Excerpts from My ENTJ Myers Briggs Assessment

I’m an ENTJ according to a Myers Briggs assessment I did almost a year ago when a consultant came in and assessed my firm’s management team:

Extraversion (E), Intuition (N), Thinking (T), Judgment (J)

Two of my ENTJ weaknesses–or “Opportunities For Growth” as the reference book sugar coats it–are as follows:

1. Be sensitive to others’ needs

2. Take care of routine and details

Sure enough, I have two long-gestating problems that match these weaknesses:

1. My wife has been asking me for about a year to ditch 3 towers of accumulated papers and books in our home office.

2.I’ve been mulling when to get back to a daily blogging routine for about a year.

When I was blogging daily from 2007 to mid-2013, I didn’t accumulate papers because I’d blog what I wanted to save, then ditch the paper. So this weekend as I finally show some sensitivity to to my wife’s need to have a clean office (and her need to throw all this shit away if I don’t finally listen), I’ll also resume taking care of daily routine and details using this blog.

With that, here are some ENTJ excerpts I want to keep from this Myer’s Briggs book before I toss it.

+++++

The Extraverted Intuitive Thinking Judging (ENTJ)

Work label: Field Marshal
-Frank and decisive
-A natural leader
-Thinks on feet
-Exudes confidence
-Well informed

Strengths
-Energetic
-Futuristic
-Conceptual
-Logical
-Dynamic

Opportunities For Growth
-Slow down, experience today
-Spend time reflecting on values
-Make effort to praise others
-Be sensitive to others’ needs
-Take care of routine details

To Function Best, ENTJs Need:
-Mental challenges and interesting problems to solve
-Recognition
-Positive feedback and an absence from routine
-Respect for ideas

They Are Frustrated By:
-Emotional responses to rational situations
-Routine and petty details
-Inabilities and weaknesses of co-workers
-Wasted time

The Irritate Others By:
-Appearing arrogant
-Inflated confidence and self-image
-Being cold and impersonal
-Lack of execution and attention to detail

They Value:
-Intelligence
-Concepts
-Expertise

On A Team:
-They are leaders
-They cannot not lead

+++++

Interestingly when we went through the process on this, we were asked to self-assess before we took the test that resulted in me being a ENTJ. My self assessment said that I was ISTP, which the book describes the following way:

The Introverted Sensing Thinking Perceptive

Work label: Operator
-Quiet and reserved
-Cool observer of life
-Usually interested in impersonal principals
-Interested in the how and why of things
-Does not waste personal energy

Strengths
-Spontaneous
-Objective
-Independent
-Concretely analytical
-Skillful

Opportunities For Growth
-Develop a sensitivity to others
-Push to have ideas understood
-Be open to the “big picture”
-Set long-term personal goals
-Communicate more

To Function Best, ISTPs Need:
-Variety, skills and techniques to master
-Challenge of problems to solve and something to fix
-Freedom to work independently
-A sense of bringing about something new and important

They Are Frustrated By:
-Restrictions, emotional situations
-Being told how to work
-Anything slow
-Social requirements

The Irritate Others By:
-Not communicating
-Shooting from the hip
-Lack of follow through
-Appearing anti-social and cold

They Value:
-Flexibility
-Challenge
-Adventure

On A Team:
-They do their own thing