Ones: The Need to be Perfect

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Ones: The Need to be Perfect
Enneagram Personality Types
MTL Course Topics
ENNEAGRAM
PERSONALITY TYPES

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MTL Course Topics
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MTL Course Topics
ARE YOU READY?
OK, LET’S START!

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MTL Course Topics
INTRODUCTION
Ones - Perfectionists - are at position one on the Enneagram
typology. Ones want things to be right. In any group, they
are the standard-bearers for how things should be,
knowledge which they bring from a deep understanding and
respect for rules and laws. As such, Ones often have a hard
time of it, feeling guilty if they themselves ever slip from the
high standards they set themselves and expect from others.
By the same token, Ones bring order, discipline and
structure into any organisation, features which are vital in
helping an organisation to grow and develop.

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MTL Course Topics
A SUMMARY OF ONES
Group: instinctive or "relating" group
Label: perfectionist
Drive: the need to be perfect, or right
Orientation: moving instinctively towards others
Childhood orientation: a negative view of never being up to
their father's expectations
Problem: underdeveloped relating
Preoccupation: right and wrong; morality
Sin: anger
Routes to growth: cheerful innocence
Characteristics: independent; strong views; difficult to
manage; conscientious; stick to the job; set own high
standards; forward planners and routine sticklers; set own
targets; neat and precise; painstaking; detail-conscious.
Strategy: the industrious, over-focused character.

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MTL Course Topics
HOW TO RECOGNISE A ONE
Ones give off an impression of tension: they are unable to
relax for fear that they should be working. Ones are more
tuned in to duty than to pleasure. The words "ought" and
"must" figure prominently in their speech and thought.
Because they can see how things ought to be, as well as
how they are, Ones' automatic response to unsatisfactory
situations is to feel anger with themselves and others. This
critical nature makes them natural judges and
disciplinarians. Ones want to be fair. They weigh up the
rights and wrongs of every situation carefully before making
a decision and, once made, agonise over whether they are
right. Ones hate the thought of failure, of not being right.
Ones believe they must have great integrity. They believe
they must set an example to others, to be as near perfect as
they can. The thought of lying or cheating is anathema to
them.

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MTL Course Topics
ON THE COUCH
Ones developed as they did because of a negative view of
their father or father figure when young.
Father may have been seen as a stern authoritarian. One
children learnt that to win his love and approval they had to
be good and blameless.
They therefore suppressed their own wishes in favour of
what they saw as father's wishes. In many ways, Ones had
to grow up before their time. They have learnt that to be
true to themselves, they have to be good.
The One's childhood self-talk was: "Nobody will notice me
or love me for myself so I'll have to impress others by acting
grown-up and doing a good job."

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MTL Course Topics
A CONTINUUM OF HEALTH
At their psychologically healthiest, Ones are the wisest of
the personality types. Their perfectionist streak forbids
them to see just one side of an argument. They therefore
train themselves to see both sides and weigh up the merits
accordingly. This is why many teachers and judges are Ones.
Average Ones occupy a territory where their behaviour can
vary according to how serious they take things. When they
are too serious they veer towards judging themselves and
others too harshly; when they take things more lightly, they
are able to mix reasonableness with tolerance.
Ones deteriorate psychologically when they start to feel
superior to others. They then become intolerant of others'
failings, expressing anger and criticism at what they regard
as unacceptable weakness.

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HEALTHY ONES
Healthy Ones are wise, reasonable and principled.
At their best, Ones no longer seek perfection in everything
and everyone but are ready to accept themselves and
others for who they are, imperfections included. Just like
healthy Fives in the physical world, Ones have the clearest
vision of what should happen in the moral world. Others
seek them out for guidance on what to do.
Healthy Ones live by high moral principles but don't force
them onto others. They vote according to their conscience
and like to think they bring their children up to know what is
right and wrong. Their good judgment comes from being
able to see the world objectively. They can stand aside from
themselves and judge what they do and think. At their best,
Ones grow to accept humility and so no longer demand
perfection from themselves or others.

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AVERAGE ONES
Average Ones are idealistic, orderly and judgmental.
Average Ones want to improve the world. In the face of so
much that is not how it should be, average Ones want to tell
people the right way to behave. Nothing is too trivial to
escape their value judgments, from the behaviour of the
young to the quality of TV.
Average Ones are control freaks. They want everything to
run according to a well-worked out plan. They are sticklers
for detail. Time is extremely important to them: every
second must be usefully employed. Clocklike precision is
their goal.
Average Ones don't like to see others wasting their time or
making silly mistakes. Even without speaking they can
convey to others the attitude of: "I told you so" or "if you'd
only listened to me...".

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UNHEALTHY ONES
Unhealthy Ones are intolerant, obsessive and punitive.
Unhealthy Ones are so utterly convinced that they are right
and others wrong that they admit of no opposition. They
are so tightly wound that their tightness sets off fits of anger
directed against themselves, others and the rest of the
world. They are always first at the high moral ground.
Obsessive thoughts frequently go through the minds of
unhealthy Ones as if the problem they are focusing on will
destroy everything if they don't sort it out. Thus they
choose extreme remedies for relatively small matters like
untidiness around the house, sexual licence or eating
addictions.
When unhealthy Ones are confronted with unacceptable
behaviour in others, they are tempted in their fury to hit out
punitively with all the might and power they can muster.

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MTL Course Topics
ROLES
The roles that Ones take on include:
• the paragon
• the judge
• the purist
• the Puritan
• the reformer
• the fundamentalist
• the umpire
• the rule-maker
• the idealist
• the critic.
The Puritan of the 17th century is a typical One figure. He or
she is righteous, hard-working, fiercely independent, plain
living and plain thinking. Religion is a moral imperative.
Serious and stern, they believe that pleasures have to be
earned before they can be taken.

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MTL Course Topics
THE WORKING STYLE OF ONES
Ones embody and embrace the Protestant work ethic which
is the cornerstone of Western industrial organisations.
Ones believe that work is good not just for its economic
benefits but for its moral benefits too. The working style of
a One is to BE PERFECT: there is a correct way to carry out
every task and it should be done according to the book.
A One's day is organised by routines: an exact time to get
up, to travel to work, to arrive home, to go to bed. Ones
make superlative time organisers. They are never late and
any spare time is always put to good use.
Life and work are the same thing for a One: both are serious
business. Ones don't exactly enjoy work, but they don't
enjoy it when they are not working either.

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MTL Course Topics
THE TEAM ONE
Ones believe in team development as they do in personal
development. But they are often intolerant of the slow
progress that is made in the team, singling out their
criticism for those who are holding the rest back. Because of
this, they sometimes appear to be poor team players.
Everything the team does should have a worthwhile
purpose. Ones put up with the social side of teamwork only
because it can help the work side.
In teamwork, Ones are able to focus on what is going wrong
in the team (or organisation) and put their finger on what
should happen to put it right. They will refer to agreements,
promises, rules and contracts as ways to sort out problems.
Ones see teams as entities: they are all for the team, it is the
individuals in it that they are not always so fond of.

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MTL Course Topics
THE ONE SUBORDINATE
Ones expect that those in authority should be exemplary
and perfect. This applies to bosses, leaders and
professionals, such as doctors and teachers.
Bosses are placed on a pedestal by Ones since they are the
idealised people Ones would expect to be if they were in
the same position. Inevitably, sooner or later, bosses don't
come up to the One's expectations. When the boss reveals
feet of clay, the One is bitterly disappointed and angry. It is
the start of the One distancing themselves from the
organisation and looking elsewhere to what might be a
more perfect organisation.
The One type can still be an invaluable subordinate. They
are totally conscientious and painstaking: their aim being to
produce perfect work. They like to find their own systems of
work. When something isn't quite right, no matter how big
or small, they will struggle until it is the way it should be.

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MTL Course Topics
THE ONE BOSS
People find it hard to work for a One. Even without speaking
a word, Ones can give off an air of condemnation and
blame.
Ones expect others to feel the same about work as they do.
Work is a serious business. When things go wrong, Ones
focus on mistakes, on wrong-doers and on the steps that
must be taken to prevent a recurrence.
The One boss's anger can be quick to surface over the least
thing: an untidy office, unanswered phones, late reports. It
is as if the whole world might collapse if the failing is
allowed to go on without redress.
Against these characteristics, a One boss will set the highest
standards for the team to achieve. He or she will work out
the most detailed plans on how targets are to be reached
and drive people to attain them.

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MTL Course Topics
MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS
A One organisation has the following characteristics:
1. efficient ie doing things right
2. managing by the book
3. security through negotiated agreements ie sticking to
the letter of contracts and promises
4. ethics, morality and integrity in business dealings
5. detailed planning to get things right
6. authoritarian traits when things go wrong
7. systems, routines, procedures
8. rule-following
9. no time-wasting
10. a belief in the work ethic
11. a love of tidiness, order and cleanliness
12. a minimum amount of socialising
13. success has to be earned.

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SYMBOLS
The symbols of Ones include the following:
1. ants and beavers (for their addiction to hard work)
2. the colour silver for its coldness and lack of emotion
3. discipline, rules, law courts and justice
4. the countries of Switzerland and Japan.
5. The country of Ones is Japan: orderly, tidy, somewhat
repressed, serious, where ritual is hugely esteemed,
courteous, formal, polite, self-critical, entrepreneurial,
slow but sure, long-term, rigid and inflexible,
disciplinarian, where hard word is esteemed, stoical,
punitive, where relaxation has to be planned, a belief in
the value of education and learning.

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A ONE IS SOMEONE WHO...
1. A One is someone who feels personally affronted at
finding litter on the street.
2. A One is someone who does the opposite of what they
would like to do just to prove to themselves that they
can be disciplined.
3. A One is someone who lets their children watch
television for its educational value, not for
entertainment.
4. A One is someone who gets up early, goes to bed late
and fills every minute in-between profitably.
5. A One is someone who religiously chews each mouthful
of food 30 times because it is the healthiest way of
eating.
6. A One is someone who would fire someone for poor
performance and then rail at the firm's incompetence
when she has to make someone redundant.
7. A One is someone who gives precise instructions when
someone asks them the way so they won't go wrong.

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MTL Course Topics
DEVELOPING A ONE
Ones' root sin is anger. Their path to personal growth and
away from the confines of their type is through cheerful
tranquillity. This is best demonstrated by the personality
type of Sevens, the next point on the Ones' path of
integration.
Anger arises because the world and those in it never live up
to the high ideals which Ones set themselves. Sensing anger
welling up and questioning it is one of the best ways for
Ones to move on.
Here are three other ways...
Not: being harsh on oneself when things don't go to plan;
but…shrugging one's shoulders and saying: "There's always
another day..."
Not: compulsively organising every minute of one's time;
but...stopping now and again just to do nothing.
Not: feeling that others are watching and judging;
but...doing things because you want to.

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NOTEWORTHY ONES
Some noteworthy Ones include:
1. Martin Luther, the leader of Protestantism in Germany
in the Middle Ages
2. St Paul the apostle
3. the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran
4. Confucius
5. Pygmalion
6. George Bernard Shaw, the Irish writer and playwright
7. Oliver Cromwell, leader of the Puritan movement in
17th century England
8. Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States
9. Charles Dickens, author of works such as "Oliver Twist"
10. Nemesis, goddess of retribution
11. Alexander Solzhenitskin, Soviet writer
12. W Edwards Deming, statistician and writer on quality.

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THAT’S
IT!
WELL DONE!

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THANK YOU
This has been a Slide Topic from Manage Train Learn

Ones: The Need to be Perfect

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