ENTJ Personal Growth
What does Success mean
to an ENTJ?
ENTJ people are realists, in
the most basic sense of the word. Not only because their thinking is based upon
a clear view of how things actually are in the world around them, but also
because their ideas and strategies are structured around those unambiguous,
“down to earth”, commonsense beliefs which sum up the obvious and undeniable in
life. But while ENTJ’s might be pragmatic about the
immediate situation before them, they are scarcely satisfied with it until it
can be made more productive, useful or valuable. The ENTJ’s
reasoning on such matters is always clear and generally unemotional. If action
can improve an item or a situation then it ought to be taken, and the ENTJ will
always be found in the midst of such action, organizing, planning and leading
the way forward until the best result possible has been realized. This makes
success for an ENTJ something that can be clearly seen, a real world result which
can be measured. And whether measured in dollars, bricks, bread or just happy
people, the successful ENTJ knows the result is due to their belief that it is
just plain commonsense to try and make the best of every situation and get the
most out if it for the most people.
Allowing Your ENTJ Strengths to
Flourish
As an ENTJ, you have gifts that
are specific to your personality type that aren't natural strengths for other
types. By recognizing your special gifts and encouraging their growth and development,
you will more readily see your place in the world, and be more content with
your role. Nearly all ENTJs will recognize the
following characteristics in themselves. They should embrace and nourish these
strengths:
·
Able
to cut straight to the chase in any situation and not be sidetracked by
non-essential issues.
·
A
propensity for leadership which follows naturally from their ability to control
and manage real time/real world situations.
·
A
talent for factual analysis unbiased by prejudice or emotion.
·
A
“can do” approach to life which makes the working environment a positive place
for them.
·
A
strong regard for positive social and economic institutions, structure and
government.
·
Second
to none time and space management skills, everything organized and in its
place.
·
Able
to constantly synthesize and adapt new ideas and concepts into strategies for
business, social, financial or environmental development.
ENTJ’s who have a well-developed Introverted
Intuitive function to complement their dominant Extraverted Thinking will enjoy
these very special gifts:
·
A
talent for creating great benefits through the addressing of social justice
issues.
·
The
ability to recognize and mediate their potentials in accord with the
expectations of others.
·
An
approach to life which includes an awareness of the differences between their
needs and those of others.
·
Able
to know when to stop and take stock of life and recognize the qualities of the
moment.
·
A
talent for showing others the way to get past difficulties in their outer life
·
A
broadening of their own ambitions which includes rather than excludes others
from the decision making and the benefits which flow from their achievement.
Potential Problem Areas
With any gift of strength,
there is an associated weakness. Without "bad", there would be no
"good". Without "difficult", there would be no
"easy". We value our strengths, but we often curse and ignore our
weaknesses. To grow as a person and get what we want out of life, we must not
only capitalize upon our strengths, but also face our weaknesses and deal with
them. That means taking a hard look at our personality type's potential problem
areas.
ENTJ’s are strong, right minded and rational
people. This should be kept in mind as you read some of the more negative
material about ENTJ weaknesses. These weaknesses are natural. We
offer this information to enact positive change, rather than as blatant
criticism.
Most of the weaker
characteristics in the ENTJ stem from their dominant Extraverted Thinking
function overtaking their personality, stifling the natural expression and
balancing value of the other personality functions. In such cases, an ENTJ may show
some or all of the following weaknesses in varying degrees:
·
May
be unable to understand other people’s needs where these differ from their own.
·
May
unwisely assume their ideas are the only right ones and are therefore being
fully implemented by others.
·
May
become childishly petulant or angered when confronted by situations which
require feeling judgments.
·
May
become so engrossed in a plan or ambition that personal needs and the needs of
others are forgotten.
·
May
take every decision not made in agreement with their rational beliefs as a
personal rejection.
·
May
be easily taken in or manipulated by others via agreement with their rational
attitudes.
·
May
become obsessed with small obstructions and difficulties to the point where the
overall plan is forgotten
·
May
believe natural limitations are actually ailments which ought to be eradicated
·
May
assume others are ever plotting against them.
·
May believe only their own view of the world or a
situation is correct, even to the point that they make it into a kind of dogma
which must be followed by those around them.
Explanation of Problems
Most of the problems described
above can be seen as a direct result of a too dominant Extraverted Thinking
function ruling the personality. In most cases this is exactly what is
happening, but it is also worth recognizing that some of the weaknesses in the ENTJ’s personality that are more apparent to other Types,
flow not so much from the excesses of the ENTJ’s
dominant function, but from the natural inferiority of their feeling function
and its lack of adaptation. We must also recognize that the level of expression
of all functions in all people is variable and that some of the problems
discussed here apply only to strongly expressing ENTJ’s,
where the attitude which flows from using Extraverted Thinking exclusively to
guide them through life creates its own particular problems.
The over dominance of
Extraverted Thinking leads to an intensely intellectual way of seeing the
world, where values such as right and wrong, good and bad, useful and useless
are judged only by their applicability to an almost mathematically exact - and
to the ENTJ - always rational, attitude to life. Without the balance provided
by other ways of seeing or judging, the ENTJ is unable to account for actions
based upon the inner views or feeling behavior of others, hence such things are
always judged negatively, either as irrelevant - or at best - as being of small
consequence. Additionally, with their thinking attitude always turned outward
and totally subject to the world beyond their senses, without the balance of
some internally felt objectivity the ENTJ will often follow their ideas and
ambitions without consideration for their own physical and emotional needs.
Indeed, the ENTJ often feels that if only his project, his work, his outer
reality would just fall into line with his own rational views then all would be
well within his world and all his needs would be met. Unfortunately such an
attitude can never be satisfied, for the world is not only rational, but also
full of situations and human behavior which must be appreciated and understood
by quite different, and again - to the ENTJ – often seemingly absurd
criteria.
A healthy personality needs to
have a good balance between its dominant and auxiliary functions. For an ENTJ,
dominant Extraverted Thinking needs to be well-supported by their auxiliary
Introverted Intuitive function. If Introverted Intuition exists only to support
the intellectual rationale created by Extraverted Thinking, then neither function
is being used to its full potential.
Introverted Intuition is the ENTJ’s access to their inner world, to the information that
could tell them how the world is affecting them. Because it is introverted, its
images arise from the subjective depths of the mind, and contain all that the
ENTJ has not considered within their strictly rational and object oriented view
of the world. Introverted Intuition provides the personally biased information
the ENTJ needs to balance this world view and protect the ENTJ from being
totally swallowed up by their selfless and yet single minded attachment to
facts, figures and a rationale they accept only from the world outside
themselves. Because this inner information is often opposed to the ENTJ’s strongly held ideas it is often rejected, or if
accepted, turned outward to make negative judgments about external situations
or the behavior of others, rather than seen as a corrective balance to the ENTJ’s own attitudes and behavior.
Solutions
To grow as an individual, the
ENTJ needs to recognize the role Intuition plays in their life, and learn to
understand its language. In particular the ENTJ needs to realize that their
intuitive function is not directed outward to the world, that its images are
personal, subjective and relate directly to the way the ENTJ’s
inner self is being affected by both the outside world and their own behavior.
Introverted Intuition is not an
obvious process to understand, and quite unlike the rational, straightforward
thinking the ENTJ is used to. Nevertheless, if understood and fully utilized to
support thinking, it can make the ENTJ the most outwardly effective and
productive of all the personality types. For this reason it is essential to
allow this gift to become what it can be, rather than limiting its talents and
allowing it only to speak when it seems to agree with the ENTJ’s
outwardly focused thinking. Below are a few specific suggestions to help you
apply Introverted Intuition.
·
When
confronted by a situation which requires an important decision, try to put it
off for long enough to be able to sit quietly with it. In doing so allow
yourself to feel and see the images which arise in your mind regarding this
situation. Try to set aside those which appear immediately as the products of
your own beliefs and thinking, and regard the others closely. If these images
and ideas were the opinions of people whose judgment you trusted implicitly,
try to question them in your mind and find the reasons why they consider things
in such a way.
·
There
are some people around you who always seem to know just which way to go or how
things work or what the outcome of a certain situation will be without them
seeming to have sufficient information to be able to do so. These people are
intuitive types and their world is full of possibilities which they can
immediately recognize as apt to certain situations. You also have this talent,
but you have a habit of not following it, rather you prefer to think it out and
find the options which “ought” to be correct. I placed ought in quotes for a
very good reason here, for you know yourself how often things have developed in
the direction you had an inkling of, but refused to accept without thinking.
Try to let these immediate impressions have their moment and recognize them as
true possibilities which ought to be examined more closely. Understand that
they are not baseless images and ideas but rely upon valid sources of
information which you simply screen out of your life by habit.
Living Happily in our World as
an ENTJ
Some ENTJs
have difficulty fitting into our society. Their problems are generally
associated with a strongly dogmatic and overly rational approach to life,
coupled with an almost total lack of ability to understand the needs of others.
Where such a strongly expressing difficulty arises, the ENTJ finds themselves
constantly embattled by a world which refuses to conform to their ideals and
creates situations in which the ENTJ is out of their depth. Such situations are
often met by the ENTJ with such a childish emotionality that others are put off
and isolate the ENTJ emotionally. Such ENTJ’s often
find themselves without friends, and with business partners or employees who
are unwilling to engage the ENTJ upon any matter other than strictly task
related questions. Such behavior in others only serves to bring out underlying
sentiments in the ENTJ which, via their badly adapted intuitive function, speak
to them of plots, nastiness and covert obstructive behavior on the part of
others. Suffice to say, such suspicions and childish sentiments coupled with
dogmatic demands to conform to the ENTJ’s own way of
seeing the world can soon destroy families and close relationships.
It is incumbent upon the ENTJ
to break the circle of such behavior by allowing their Introverted Intuition a
place in their life. Through attention to this function the ENTJ can discover a
path to understanding and recognizing the effects not only their own behavior
has upon others, but also the greater possibilities which lie within themselves
for not only a harmonious relationship with others, but also a greater sense of
what might be best for themselves.
Understanding the feeling needs
and judgments of others is not an easy task for the ENTJ, but through their
Intuitive function they can find images and ideas which - whilst not speaking
directly to the feeling judgments of others – might allow them to see outside
the strictly rational circle of their world view in such a way as to recognize
that there is indeed a different perspective which must be taken account of.
Ten Rules to Live By to Achieve
ENTJ Success
1. Feed Your Strengths! Give yourself every opportunity to show
others your appreciation of a situation and how you could see it through to a
good outcome. Take charge where you can make it count.
2. Face Your Weaknesses! Understand you have limits too. Your
careful world view is not the whole deal. How things look and feel may not
concern you, but they concern many others. Try and allow such things to be and
learn from them.
3. Talk Time to Find Out How Others Really
Think. You need to
drive past your thoughts with others and let their appreciations of a situation
reach you at a deeper level. It will then be possible for you to take account
of their needs as real world objectives which if included in your ideas will
bring greater harmony and quality to life and relationships.
4. Take Time Out To Let The Whole Situation Speak
To You. Don't
dismiss those abstract and seemingly hard to understand or bothersome aesthetic
and feeling judgments coming from others or from inside yourself. Drop
everything for a while, stop thinking and worrying and just relax into those
ideas and let them speak to you. Perhaps they can be accommodated, perhaps
something is hiding in there which offers a new way
5. When You Get Upset, You Lose. Your energy and rational understandings
are strong assets, but can be very harmful if they turn against you and leave
you with nothing but emotions you cannot deal with. Remember that others cannot
always be expected to fall into your ways of seeing, and when your drive to
make them do so fails you will suffer feelings of resentment and even
abandonment. You cannot deal with the world like this. Moderate your ideas,
allow others their spaces, and you will grow.
6. Respect your Need for Intellectual Compatibility Don't expect yourself to be a
"touchy-feely" or "warm-fuzzy" person. Realize that your
most ardent bonds with others will start with the head, rather than the heart.
Be aware of other's emotional needs, and express your genuine love and respect
for them in terms that are real to YOU. Be yourself.
7. Be Accountable for Yourself. Don't blame the problems in your life
on other people. Look inwardly for solutions. No one has more control over your
life than you have.
8. Be Humble. Judge yourself at least as harshly as
you judge others.
9. Take a Positive Approach to Differences
in People. Don't
distress yourself and others by dwelling on what seem to be their limitations.
They need you to guide them and you need them to see things through. Try and
recognize who can perform the most ably within certain fields outside your own
competence. Let the feelings of others become a strength
rather than a hindrance to you.
10. Don't Get Obsessed! Recognize the value that personal world
has to you, your friends, your family, your own inner selnse
of self worth and life. Take pride in just being a good person and don’t allow
external situations to control you. Try to relax and let the moment belong to
the best things you can find in others and yourself. Nothing out there is more
important than your own happiness.
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