Blog - Personality At Work

You’re principled, organized and driven – so why, as an INFJ, are you not encouraged to pursue leadership roles?

The INFJ’s steady reputation often earns us positions of responsibility such as life coach, counselor, or employee relations officer; but positions of actual authority tend to evade us (or we avoid them). It’s an odd one, and it may have as much to do with the way our culture understands hierarchical structures as it does with our abilities.

You’re an ENFJ, the well-known “Teacher” personality who fights for the good of your people. Whether it’s at work or in your personal life, you take the wheel when a problem needs to be resolved and have a strong moral compass that gets your passengers safely and successfully where they need to go.

Not only is leading others part of your natural talent, it’s also something that you truly love doing. Leadership roles add to your day-to-day happiness—so much so that for an ENFJ, it might be hard to imagine working a job that doesn’t embrace your natural knack for guiding others.

Is it me, or is the world splitting into two tribes of workers?

On the one side, the 9 to 5'ers – salary slaves who have to sell their souls just to keep treading water. On the other, business owners and the self-employed – people who work for themselves, from anywhere, and take control of their time. If you had a choice, which would you choose?

One of the biggest lies about introversion is that an Introvert, with enough practice, can turn into an Extravert. For a long time, this misconception was supported, even encouraged, by everyone from psychologists to business professionals. Fortunately, we have enough research and information about introversion and extraversion today to know that these are fixed personality traits. An Introvert can’t turn into an Extravert, and shouldn’t feel pressured to do so.