customers and employees. They become essential.

I’m not saying these or any other brands are essential to survival like food and water. It’s probably safe to say that no brand has ever saved someone from imminent death, and I can absolutely guarantee nothing I’ve ever made is that important. What I mean is this. Enneagram-based brands reflect something true and beautiful and essential about human nature. People love them. If they were to disappear, the places they occupy would be somewhat diminished.

Below are the unconscious motivations of each Enneagram type. Notice the assumptions central to each – I need to do X to have Y. And notice the implicit falsehoods: each is prone to taking something good and true and twisting it. Or, as my dad says, turning a good thing into an ultimate thing. If you’re new to the Enneagram or are unsure of your type, read all nine sentences carefully. Does one of these resonate with you? Does one repel you more than any other? If a description doesn’t hit you in one way or another, you can probably rule it out.

These summaries are adapted from the work of Ian Morgan Cron, as found in his book The Road Back to You and Typology podcast.

One: The Improver
I need to perfect myself, others, and the world in order to be good and have integrity.

Two: The Befriender
I need to be liked and to meet the needs of others to win their love and approval.

Three: The Achiever
I need to succeed, appear successful and avoid failure in order to be worthy and valuable.

Four: The Individualist
I need to find what makes me significant and unique, and to be seen, heard and known in order to have an identity.

Five: The Investigator
I need to understand and perceive, and to gather knowledge so I can be prepared to meet life.

Six: The Loyal Skeptic
I need to feel safe, stable, and secure so I can trust myself and others and have support.

Seven: The Enthusiast
I need to pursue excitement, fun and fulfillment in order to avoid difficult emotions.

Eight: The Challenger
I need to be strong, protect myself and others, and control my environment in order to mask my vulnerabilities.

Nine: The Peacemaker
I need to avoid conflict and discomfort at all costs so I can maintain my internal equilibrium and peace of mind.

If all of these seem more or less depressing, take heart: we can recover – substantially but not entirely – from the limits of our personalities. By making our unconscious motivations conscious, we can begin to see the many ways our lives are run, without our permission, by personality. We can start to bring more awareness to our decisions. What’s more, this framework also points to specific ways you and I mirror God’s character. At their best, Nines are exceptionally equipped to reflect God’s peace; Sixes excel at reflecting his faithfulness; Fours have a gift for revealing his beauty, and so on.

The Enneagram is complex and dynamic because, well, humans. There are variations and shadings of each type; to a degree, each of us contains all nine. But like it or not, a single type dominates throughout our lives. So what’s the point of this knowledge? It isn’t merely to diagnose, and it definitely isn’t to create stereotypical memes, attack other people or excuse our bad behavior.

The purpose of the Enneagram is to help us become more self-aware and more compassionate towards others and ourselves. It helps us wake up to the many ways we sleepwalk through life.

This system has found traction not only in psychological and spiritual circles but across the corporate world, as well. You can be a follower of any or no religion to benefit from it. As a Christian, my worldview differs significantly from the Enneagram’s early teachers and more than a few of its current advocates. And yet, I’ve found it highly compatible with, and adaptable to, my spiritual life.

The Enneagram will let us down if we turn it into a religion. It can’t save me or bring me into right relationship with God. My pastor says, “salvation equals Jesus plus nothing else,” and I agree. I also love what Christian Enneagram teacher Beth McCord says along these lines: “We can use the Enneagram to gain self-awareness, but at the end of the day, we have to know not only who we are, but Whose we are, to find real restoration and freedom.”

I first discovered the Enneagram in 2012, and God has used it to deepen and clarify my understanding of how much I need his grace every day. Because of the chemistry between biblical and Enneagram teaching, I now know the name of my deadliest sin: envy. Every day, I get to nail my envy to the cross of Christ. The Enneagram has enhanced my marriage, friendships, and – back to the topic – my branding process.

The Enneagram reveals both the light and shadow sides of the human experience. It would be harmful to build a brand on the automatic or unhealthy aspects of a personality. We need to look instead to the healthiest and most resourceful expressions of a type. These are the qualities we take on when we act like people with personalities rather than personalities with people. Maybe not Superman, but Lois Lane on a really good day. Here’s what this can look like in terms of brand essence and attributes.

One brands promote goodness and integrity, work towards justice and fairness, and improve everything they touch. These brands are discerning, ethical and mission-driven.

Two brands are warm and friendly, serving through acts of generosity, healing and hospitality. They are altruistic, caring, interpersonal and demonstrative.

Three brands drive themselves and others toward greater success, leading by example and striving for excellence. They are adaptive, assertive, charitable and winsome.

Four brands create meaning, promote beauty and vice versa. They invite deep connection and renewal. Four brands are authentic, expressive, inspiring and intuitive.

Five brands develop innovative ideas, see the world in new ways and uncover surprising insights. They are curious, iconoclastic, inventive and wise.

Six brands create stability, support the greater good and promote cooperation. These brands are committed, engaging, sincere and witty.

Seven brands explore the unknown, spread joy and create rich experiences. They are adventurous, enthusiastic, optimistic and playful.

Eight brands are big-hearted leaders that promote justice and fight to protect the under-served. They are assertive, direct, magnanimous and passionate.

Nine brands bring people together, fostering harmony, trust and wellbeing. These brands are creative, diplomatic, humble and vibrant.

I use Enneagram typology in two ways: fictional and biographical. In both cases, we’re looking for an authentic human character. The question is, do we form a fictitious character or find one who exists in real life?

Fundraising campaigns and public institutions are typically more about a social movement or collective than a single originating perspective. In such cases, we’ll look at the overall organizational personality and explore how it might communicate with the audience. I’ll look for motivation and character clues, particularly in brand language workshops. I’ll then select an Enneagram type that best fits the group and develop a fictitious personality. Writers in other fields have taken a similar approach to character development for novels and screenplays.

Sometimes, it makes sense to build a brand identity around a founder or partner whose worldview has shaped the company and plans to remain involved for the foreseeable future. This is the biographical method, and it’s our typical approach when working with small to midsize companies. As with the fictional method, I’ll lead a language workshop with the client team, but we’ll already know the brand’s basic personality structure. We then focus the brand strategy on the places where this leader’s motivations, beliefs and values connect with the needs of their audience and employees.

With both methods, Enneagram theory informs not only the brand’s voice and tone, i.e., personality, but also its promise, values, ambition – and, most importantly, its purpose.

The biographical approach involves personality assessments. If the client is unsure of their type or wants confirmation, I’ll pair them with a friend of mine who is a certified Enneagram coach.

Before the workshop, we ask each client stakeholder to spend a few hours reflecting and journaling about their personal purpose or “why.” This work informs a brainstorming exercise where we generate rough ideas about the organization’s purpose.

This method is personal, even raw and occasionally uncomfortable – but it works. Over time, I’ve seen employee engagement increase. Sales processes become more effective. The bottom line improves. Effects tend to be gradual, but they can be sudden, even coming to fruition before the brand identity is complete.

Take Walker Architects, a client I worked with at Parisleaf, as an example. In June 2017, we were about two-thirds of the way through their rebrand. After we delivered their brand strategy and messaging, Joe Walker and his team used it the very next day to pitch and win their first-ever eight-figure contract. Joe is a Seven, aka the Enthusiast or Visionary, and we intentionally seasoned their brand language with Seven energy and panache. We made a few tweaks on the spot, but otherwise, he was over the moon.

“Make old spaces new, new spaces timeless, and think beyond the limits of architecture.” – Walker Architects’ purpose

Joe told us that for the very first time since starting his firm, he’d felt equipped to describe what makes Walker Architects different and why they exist – in a way that made their client sit up and take notice. Again, this was even before we’d designed the visual identity.

Some clients embrace the Enneagram in the workplace and weave it into their hr programs, and it thrills my heart to see that happen. After all, every professional conflict is really a personality conflict. If you can get an accurate read on the undercurrents that shape an employee’s behavior (not to mention your own), communication will improve. Conflict resolution will consume fewer calories. Quality and output will increase. You’ll make more money.

I’ve also worked with more than a few clients who are indifferent or uninterested in the Enneagram’s personal application. In fact, while I’m obviously a fan, Jon isn’t wild about it – and that’s okay. He respects the process, and he’s seen how it leads to authentic brands that drive business.