Has offered “The Power of the Enneagram: Understanding Yourself and Leading Others” (BUS 77), a professional development course for leaders.
Source: Stanford Continuing Studies ↗The Enneagram at work · the track record
Who uses the Enneagram? Here’s what we can show you, with sources.
The Enneagram has been used in leadership development for more than 30 years, by universities, business practitioners and researchers. Many lists online repeat claims nobody can check. This page shows only what we can source, and says clearly what we don’t claim.
Every claim on this page links to its source.
WHY LEADERS USE IT
“A self-insight model that has had a profound effect on my life and in the way that I manage my teams.”
Universities and institutions
Taught and studied at serious institutions.
From Stanford to Tokyo, the Enneagram has been part of leadership and self-awareness programmes for decades.
Ran an Enneagram workshop through its Center for Entrepreneurship Education and its Academy for Leadership (ToTAL) in June 2025.
Source: Institute of Science Tokyo ↗Newsweek reported that a Stanford Business School course, “Personality, Self-Awareness and Leadership”, focused on the Enneagram.
Source: Newsweek, 1994 ↗Newsweek reported that the US Postal Service had turned to the Enneagram to help employees resolve conflicts.
Source: Newsweek, 1994 ↗About 1,400 participants attended the conference, co-sponsored by Stanford Medical School’s department of psychiatry.
Source: Newsweek, 1994 ↗Business authorities
The practitioners who brought it into business.
These are the people who took the Enneagram into boardrooms, hotels and HR teams. Their work shapes how we use it.
One of the most influential modern teachers of the Enneagram.
“I find that it’s especially good for executive coaching and leadership development.”Source: The Knowledge Project podcast ↗
Former VP Leadership Development at Forbes Travel Guide, and before that general manager and VP of HR at Kimpton Hotels. A certified Enneagram teacher for over 20 years. His largest client, a California construction company, has trained more than 500 employees with him.
“It is an individual- and team-based tool that can be leveraged across organizational divisions, roles, and life.”Source: Macmillan, The Enneagram at Work ↗
A business consultant who, in his publisher’s words, taught businesses all over the world how to use the Enneagram. He spoke at the International Enneagram Association on consulting to groups and teams.
“The Enneagram – while it’s about individual personality types – it’s really about a pathway through life.”Source: Soul of Life Show, 2021 ↗
Former President of the International Enneagram Association. Has facilitated training groups at Stanford Graduate School of Business.
“You don’t know what you don’t know, that’s the thing about blind spots.”Source: Awesome at Your Job podcast ↗
Author of Bringing Out the Best in Yourself at Work and What Type of Leader Are You? In over 30 years as a consultant, her client list includes Apple Computer, Kaiser Permanente and Hewlett Packard.
Source: New Dimensions ↗Uses the Enneagram in leadership work with corporate clients including Cenlar FSB, ARAUCO and ECARX.
Source: Awareness to Action ↗Its modern foundations include Helen Palmer and Dr David Daniels, an adjunct professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine, who together founded the Narrative Enneagram tradition. Source ↗
In their words
“The fact that we’re having difficulty with each other isn’t your fault or my fault.”
“What I was really teaching was how everyone from managers to CEOs could get the best efforts from their teams.”
“We’ve used these insights to build our team of 30 plus people.”
The evidence
What the research says – honestly.
The research base is growing and mixed. Here is what it supports, and where it stops.
104samples reviewed
A 2021 systematic review found mixed evidence on reliability and validity. Enneagram scales relate to the Big Five in the ways the theory predicts, and several studies found it helpful for personal growth.
Source: Journal of Clinical Psychology, 2021 ↗416people, most in full-time work
A peer-reviewed workplace study linked Enneagram types to different work outcomes and described the Enneagram as “growing in popularity within the workplace”.
Source: European Management Journal, 2013 ↗59students in a randomised study
After an 8-session Enneagram programme, Korean nursing students improved more in emotional intelligence and caring than a control group. A small, single-university study.
Source: Korean nursing education journal, 2020 ↗What we don’t claim
We don’t call the Enneagram “scientifically validated”, and we don’t promise ROI figures. No controlled study yet links it directly to team or business performance. Popular lists also name the CIA and many famous companies. We couldn’t verify those, so they aren’t here.
How Business Enneagram Asia uses it
A mirror, not a label.
1Self-awareness first
Each person sees their own pattern first, privately. It opens a better conversation about how they lead and react under pressure.
2Then the working relationships
X-Map looks at how two people tend to work together: where they naturally meet, and where they are likely to miss each other.
3Never the only basis for a decision
We never use type alone to hire, promote or exclude anyone. Those decisions also need evidence of skills, experience and work.
Explore: Free Enneagram test · X-Map · Leadership training · The Enneagram in business: a guide
Sources are linked on every item. Quotes are short excerpts from published interviews and articles, credited to their authors. Mentions of universities, companies and practitioners describe their own work with the Enneagram, not an endorsement of Business Enneagram Asia.
See what your pattern says about how you lead.
Start with the free test, or talk to Daniel or Simyee about using the Enneagram with your team.
Daniel Yeo or Simyee Lim replies personally within 1–2 working days.