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The Enneagram In Business Blog - by Ginger Lapid-Bogda

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Famous Enneagram Eights: Margaret Thatcher and Donald Trump

WORLDVIEW: The powerful try to take advantage of the weak; I must change this.

EIGHTS pursue the truth, want situations under control, strive to make important things happen, and try to hide their vulnerability.

Assertive, bold, and confident, Eights are highly independent, with a tendency to both protect and control people and events around them and a deep commitment to truth, justice, and equity or fairness. Most Eights are excessive in some way, particularly when they feel anxious or vulnerable. Because they strongly prefer to not show this side of themselves to others, perceiving such reactions as signaling weakness, Eights mask their tender side by engaging in excessiveness in a variety of forms: over-work, too much or too little exercise, erratic or unhealthy eating, and other forms of over-consumption such as incessant shopping or the purchasing of highly expensive items that they don’t really need.

Eights want to get their needs and desires met, want to make big things happen quickly, much akin to moving mountains, and most have a big presence even when they are saying little. Eights can also appear somewhat different from one another.  Some Eights are very quiet with a low threshold for frustration; other Eights are social rebels and protective of others to an extreme; and some Eights are highly emotional, extraordinarily passionate, and enjoy being center stage.

In the following YouTube segments, you will see short clips of two famous Eights: Margaret Thatcher and Donald Trump. These clips are excellent examples of the Eights’ interpersonal style. They assert themselves using a voice modulated for effect. For example, Thatcher uses a strident voice and commanding eye contact, while Trump uses an assertive, even aggressive, voice to stake out his command of the situation. In both tapes, Thatcher and Trump are seeking to redress an imbalance, settle a score, and take control through their comments and tone.

Remember: While we can all highly value truth-telling and pursue justice, want to make big things happen, and have issues with not appearing weak, for Eights the pursuit of control and justice, and the avoidance of vulnerability, is their primary, persistent, and driving motivation.

Margaret Thatcher- Click here to see clip
In this interview (though you wouldn’t know it’s an interview until half way through), Thatcher has something she clearly intends to say; watch how she responds when the interviewer tries to insert a question of his own. She clearly doesn’t like the queries, and she uses a variety of tactics to make sure she’s in-charge.

Donald Trump- Click here to see clip
Watch Trump talk about his battle with Rosie O’Donnell. In this sequence of short clips, notice the following: Trump’s extreme language in describing O’Donnell; his unabashed comments about facing a fight; and how he suggests that his comments are a reaction to her accusations that he was going bankrupt.
Posted by Ginger Lapid-Bogda, Ph.D at 3:55 PM
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2 comments:

  1. Enneagram teachers seem to have such different ideas as to the enneagram types of celebrities.

    I was taught that Thatcher was a One with her rigid hairstyle, rigid body type as well as the One style to leading her country. She was known to rule with an iron fist inside kid gloves. She was tightly wound like a One and doesn't seem to have the sentimentality, or the shoot from the hip talking style that comes from other Eights. She is also famously known as the ice maiden which seems very One like.

    I was also taught that Trump is a Three, with his name on his buildings and his attention to image and his flair for self promotion. Certainly as an outsider to America, Trump comes across as the quintessential Three, inhabiting all the Three qualities which so represent the States.

    Sometimes it seems a pity there are disagreements out there among the teachers. I admit it can be hard when you're taught one thing and then another teacher sees something completely different. I'm aware of how difficult it is for me to see Thatcher or Trump as an Eight when I've been taught to see them as different types.

    Sometimes it's great though to discover different typings from the different teachers because it makes you take another look.

    And I certainly think its good that there are different teachers so that we keep the debate alive and keep looking with fresh eyes.
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  2. Hi Clare,
    Different people and different authors can type people differently, and we really don't know the public figures. If you go to the video clips in the blog, you may have a different sense than what you learned or even what I suggest. I think the discussion is important. I do think Donald Trump is really an 8; most Threes in the US at least are more subtle in their self-promotion. From watching Trump on many interviews and his "Apprentice," he strikes in many ways as a humble man underneath the big personality.
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