Emotional Intelligence and Enneagram for Teachers and Students.

We design and deliver customised workshops for schools that engage and develop key new competencies. We have worked with primary and secondary school teachers and secondary school students in Ireland.

How the Enneagram helps Teachers.

The Enneagram for teachers workshop can really help in the modern educational environment. Since teaching is a deeply reflective and relational profession, the Enneagram holds great potential for educators. School teachers can benefit from the Enneagram because it helps people know themselves better, it develops their Emotional Intelligence and it impacts all their interpersonal relationships in the school setting.

Helping teachers to understand themselves, their core motivations, and their tendencies, especially under stress
Showing them both the low side and high side of where they tend to go in stress, giving them visible options on which behaviour path to take.
Providing them tools and pathways to use when under stress
Making teaching teams more aware and appreciative of each other’s tendencies, thereby building team cohesion
Helping teachers with better skills for responding to student and parents

Or schools workshops can help teachers have a better understanding of their strengths and challenges in relation to their patterns of behaviour and the motivations that drive them. Knowing how they and others view the world and the varying motivations can help teachers build stronger relationships with students, their families, and colleagues.

How Emotional Intelligence helps Teachers.

Teachers with high Emotional Intelligence are better able to regulate their emotions and reflect and monitor their teaching behaviour to develop their professional competencies, explore new teaching methods and learn more professional knowledge. Teachers with high emotional intelligence can motivate their students better and understand their students’ behavioural and psychological well being

The Enneagram for Teachers workshop for schools develops teachers Emotional Intelligence. A number of studies have confirmed the positive impact of emotional intelligence on instructional performance. Teachers can be seen as emotional workers their self-efficacy, teaching performance, burnout, job satisfaction, and teaching effectiveness have been found to be influenced by their emotions and so to benefit from the ability to understand and regulate emotions.

How the Enneagram helps Students.

“they were so interested and engaged that after your Enneagram workshop, the students (Transition Year) spent the rest of the week looking for more information and discussing / reflecting on what they had learned.”

Whether the student is in secondary school or college, knowing more about your Enneagram type will help you succeed. These years are prime years for discovering your enneagram type. The student has usually matured sufficiently to be more self aware about what makes them them! It can also help them understand why they see the world differently to or in the same way as others in their class or school.

Once the student has found out what type they are, you can use that information to help them study, stress less, fight less and grow out of unhealthy practices. Students who’s wellbeing, resilience and productivity are compromised by unhealthy levels of stress benefit from education that supports them in increasing their self-awareness and self-reflection skills. And this is where the Enneagram can help hugely. The Enneagram can be used to help students become more aware of their particular signs of disintegration/stress and integration/growth. The Enneagram can also be used as a conversational tool to discuss and measure a student’s stress levels and personal development.

How Emotional Intelligence helps Students.

Emotional intelligence can be said to cover five main areas: self-awareness, emotional control, self-motivation, empathy and relationship skills. It is, of course, important for good communication with others – and is therefore a gateway to better learning, friendships, academic success and employment. Skills such as these developed in our formative years at school often provide the foundation for future habits later on in life.

Emotional intelligence helps students develop empathy and compassion towards others. By understanding and recognizing emotions in themselves and others, students can develop a deep sense of empathy, enabling them to relate to and understand the perspectives and experiences of their peers.

When you can understand and manage your emotions, you’re more likely to get good grades and ace tests. In fact, when it comes to academic performance, research has revealed emotional intelligence is almost as important as your cognitive intelligence and having a conscientious attitude.

This is because emotionally intelligent students are better equipped to deal with negative emotions that might disrupt learning.

For example, if you’ve got a high EI:

you can quickly overcome exam stress and get on with answering the questions
you can overcome boredom and maintain your concentration during dull topics (looking at you, trigonometry)
you can avoid obsessing over a disappointing grade and instead focus on improving next time
you can recognise if you’re experiencing anxiety about an assignment and seek help (rather than falling into the dreaded procrastination/panic spiral).

“It is not enough to be smart and hardworking. To have the added edge for success, students must also be able to understand and manage emotions.”

The Instructor/Facilitator.

…very energetic, enthusiastic, engaging, personable and inspirational…a wealth of experience and impressive academic credentials…a delight to work with…

Our facilitator, Aidan Higgins BE MBA MSc (Psych), has been developing the Emotional Intelligence of groups, teams and individuals for the last 15 years and he has over 25 years experience working with the Enneagram in Ireland. He also has thousands of hours of experience of one2one coaching. Aidan has also taught post-graduate classes at the University of Limerick and has completed original post graduate level research on developing Emotional Intelligence using the Enneagram and also on Psychological Wellbeing. His book “LEAD FROM YOU: We need aware, authentic and emotionally intelligent leaders, leading from their best selves. Become one.” has sold in 8 countries.

An experienced motivator, described by the Irish Independent as using the “oratory techniques of an evangelical preacher”, he has experience in presenting ideas influentially to large groups and is equally able to teach a class or present a concept to a room of 400+.

Aidan has completed fully certified teacher training he has worked with many of the worlds best teachers including Helen Palmer, David Daniels, Peter O’Hanrahan, Riso and Hudson, Ginger Lapid Bogda and Mario Sikora. Aidans book Lead From You details how the Enneagram and Emotional Intelligence to deliver Aware and Authentic Leaders and People Aidan is also Professional Member of the International Enneagram Association , a member of The Narrative Enneagram Community and has been asked to present at conferences to international audiences. Aidan is an Occupational Psychologist who is also a qualified Master Practitioner of NLP (Cognitive Psychology), Certified in Training and Development (DIT – CPD and FETAC certified) and is Certified in Team Emotional Intelligence.