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- The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® and Communicating with ENFJs
- About the Strong Interest Inventory®: 2004 Enterprising Theme Scores
- About the FIRO-B™: Team Development – Expressed Control
- The 16PF®– The 16 Personality Factors: Factor Q2 – Self-Reliance
- Group Testing
- Have Brian Speak to Your Group About Myers-Briggs
This month we'll continue with the series on how to best communicate with each type.
ENFJs are often interested in the people issues, no matter what role they have in an organization. Be sure to consider the effect of any decision or plan on the people involved. ENFJs usually like people who are positive, inspirational, and advocates for the underprivileged or disadvantaged. Like most Intuitives, they enjoy stories that are rich in metaphors and figures of speech. Lots of ENFJs are interested in psychology and the reasons people behave the way they do. It's best if you spend some time developing a personal relationship with an ENFJ, as rapport is important. They prefer to collaborate and build consensus, rather than compete or demand. ENFJs respond much better to encouragement than criticism, which they can take quite personally. ENFJs generally appreciate diversity, and strive to understand others. They hope you will do the same in return. Many ENFJs have strong values and beliefs. It's important to get to know these values and consider them when dealing with ENFJs. It's safe to assume one key value for many ENFJs is the desire to make the world a better place for people, in one way or another.
Some things to watch for when communicating with ENFJs include being cold, impersonal, or indifferent to the people involved. ENFJs disapprove of those who are demanding, controlling, bossy, or who say things like, "I'm your supervisor so you have to do what I say." Threats will rarely work with ENFJs, and are likely to cause great anxiety and unrest. People who focus only on the numbers and not the people in an issue will not enjoy working with ENFJs. Likewise, those who focus only on the present, immediate issues, without considering the future will alienate many ENFJs. People who forget their manners or common courtesies and social norms will generally aggravate ENFJs. Finally, ENFJs want to know about the people they work with, so if you keep everything about yourself private, many ENFJs will find it difficult to relate to you. This in turn will make it harder for both of you to communicate effectively.
Next month we'll look at communicating with another type.
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The latest version of the Strong was released in December 2004. There were a number of changes to the test questions and the resulting reports. One change was the ranking of the different professions for men and women in each general occupational theme code, according to the most and least likely to choose that theme. This month the Enterprising theme is our focus.
Let's start with the men. The occupations most likely to choose Enterprising as the top theme included Sales Manager, Restaurant Manager, Purchasing Agent, Realtor, Technical Sales Representative, Operations Manager, and Travel Consultant. The least likely included University Professor, Artist, Physician, Medical Illustrator, Biologist, and Forester.
For women, the list was identical for the most likely. The least likely had one difference: Geologist instead of Medical Illustrator in the top six.
Of course, it's possible to have Enterprising as your top theme on the Strong Interest Inventory and not like any of the above occupations. This information shows the general trend, and is not a reason to either choose or eliminate any option from your career search.
When working with teams, the FIRO-B can provide useful insights into how each person likes to work with others. The items below are quite likely to be true for you the higher your score on a scale is. If you scored at seven or above, you probably demonstrate these behaviors very often. If you scored two or less, you probably rarely do these things. Of course, those in the middle will likely do them to varying degrees, depending on the situation.
This month we'll discuss Expressed Control and how people with high scores are likely to act on a team.
For example, it's common for people with high Expressed Control to focus on reaching established goals, providing structure for the group, assigning tasks and responsibilities, and making suggestions for how the team should approach the required tasks. They will likely set priorities, want to have consistency, and push the group to make decisions. They will follow up on any past discussions or decisions to make sure the correct action was taken. Any discussion that goes on too long will probably be ended by someone with high scores on this scale. They are usually quite aware of time and limitations. They will also probably vigorously defend their own positions or opinions, and openly challenge those who disagree or have other views. You can expect them to be competitive, and enjoy rivalry, or challenges such as, "it can't be done." High scorers will often want the team to aim for lofty or difficult goals. Finally, they usually will want the group to have a clearly defined area of responsibility, so there is ownership. That way the team gets the credit or the blame for the results.
Most people will share the above traits to some degree. However, it's likely that this style will dominate for some people more than others. Your score on the scales should indicate which style is the preferred one for you.
The next 16PF scale for discussion is the Factor "Q2" scale, which is Self-Reliance (Self-Reliant vs. Group-Oriented). What exactly does this scale measure?
High scorers tend to be self-reliant types who enjoy time alone, and prefer to make decisions by themselves. Many report they like to work without interruptions, would rather not hear suggestions from others, and that it would not bother them if they spoke to no one for hours at a time. Similarly, they would prefer not to work on a committee. In extreme cases, they can have difficulty working with others, may ignore interpersonal niceties and conventions, or be unaware of the effect of their actions on others. Many report trouble in asking others for help even when it's needed.
In contrast, low scorers tend to want to be around people often and do things as part of a group. For example, they prefer games with teams or with partners. They usually enjoy working on committees. Being a low-scorer is the more socially desirable end of the scale.
Factor Q2 is related to the Myers-Briggs Extraversion scale. Low scorers on Q2 tend to come out as Extraverts on the Myers-Briggs. This scale also contributes to the Extraversion global factor on the 16PF.
As with all the 16PF scales, major insights come from the interactions among the 16 scales, and not from each scale in isolation.
It's easy to test your group online. There is a discount for groups over 10 people. We can set you up and have your people take their tests in a short while. Their results will come via e-mail, as for regular clients. If you'd like to find out more, just send an e-mail with the number of people and which test(s) you'd like. Write to or call (858) 571-3931. Past clients have included U.S. Post Office, Bank of America, Dow Chemical, Kaiser Permanente, and others. Click here to see a list of clients.
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