Top 10 Things that Terrify ENTJs

The ENTJ personality type is bold, confident and charismatic. As a result, the things that scare most people don’t bother ENTJs. Presentations, important meetings, confrontation—these are all scenarios where ENTJs excel.

So what does terrify ENTJs? 

For this personality type, it’s small, everyday things that can be nightmarish. For instance, ENTJs are easily spooked by social situations requiring patience, sensitivity and caution. They avoid emotions at all costs, preferring to keep people and their feelings at arm's length. In a work setting, ENTJs also fear a lack of ambition and bad leadership above all else.

Read on to find out more about the top 10 things that terrify ENTJs!

1. Lack of ambition

For the ENTJ personality type, goals, achievements and ambition are some of the most important parts of their life. ENTJs live and breathe their ambitions, spending a huge amount of their time thinking and working on their goals. 

What that means is that ENTJs can’t understand people who don’t have ambitions of their own. It just doesn’t compute. The idea that you can go through life with no aims or desires terrifies them! 

This is true both in personal relationships and at work. Whether it’s a colleague who’s content to stay in the same role for years or a partner who doesn’t have dreams of their own, ENTJs have a really hard time with lack of ambition.

2. Bad leadership

If there’s one thing that puts ENTJs on edge it’s bad leadership. As the commander type, ENTJs are natural leaders. They instantly take charge and enjoy pulling a team together to achieve a mutual goal.

When ENTJs are put in a situation where they have to work under bad leadership, they will become instantly frustrated and even depressed. The effort of squashing their leadership skills and following someone who they see as incapable is a terrible combination for most ENTJs. 

What makes bad leadership worse is that it’s usually unavoidable. In a work context, you rarely have the option to choose your boss. That means that ENTJs are often powerless to avoid clueless managers and their only option is to tolerate it. This could be one of the reasons why this personality type is overrepresented among small business owners.

3. Oversensitivity 

If you ask an ENTJ what their pet peeve is, it’s probably oversensitivity. As a naturally assertive personality type, ENTJs find it really difficult to deal with people who easily take things the wrong way. 

Many ENTJs will have experienced the pain of meeting someone for the first time and quickly realizing that they don’t understand one another. The ENTJ type is known for being dominant and verbally aggressive so they don’t get on well with oversensitive people.

ENTJs hate the idea of getting into trouble because of something they said without thinking. For ENTJs, having to be sensitive to the egos of others can be a major struggle.

4. Carelessness

On the flip side, ENTJs are also terrified of carelessness. Despite their no-nonsense approach to dealing with other people, they always act strategically. Everything they do or say is motivated by a particular goal. They can’t tolerate carelessness in other people.

Find someone with a slapdash approach to life and you’ll find an ENTJs arch nemesis. This personality type hates sloppiness. Call them many things but never call them careless.

5. Slowness

Another fear of ENTJs is being stuck with colleagues who are excessively slow. This personality type is impatient and they’re terrified of timewasters. 

Rooted in the ENTJ fear of slowness is their hatred of laziness. They are easily frustrated by people they feel aren’t invested in their work. The same goes for colleagues who deliberately procrastinate. If an ENTJ feels like a team member isn’t pulling their weight, it will usually end in confrontation.

6. Administrative tasks

Of course, slowness doesn’t just apply to people. ENTJs are also terrified of any activity or task that seems to be wasting their time. This includes tedious administrative jobs, waiting in queues and anything involving airports!

Administration and bureaucracy is the nemesis of the ENTJ. Why would they waste their time with form-filling and box ticking when they have important ambitions to fulfil?

7. Emotions

ENTJs are not terrified of emotions as much as they are terrified of emotional people. There is nothing more horrifying to an ENTJ than being confronted by an overly emotional colleague or friend, or really any out-of-context emotions at all. 

Most ENTJs can’t think of anything worse than having to have a "difficult conversation" about "feelings." They squirm when they have to express their emotions and they hate sharing their innermost thoughts. This is not the personality type to come to when you need a shoulder to cry on.

A haunted house for an ENTJ would just be a room full of people sharing their vulnerabilities. It’s the stuff of nightmares!

8. Not getting their own way

This personality type really doesn’t like the feeling of decisions going against them. They are used to getting their own way and bending other people to their will. When they’re placed in a situation where they have to compromise, it can be really stressful.

While most ENTJs will eventually get used to making compromises in their personal lives, at work and school they avoid compromising as much as possible. Group projects, team building exercises and joint presentations are all things that terrify ENTJs. Unless they’re in charge of course.

9. Moaning

Wrapped up in their hatred of too much teamwork is the issue of moaning. ENTJs hate people who complain. They believe in knuckling down and getting on with the job rather than whinging. 

This personality type is not patient when it comes to feeling sorry for yourself! Expect to be given a step-by-step plan to help you find a solution to your problems and then be moved along! You won’t find any sympathy in the ENTJ type.

10. Not being liked

For all their bravado and self-assuredness, ENTJs are actually terrified of not being liked by the people they respect. Though they’ll rarely admit it, this personality type does care what people think of them.

While they can often get carried away in the pursuit of being right all the time and proving themselves to be the best and most capable one in the room, this personality type has some vulnerabilities. They hate the idea of other people turning against them and try hard to keep others on side.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that ENTJs are invincible! This personality type has fears and insecurities as much as anyone else, they just look a little bit different. To combat their fears, ENTJs should work on practicing patience, understanding and generally chilling out.