Leading From the Inside Out: Why Self-Awareness Comes First

Your team feels your energy—even when you don’t say a word. Learn how MBTI and Enneagram help you lead yourself first so your team can thrive with clarity and confidence.

💥 The Shattered Scene, aka The Problem You’re Facing

✨ Your team feels your energy—even when you don’t say a word.

You’ve walked into a meeting before and felt the leader’s stress before they spoke. Or maybe you’ve been that leader—burned out, scattered, and hoping no one notices.

The truth? How you show up sets the tone. If you’re burned out, distracted, or stressed, they know it. And if you’re leading from misalignment, your team reflects that energy back.

🌈 The Shine Ahead (The Transformation)

When leaders build self-awareness, they lead from alignment. Energy stabilizes, decisions get sharper, and culture becomes grounded. Leadership shifts from reactive to radiant.

🔎 The Spotlight (Key Insights)

That’s why tools like Myers-Briggs (MBTI) and Enneagram are so powerful—not for “typing” people into boxes, but for helping leaders see themselves clearly.

• MBTI reveals your preferences—how you take in information, make decisions, direct energy, and approach structure.

• Enneagram reveals your deeper motivations and fears—the why behind your leadership patterns.

Together, they help leaders name blind spots, notice stress triggers, and normalize being human first, leader second.

Why Self-Awareness is a Leader’s Superpower

Leadership isn’t just about strategy and decisions. It’s about presence.

When you understand your preferences, blind spots, and stress triggers, you can:

• Lead from clarity instead of confusion.

• Recognize when you’re off track before it spills onto your team.

• Show up with consistency that builds trust.

✨Soon, we’ll step inside the disco ball and connect how self-awareness ripples into team-wide brilliance.

How MBTI Supports Leaders

MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) shines a light on your preferences—how you:

• Take in information (Sensing vs. Intuition)

• Make decisions (Thinking vs. Feeling)

• Direct your energy (Extraversion vs. Introversion)

• Manage your outer world (Judging vs. Perceiving)

Example: An INTJ leader may thrive on structure and strategy but struggle with being flexible when plans shift. An ENFP leader may spark vision but risk leaving details unfinished.

Neither is “wrong”—but without awareness, each creates unintended friction.

How the Enneagram Goes Deeper

While MBTI helps with preferences, the Enneagram digs into motivations.

Each of the 9 types has a core drive and a core fear. For example:

• Type 3: Driven to achieve; fears failure or looking incompetent.

• Type 8: Driven to protect; fears being controlled or betrayed.

• Type 9: Driven to maintain peace; fears conflict and disconnection.

This lens helps leaders understand why they respond the way they do—especially under stress.

⚡ The Alignment Moves (Actionable Steps)

• Review your MBTI and Enneagram results.

• Identify one stress trigger and name it out loud (to yourself or your team).

• Reflect on how your presence is shaping your team’s energy this week.

✨ Quick Sparkles (Fast Wins)

• Share one Enneagram or MBTI insight with your team.

• Ask your team how they experience your leadership in stressful moments.

• Make one small adjustment (like pacing a meeting differently) based on your type.

🌟 Why the Light Matters (The Bigger Impact)

Self-awareness doesn’t make leaders softer—it makes them sharper. Your clarity becomes your team’s clarity. Your presence becomes their stability. And culture starts with how you show up.

The Link Between Personal Insight and Team Alignment

Here’s the game-changer: when leaders do the work of self-awareness, their teams feel it.

• Communication gets clearer.

• Reactions become more intentional.

• Culture shifts from surface-level to grounded.

Because culture doesn’t start with a handbook—it starts with how the leader shows up.

✨ And when leaders link their self-awareness to team systems? That’s when the disco ball really starts to glow.

🪩 Thoughts from Inside the Disco Ball

Before you can lead others, you have to understand you.

I resisted this truth for a long time. I poured into everyone else—fixing the chaos, motivating the team, driving the mission forward. But behind the scenes, I was leading from misalignment. I was trying to force results from the outside instead of starting from within.

That’s when MBTI and Enneagram cracked something open. These tools helped me name what I needed, notice how I was showing up, and normalize being human first—leader second.

✨ Self-awareness doesn’t make you softer—it makes you sharper. More focused. More trustworthy.

The light you carry as a leader becomes a beacon for everyone around you.

With insight and illumination,
Grandi
Visionary, Assessment Queen, People Whisperer, Reading Rebel

✅ Want to lead with more clarity, calm, and confidence? Know a leader who’s trying to “power through” instead of realign? Share this post—the pause builds culture. 🪩 And if you want to be the first to get the secrets from inside the disco ball, claim your front-row seat for the next big reveal.