Enneagram personality consists of nine interconnected personality types, and it denotes a model of the human psyche. Enneagram personality consists of nine personalities and their wings. Each personality consists of two wings. For example, those individuals that possess most of the traits of type 5 enneagram personality but at the same time share some of the traits with type 6 are known as enneagram type 5 wing 6 or commonly denoted as 5w6. This type is also known as the troubleshooter.
Enneagram type 5 wing 6 tends to be intellectual and organized. Enneagram fives love to learn about their areas of interest, and the six wings will influence them to share that knowledge with others. They are good at solving problems and work towards making the world a better place. They work well in areas that enable them to acquire knowledge and self-growth while letting them be logical and analytical. Some of the best jobs for 5 wing 6 are:
- Biologist – 5w6s love to learn about and work with complex systems. And what’s more complex than the living system. Hence, a career as a biologist is perfect for them.
- Cybersecurity – 5w6s are the calm amidst the chaos. They work extremely well under pressure and make sure the network is safe and secure.
- Physicist – Another major interest of 5w6s is to pursue knowledge and also to share that knowledge with the rest of the world. They would thrive as a physicist, learning about the physical world and imparting their knowledge with others.
- Computer Programmers – Tend to pay attention to detail and are analytical. Coding and working with computers would be a perfect job for them.
Other than these four careers, they also tend to thrive as accountants, engineers, mathematicians, professors, and technicians.
We will now look into the Enneagram type 5 wing 6 to understand this type in detail and understand why the above-mentioned jobs work best for them.
The nine enneagram personalities are divided into three triads depending on how they make decisions. They are the head, heart, and gut triad. The heart triad depends on their feelings while making decisions and have trouble dealing with the emotion of shame. The Head triad depends on their thoughts while making decisions and shows trouble dealing with the emotion of fear. Gut triads depend on their instincts while making decisions and have trouble dealing with anger. Enneagram personality types two, three, and four belong to the heart or feeling triad, personality types five, six, and seven belong to the head or thinking triad, personality types eight, nine, and one belonging to the gut or instinctive triad.
Since the personality types five and six belong to the head triad, it will be discussed in detail below.
Enneagram Head or Thinking Triad
As mentioned earlier, the Head triad comprises enneagram personality types five, six, and seven, and the dominant emotion of this triad is fear. These three personality types depend on their thoughts to make decisions. This triad likes to analyze each aspect of a situation and evaluate every move before making a decision. All the three types that belong to this triad tend to be intellectual and enjoy a deeper understanding of topics that interests them. They either love solitude or love spending time in groups.
Why is the Enneagram types five and six included in the Head or Thinking triad?
Enneagram personality type 5 is known as “the Investigators.” This is due to their love for knowledge and learning about the topics that interest them. These types enjoy solitude and find it difficult to mingle and socialize. They are known to be loners. Their dominant emotion is fear. This emotion makes them believe that they are incapable and that people around them do not care about them. This fear forces them to maintain their solitude and use their extensive imagination to escape their harsh reality. Therefore, they tend to be extremely reserved and secretive.
Enneagram personality type 6 is known as the “the Loyalists.” This is mainly due to their loyal nature. These individuals tend to maintain their commitments with their friends and loved ones. They have a kind and analytical mind and make friends easily. However, their dominant emotion is also fear. This emotion creeps in when they are alone and makes them overthink things and imagine highly unlikely scenarios. Being alone makes type six extremely vulnerable and increases their anxiety.
How do types 5 and 6 deal with fear?
The dominant emotion of the Head or the Thinking triad is fear. This emotion is seen due to the insecurities that are seen due to lack of self-confidence, the thought of being in solitude, and fear of being left out by others. Knowing and understanding this emotion makes it easier to rationalize it, which can help them be comfortable being alone with themselves.
Enneagram-type fives would benefit greatly if they were more expressive about their thoughts, even if they are not comfortable doing so. Making an effort to connect with others can also help them overcome some of these emotions. Enneagram type sixes have to learn to get their thoughts to reduce their imagination. This might help them control their overthinking, which in turn will help to reduce their anxiety. In addition, increasing their self-confidence and self-assurance can help them get over their fear.
Healthy Ways for the Head Triad to Get Over their Fear
- Connecting with people.
- Journaling
- Identifying their fears.
- Coming up with a routine that they are comfortable with.
- Working on their self-confidence.
- Getting to know themselves better and being more comfortable with themselves.
- Understanding the situations that are stressing them.
- Expressing Gratitude
- Understanding their values.
- Being more curious.
- Seeking honesty and truth.
Enneagram Type 5 Wing 6 or 5W6
As mentioned before, Enneagram type 5 wing 6 belongs to type 5, but they share some traits with type 6. Enneagram type 5 tend to be introverted and independent. Type 6 will encourage fives to interact with people with similar interests. The influence of type 6 on type 5 makes up many traits that contradict and enhance each other at the same time. Sometimes the wing type dominates the dominant personality type, and people tend to be confused about what type they belong to. A thorough understanding of the enneagram personality type classification and the various wing types described in it will help avoid this confusion.
Enneagram Type 5 Wing 6 Traits and Behaviors
5w6s belong to the head triad, and they use their thoughts to make decisions. In situations where they lack awareness, they are overwhelmed by fear. 5w6s have this inner desire to be useful to society. They want to use their knowledge to help others and the world but often are held back from achieving this due to their fear of being inept and inadequate. They tend to evaluate their self-worth by how much they can contribute to making the world a better place. Even though they come off as cold and aloof, depending on their traits with type 6, they can appear friendly at times. Since the traits of types 5 and 6 contradict each other, 5w6s tend to bounce from one extreme to another. This makes it difficult for them to maintain normal relationships with others since others tend to see them as insensitive.
They are not always introspective. They like to focus on the outside world instead of people. They are often absent-minded. They are buzzing with thoughts and ideas that they forget to care about other people. They have difficulty trusting people, but once they are comfortable with someone, they can commit. They tend to withdraw from their friend circle and society under stressful conditions. This particular behavior makes them lonely. They are hard-working and logical. They do not depend on their emotions while making decisions. They tend to be practical. They can regulate their emotions, but they do not have the patience to be around those who cannot do the same.
Type 5w6 Strengths
- They remain calm under stressful conditions and can think under pressure. This trait helps them to work in highly stressful jobs.
- They are focused.
- Passion for learning and imparting that knowledge.
- Six wings help them to be organized in their professional and personal lives.
Type 5w6 Weakness
- They have difficulty understanding people and socializing.
- Usually described as aloof or cold.
- Tend to procrastinate if the task is not mentally challenging.
- Extremely private and keep their guard up while meeting new people.
Enneagram 5w6 Motivations and Stress
These personality types feel energized by:
- Analyzing and preventing problems.
- Spending time with themselves to recharge and gather their thoughts.
- Helping society in any way possible.
- Deep understanding of their areas of interest.
They feel demotivated by:
- Socializing a lot.
- Feeling emotionally vulnerable.
- Rejection by others.
- Insecurity
How to make the most of the six wing traits as a type 5?
5w6 can make use of the type 6 traits that they possess, best to their abilities. For example, six wings help them meet people who share similar interests and interact with them rather than stay home alone. Six wings also help them to be grounded and to deliver and receive help from others. They are also able to come out of difficult situations quicker with the help of six wings.
5w6s are known to keep their distance from others way too often. Several reasons contribute to this behavior. First, this trait is also seen when they look for a job, and they usually gravitate towards jobs that require solitary work or one in which they can spend most of their time alone.
- They are introverts and tend to enjoy solitude.
- They are extremely intelligent. They are fascinated by knowledge and feel that the more they learn the better. They prefer learning and researching to spending time with others.
- They tend to run out of ‘social energy’ after spending too much time with others. Spending time alone is their way of protecting their energy.
- They do not like spending time with extremely emotional people.
- They dislike being pulled into someone else’s emotional space and cannot spend too much time with people who cannot control their emotions. They have mastered strategies to be around emotional people so that they do not get too much involved.
Some of the strategies 5w6s use to keep people at a distance:
- They love to ask questions while interacting with others. By using this tactic, they avoid situations where they have to reveal too much information about themselves.
- They might take the above-mentioned tactic a bit further and answer questions too generally or simply ignore questions. This habit of theirs makes them seem cold and insensitive which in actuality they are not.
- If ignoring does not work, they will try to change the topic and get the other person to start talking about themselves.
- If they find a conversation too emotionally demanding, they might try to end it without offering any emotional support to the other person. This is their way of making sure that the other person does not involve them in any emotional situation in the future.
- If they find people are invading their personal space via texts, they will either take too long to reply to messages or simply stop replying. 5w6s do not see this behavior as rude or insensitive.
- Their mobile phones are always on silent mode.
As mentioned at the beginning of the article, enneagram type 5 wing 6 excel at analytical and logical jobs. Some examples are engineers, cybersecurity, professor, biologist, physicist, and technicians. These jobs allow them to interact with others as well as let them work alone. As a result, they get to deeply understand the areas of interest and get to share that knowledge with others. All these help them thrive in the above-mentioned fields.
Ways the Enneagram personality type 5 wing 6 like to work?
- Communication – They tend to work best in neutral environments. Expressing emotions while they work tends to divert them from their thinking process which might affect their productivity greatly.
- Meetings – They like it when people are direct with them and hate it when others beat around the bush. They like to keep meetings short and to the point and address the issue that needs to be addressed. They like it when these gestures are reciprocated.
- Emails – Like meetings, they like their emails to be short and to the point. They like to be direct and share new ideas and points and appreciate when others do the same.
- Feedback – They have difficulty reading people’s emotions. Hence, constructive criticism and honest and direct feedback are appreciated. They like it when people give them pointers and areas that they can improve.
- Conflict – Resolving conflict can be tricky with 5w6s. One should logically express their concerns and give them a lot of time to think and come to terms with them. This helps to work towards a common goal.
Enneagram personality type 5 wing six shares type 6 that make type 5 more social and friendly. The influence of type 6 helps 5w6s be more helpful and kind towards others. This influence helps them come out of their shell and feel less lonely. The main traits that make up personality type 5w6 are seen while they choose a career. They tend to go for less social careers. Something which lets them think for themselves as well as spends time in a group.
Understanding your personality type, traits, desires, and weakness will help you choose a suitable career for yourself. Understanding the personality traits can also help you use your traits to the fullest and improve your skills. Various websites provide the enneagram personality tests. Some of these sites are:
- https://www.truity.com/test/enneagram-personality-test
- https://www.yourenneagramcoach.com/?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.yourenneagramcoach.com%2Fa%2F21487%2FQgAGbeCN
- https://cloverleaf.me/enneagram
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the difference between 5w6s and 5w4s?
5w6s are the enneagram personality type 5 wing 6 and 5w4s are the enneagram type 5 wing 4. 5w6s share traits with personality type 6 whereas 5w4s share traits with personality type 4. 5w6s tend to be comfortable with socializing whereas 5w4s tend to remain in solitude. 5w6s like to understand more about the areas of their interest, whereas 5w4s focuses on the purpose of living beings. Type six’s influence on 5w6s makes them loyal, while their influence on 5w4s makes them authentic.
- How to know if you are a 5w6 or a 6w5?
Sixes are often mistaken as fives. 6w5s tend to be more conventional, anxious, and always want to fit in with others than 5w6s. 5w6s are known for their unconventional way of life and rarely care about other people’s opinions. 5w6s can easily go into their imaginary world and escape anxious thoughts easily. 6w5s find it extremely hard to avoid the anxious feeling. 6w5s tend to be more friendly and social than 5w6s.
- What are some of the areas that interest 5w6s?
Technology, mathematics, engineering, biology, physics are some of the areas that interest 5w6s. But their interest is not limited to the topics mentioned here. Their minds are stimulated by anything that they find interesting.