ENTJ Personality Type Advice

Summary

In this episode of the Personality Hacker Podcast, hosts Joel Mark Witt and Antonia Dodge dive deep into the ENTJ personality type from the Myers-Briggs system, also referred to as the "effectiveness perspectives" personality. Throughout the discussion, they explore the layers and complexities of ENTJs, challenging stereotypes and highlighting the strengths they bring to leadership roles. With insights into their cognitive processes and potential challenges, especially for ENTJ females, this episode aims to provide a comprehensive understanding and practical advice for ENTJs on harnessing their full potential.

Highlights

• Exploration of ENTJ's cognitive functions and how they drive decision-making. 🧠
• The stereotype of ENTJs as CEOs and leaders and why this can be limiting. 📈
• Importance of the 'perspectives' function for ENTJs to re-evaluate templates and assumptions. 📚
• Challenges faced by ENTJs in emotional domains and the need for addressing inner feelings. 🌊
• Specific advice for female ENTJs in dealing with societal stereotypes and expectations. 👩‍💼

Key Takeaways

• ENTJs are often seen as confident and effective leaders, which is both a strength and a stereotype. 💼
• The primary cognitive function for ENTJs is 'extroverted thinking' or 'effectiveness'—driving decisions based on what works best. 🔍
• ENTJs should explore their 'introverted intuition' or 'perspectives' to gain deeper insights and improve adaptability. 🌐
• Addressing emotional processes might be challenging for ENTJs, but it's essential for sustainable growth. 🧠
• Female ENTJs face unique challenges due to societal expectations, requiring extra patience and perspective. 🚺

Overview

The podcast kicks off with hosts Joel and Antonia welcoming listeners to an insightful episode dedicated to ENTJs. Emphasizing the stereotype of ENTJs as leaders like Napoleon, they delve into the layers of this personality type. They stress that while many ENTJs find recognition for their decisive and effective approach, there's much more beneath the surface.

A substantial portion of the episode focuses on ENTJs leveraging their main cognitive function—extroverted thinking—which is about achieving objectives effectively. However, the hosts emphasize the significance of nurturing their 'introverted intuition' function. This growth can prevent them from being boxed into inflexible strategies and encourages holistic understanding and adaptability.

The episode also highlights the challenges women face when associated with the ENTJ type due to gender roles. Suggestions for balancing effectiveness with heightened awareness of societal expectations are provided. The podcast wraps up with a call for listeners to explore these aspects for personal and professional growth, encouraging feedback from ENTJs and those who know them.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to ENTJ Personality In this chapter, the hosts, Joel Mark Witt and Antonia Dodge, kick off a series of deep dives into each of the sixteen Myers-Briggs personality types with a focus on the ENTJ personality type, known as the 'Effectiveness' type in their system. Joel humorously expresses some trepidation about discussing this specific personality type.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Joel's Concern About the Podcast Joel expresses his anxiety about an upcoming podcast episode where they will discuss ENTJ personality types. He mentions that his older brother and best friend both identify as ENTJ, which adds to his apprehension due to past experiences. Joel explains that while he has known many INTJs, the ENTJs in his life have always had a significant impact on him, particularly his brother. This chapter explores Joel's personal connection and concerns regarding the podcast topic.
• 01:00 - 01:30: ENTJ Personality Misconceptions ENTJ personalities often misunderstood due to external perceptions, portrayed as having two-dimensional attributes. The transcript discusses avoiding personal biases, like familial comparisons, in understanding the nuanced layers of ENTJ personality traits.
• 01:30 - 02:00: Cultural Rewards for INTJs The chapter titled 'Cultural Rewards for INTJs' delves into the stereotype of INTJs often being likened to high-ranking and influential leaders such as CEOs or historical figures like Napoleon Bonaparte. While INTJs are seen as strategic and competent leaders, the chapter argues that this view is limiting and doesn't fully capture the complexity and depth of the INTJ personality. The narrative suggests moving beyond archetypical perceptions to appreciate the multifaceted nature of INTJs.
• 02:00 - 02:30: The Car Model and Cognitive Functions The chapter explores the relationship between the Car Model and cognitive functions, highlighting how certain personality types, like ENTJs, are rewarded by Western societal structures. It emphasizes the prominence of INTJs in leadership roles due to their valuable skill sets. The chapter also advises readers to seek more information about the Car Model through online resources.
• 02:30 - 03:00: Effectiveness as a Driver Function In this chapter, the focus is on the framework for understanding the personality and mental wiring of the ENTJ mindset. The discussion revolves around the car model, which is divided into four cognitive functions. These functions describe how the mind learns information and makes decisions. Among these, ENTJs have a dominant function, referred to as the 'driver' process. For ENTJs, this dominant cognitive function is technically called 'extroverted thinking,' which is informally nicknamed 'effectiveness.' The chapter delves into how this function influences the behavior and decision-making approach of ENTJs.
• 03:00 - 03:30: Success Without Pain Points This chapter focuses on decision-making strategies in an extroverted context, particularly within Western culture and its commerce-driven society. It highlights the importance of functionality and efficiency—making things work effectively, achieving tasks, and building systems and structures that become valuable in the current global connectivity landscape. The discussion revolves around prioritizing the tangible outcomes and finding solutions that accomplish goals while navigating the outer world.
• 03:30 - 04:00: Challenges for Female ENTJs This chapter discusses the specific challenges faced by female ENTJs in business and government sectors. While they are often successful and confident due to their strong extroverted thinking and effective processes, they may not experience the same pain points or feelings of misunderstanding that other personality types might encounter. This inherent confidence can set them apart, but also presents unique challenges.
• 04:00 - 04:30: Perceived Confidence vs Actual Confidence This chapter discusses the difference between perceived and actual confidence, especially in relation to gender roles. It highlights a potential challenge faced by female ENTJs, who might encounter resistance or misunderstanding from others due to societal gender role expectations, despite their own confidence and self-perception of success.
• 04:30 - 05:00: ENTJs and Confidence Feedback The chapter discusses the challenges female ENTJs face, particularly around societal expectations. It touches on how people often project their own ideas of what a female should be and the pressures for ENTJs to always have solutions and achieve tasks. While acknowledging potential struggles, it also emphasizes that the effectiveness characteristic of ENTJs is generally valued and rewarded in society.
• 05:00 - 05:30: Adopting Templates Without Questioning The chapter discusses the perception of confidence in individuals with a specific personality trait, likely referring to 'TJ' personality types. These individuals appear confident to others because they seem unshakable, though internally they may not always feel confident. The conversation highlights the importance of understanding the distinction between perceived and actual confidence.
• 05:30 - 06:00: Effectiveness and Decision-Making The chapter "Effectiveness and Decision-Making" delves into the personalities of ENTJs, highlighting their preference for action over contemplation. A survey conducted among ENTJs revealed fewer responses than other types, indicating they are often too busy to engage in lengthy reflection. INTJs also expressed a desire for brevity, preferring content shorter than 15 minutes, indicating their impatience with slowing down or lingering on tasks. The insights support the notion that both types value efficiency and expediency in decision-making.
• 06:00 - 06:30: Importance of Perspectives The chapter 'Importance of Perspectives' discusses the concept of confidence and the ability to manage feelings of insecurity. It highlights how people who may not feel entirely confident can often ignore these feelings of insecurity, as they recognize that these emotions are not beneficial. The chapter suggests that while ignoring it may help in some situations, it doesn't necessarily eliminate the insecurity or the lack of confidence.
• 06:30 - 07:00: Military Strategy Metaphor The chapter discusses a metaphor related to military strategy, emphasizing the idea of persevering and taking action despite feeling insecure. It highlights the importance of being willing to make mistakes and learn from them, suggesting that this approach can lead to valuable feedback and rewards. The chapter also mentions a contrast between personal feelings of uncertainty and the perception of others, suggesting that individuals may not always convey their internal doubts to those around them.
• 07:00 - 07:30: Extroverted Sensing and Limitations This chapter discusses the common perception of extroverted sensing types, particularly ENTJs, as always confident. It challenges this stereotype by reflecting on how, despite appearing confident, these individuals can sometimes make hasty decisions without reaching the most considered conclusions. This is illustrated through personal reflections on the author's brother, highlighting the gap between external perceptions and internal realities.
• 07:30 - 08:00: Avoidance of Perspectives and Inner Work The chapter discusses how people often make quick assessments of the world and adopt existing templates without questioning them. This approach has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that it allows for quick action and the ability to ignore insecurities.
• 08:00 - 08:30: ENTJs and Childhood Trauma The chapter discusses how ENTJs handle childhood trauma and the dual nature of their confidence. While they often show determination despite a lack of confidence, they may also overly rely on observed templates that seem to work without questioning their validity. The text points out the irony that a strong trait or support system can also become a hindrance. It highlights that for ENTJs, leading with the effectiveness process includes making quick value-based decisions, which can both be a strength and a possible downfall.
• 08:30 - 09:00: Consequences of Avoiding Emotions The chapter titled 'Consequences of Avoiding Emotions' explores the tendency people have to overlook their emotions and continue on without questioning them. This can be beneficial as a skill to keep moving forward but problematic when the emotions or beliefs being ignored are not beneficial. The text emphasizes the danger of holding onto beliefs or observations that don't serve you well simply because they appear to be patterns that repeat in life. A key message is the importance of reevaluating feelings and beliefs to ensure they are indeed helpful and constructive.
• 09:00 - 09:30: Development of Perspectives This chapter explores the development of perspectives, particularly in the context of personal relationships. It discusses how rigid thinking and sticking to preconceived notions can lead to repeated patterns and outcomes, such as failed relationships. The chapter emphasizes the importance of re-evaluating these mental pathways, which are likened to 'mental superhighways,' and understanding that altering them requires conscious effort and willingness to change.
• 09:30 - 10:00: Brothers and Perspectives The chapter titled 'Brothers and Perspectives' delves into the cognitive process of introverted intuition, often referred to as 'perspectives.' It discusses how this cognitive function benefits individuals, particularly ENTJs, by encouraging them to reevaluate their beliefs and assumptions. The chapter suggests that even if a neural pathway or belief does not serve an individual well, it should still be reconsidered. The concept of perspectives allows an ENTJ to question their observations and assumptions, guiding them to explore alternative interpretations instead of accepting repeated observations as facts. This introspective approach helps in developing a broader understanding by looking deeper into perceived truths.
• 10:00 - 10:30: The Role of Introverted Feeling This chapter explores the influence of introverted feeling in decision-making processes. It encourages self-reflection and questioning of external concepts and worldviews. It suggests delving beneath the surface of presented ideas to seek more effective, efficient, and sustainable alternatives. The chapter emphasizes aligning beliefs with personal happiness and societal well-being, advocating for a thoughtful and directed approach to achieving greater fulfillment.
• 10:30 - 11:00: ENTJs and Emotional Recognition The chapter explores ENTJs' approach to emotional recognition and how it intersects with their natural tendency towards strategic thinking and effectiveness. It discusses the possibility of steering society in a direction that serves us holistically rather than being solely efficient. The chapter further examines the adoption of templates and strategies that ENTJs often follow, even in the face of conflicting information, and how this relates to military strategy, which resonates with many ENTJs.
• 11:00 - 11:30: Unconscious Actions Counter to Conscience The chapter discusses a historical period from American history, specifically the Revolutionary War. It highlights the British Army's traditional method of warfare, characterized by organizing troops in straight lines and marching across fields to combat enemies. This tactic was aimed at maintaining control over the American colonies. However, the chapter reveals that the American colonists rejected this conventional approach, opting for different strategies instead.
• 11:30 - 12:00: Importance of Sustainability The chapter discusses the British Army's inflexibility during a war, where they relied heavily on traditional military strategies that had been successful in Europe. Despite the success of these strategies in past conflicts, they failed to adapt to new circumstances, particularly against adversaries using guerrilla tactics, such as sharpshooters hiding and picking off officers. The British Army continued to invest resources in this outdated approach, which contributed to their loss in the war. This highlights the importance of adaptability in military strategies and possibly connects to broader themes of sustainability in practices.
• 12:00 - 12:30: Building Better Relationships The chapter discusses the importance of adapting perspectives to improve effectiveness, particularly in challenging situations. It highlights the risk of locking into ineffective thinking patterns if new perspectives are not considered. An analogy is drawn with military strategies, suggesting that revising tactics when faced with unexpected challenges (like enemies hiding in trees and swamps) can lead to better results. The chapter emphasizes the value of assessing situations and being open to different viewpoints, rather than stubbornly sticking to a single approach.
• 12:30 - 13:00: Understanding the Perspectives Process The chapter "Understanding the Perspectives Process" examines how adhering strictly to traditional strategies, such as military strategies that have proven effective in the past, can sometimes be detrimental due to their rigidity. It contrasts this with the concept of 'perspectives' in cognitive processes. The chapter also introduces the cognitive function 'extroverted sensing' (or sensation) that is described as playing a role in decision-making processes for certain personality types, specifically noting how it affects ENTJs.
• 13:00 - 13:30: Male and Female ENTJ Differences The chapter discusses the differences in how male and female ENTJs may develop their perspectives and intuition. It emphasizes that if an ENTJ does not actively work on these aspects, they may rely more on their sensation process, which is likened to a 'ten-year-old process.' The narrative notes that INTJs might limit themselves by not fully playing the 'big game' or reaching their full potential.
• 13:30 - 14:00: Stereotypes and Cultural Expectations The chapter discusses how people often live too much in the moment and are too reactionary, which prevents them from realizing their full potential. The narrator reflects on their experiences living in Alaska, where they were part of a Dungeons & Dragons tabletop role-playing group. They mention being a big geek, which is not surprising given their involvement in Dungeons & Dragons. They fondly recall the experiences with different Dungeon Masters, highlighting one in particular who stood out as excellent.
• 14:00 - 14:30: Adapting to Expectations The chapter titled 'Adapting to Expectations' features a discussion on a podcast guest who is highly admired by the speaker. The guest is described as an ENTJ, a personality type, and is praised for his exceptional skills in setting up games and creating complex scenarios, often referred to as 'damning'. The speaker is impressed by the guest's potential and believes that his current accomplishments are just a small glimpse of what he is capable of achieving. The conversation emphasizes recognition of talent and potential.
• 14:30 - 15:00: Conclusion and Community Engagement The conclusion and community engagement chapter centers around a reflection on individual aspirations and choices, as epitomized by a conversation about life direction. One person expresses contentment with a low-key lifestyle involving temp jobs and video games, while the narrator questions if this is truly fulfilling for them. The underlying theme is about confronting and recognizing the potential for more significant achievements and the struggles of embracing that potential.

ENTJ Personality Type Advice Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] hey welcome back to the personality hacker podcast my name is Joel mark Witt and I'm Antonia dodge today we're continuing our series where we do a deep dive into each of the sixteen myers-briggs personality types and this week we're talking about the ENTJ personality in the myers-briggs system or the effectiveness perspectives personality in the personality hacker system right and I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna be radically honest here I'm a little scared about this podcast but probably
• 00:30 - 01:00 not as scared as you are as entp right yeah oh yeah that's coming up that's next week oh that's your type and I'll tell you why I'm scared my older brother is an ENTJ or that's his best fit type and then I grew up with my best friend being an ENTJ and whenever I think about INTJs even though I've had quite a few in my life these are the people who just stand out so loud to me in particular my older brother and so it's really difficult for me to extrapolate what's
• 01:00 - 01:30 common CET js without superimposing my brother over this image of ent J's so what I'm gonna I'm gonna try really hard to not talk about my brother what I'm talking about this type it's tough to get to know the real them there are a lot of layers there a lot of layers that maybe aren't obvious on the from the outside they might feel kind of and I think that a lot of people tend to paint them this way and maybe even we have a tendency to paint them this way as a bit two-dimensional we talk about how
• 01:30 - 02:00 they're like CEOs of companies or Napoleon Napoleon not dynamite Napoleon Bonaparte not Napoleon Dynamite but this sort of Napoleon Bonaparte's military leader five-star general you know running companies running countries and that I don't think that doesn't justice I mean there there is a component to them that is understandably archetypical going that direction but I don't think that that does them justice because I think there's a lot more layers to
• 02:00 - 02:30 people of this type the when an ENTJ is in the world are at least in Western culture our culture and our society is set up to reward the things that INTJs value at a very high level so I think the reason you see a lot of INTJs in leadership roles in business in government and whatever role they end up in they get a lot of reward for the skills they bring to the table so if you haven't looked at our car model yet the first thing I recommend you do is go google the car model on our
• 02:30 - 03:00 website personnel director comm because we're going to talk about a framework for the personality the mental wiring of the ENT Jai's mind so the car model is broken into four what are called cognitive functions is the technical name for these these are the way that your mind learns information and makes decisions and you have one that's your favorite that we call your driver process for an ENTJ their driver cognitive function is technically called extroverted thinking we've nicknamed it effectiveness and it's about asking the
• 03:00 - 03:30 question it's a it's a decision-making process it's an extroverted decision-making process and it's asking the question what works what gets the job done what is the bottom line what is the lowest common denominator how do I accomplish this task in the outer world and make this thing happen in our Western culture in the current Society of Commerce and global connectivity that is valued in a very significant way if you can accomplish things in the outer world if you can build systems and structure and
• 03:30 - 04:00 businesses and governments that work and and function well you are rewarded greatly for that and so I think a lot of times DJ's go through the world with it's almost like they they have so much success that they don't have that pain point that some other types might have we're okay I feel misunderstood or I feel like unsure of myself here a lot of the integers feel very sure of themselves I think they're rewarded for their extroverted thinking process that affected this process and I think that that really sets them up to almost be
• 04:00 - 04:30 like well there's really nothing wrong with me everything's going great they might have some personal things or some there are some misunderstandings but you know life is fairly good for me things are working out for me and I'm rewarded for the things I bring to the world I think there are some unique elements to that though I think and I think I'd we'd like to address this if you're a female ENTJ you're going to enter into some unique challenges and problems because sometimes people don't receive you well as a female based on what they project onto you as a row like a gender role for you so I think that's one challenge that is obvious to you if
• 04:30 - 05:00 you're a female in TJ listening you're like yeah I totally I totally have some struggle in my life based on people projecting what they think I should be as a female and I think there's also some of this some of this expectation to always be the one that has all the answers is an ENTJ the one that can always get the job done and sometimes you may not feel that at all times and so I think there's some struggle there but I think majority the case that that effectiveness process is rewarded in our culture more than maybe some other processes that people bring to the table
• 05:00 - 05:30 there was one thing that you mentioned that I think there is a little bit of a subtlety here and you mentioned that they have a lot of confidence and I think that's true I think that they are an TJ's generally are rewarded oh go ahead you should say my new and so that would be perceived confidence by others not necessarily they always feel confident internal but when they show up to the world the perception is that nothing rattles them they're always confident in in the moment I'm glad you made that distinction because I was
• 05:30 - 06:00 about to say I don't think they always feel confident in fact when we send out the survey now we didn't get nearly as many responses back on the ENTJ survey as we have in some of the other types and that makes sense because EJ's are off doing stuff most of the answers we got we're also very short and in fact we've gotten feedback from INTJs on other you know programs and content that we've created if it's 15 minutes or like that's too long I'm moving on so there is definitely a sense of like I can't really slow down I got to keep going I
• 06:00 - 06:30 gotta keep moving and I think what ends up happening with that confidence piece is that if they aren't feeling confident they're really good at ignoring it they're really good at going well I'm not feeling a hundred percent confident here and yet that's really not a very valuable emotion feeling insecure feeling a lack of confidence that's not really gonna serve me so I think they have an easier time of ignoring it when it's getting in their way that doesn't mean it goes away it doesn't mean that the confidence
• 06:30 - 07:00 suddenly goes away although there is something to be said for you know persevering doing things anyway even though you don't feel secure about a hundred percent and then getting rewards for you know being that being willing to be the mistakes of commission kind of person being willing to act and then get feedback like no that's actually a good thing go ahead and even if you're feeling insecure just keep going I think that they do get plenty of feedback that says that was probably the right action and yet they I think that there's still a sense of there's a sense of uncertainty at times and other people don't necessarily experience that from them and that's a
• 07:00 - 07:30 that's something that's important to address because we do get this image that they always feel confident at all times that is the perception that other people have of and TJ's that is the perception I had of my brother is that he never lacked confidence the the problem is though that he didn't always he hadn't always reached what I would at this stage in my life in retrospect realize what I think at this point is the right conclusion like sometimes his conclusions were were hastily made they
• 07:30 - 08:00 were very fast assessments of how the world works and he was fairly I would say influenced by a lot of the templates he observed in the world if there was a template in front of him and it seemed like a template that worked he just immediately adopted it and he said that's the way things work and there's there's a good and bad piece to this not really questioning yourself much the good piece is that yeah you get into action quick you can ignore those moments of insecurity you can ignore
• 08:00 - 08:30 that lack of confidence that you sometimes feel and persevere anyway but the other side of the coin is sometimes there's a there's an over valuing of a template you've observed that seems to be working and then just not questioning it again so whatever is our strength whatever supports us ends up crossing us and I would say that that's probably one of the biggest crosses for an ENTJ when they're leading with that effectiveness process effectives is fast it makes a value a value t'v decisions really quick
• 08:30 - 09:00 it doesn't really question itself if it does it to ignore it and just keeps moving awesome awesome awesome skill except for when you're wrong and when and in particular wouldn't that belief or that feeling or that observation isn't serving you if it's something that isn't particularly helpful even though it feels like it's a helpful belief because it's you saw this template and it seems to be playing out over and over so that must be how things are if it's not a belief or it's not an observation that serves you then sticking with it and not really
• 09:00 - 09:30 a ting it can actually lead to quite a bit of pain it can lead to some failed relationships because this is how relationships work so I'm going to continue behaving in this way and and you go oh wait maybe that's not how relationships work and why do I continue to have failed relationships everything about you wants to be as efficient as possible so you you see a template you create a neural pathway you say this is how it works and now you've got a super a mental superhighway going that well it will require a lot of persuasion to encourage you to remove that superhighway it's already constructed
• 09:30 - 10:00 it's already there why on earth would I tear it down again if the belief is not serving you though that neural pathway should be re-evaluated and that's one of the major benefits of having their copilot be what's technically called introverted intuition or what we call perspectives what perspectives does is it encourages an ENTJ to not just assume that if they observe something or see something that must be how it works especially if they've observed it a couple times it allows them to go inside
• 10:00 - 10:30 of themselves and really go what do we think is going on here just because the world is presenting me with a certain concept or a certain way that things are playing out is that how things actually work underneath the surface and is there a better way is there maybe some way that we can direct traffic so that there is a more efficient effective streamlined sustainable or even like a belief that is more conducive to happiness if we could just sort of turn
• 10:30 - 11:00 society in a slightly different direction maybe go off on a trajectory that serves us holistically better than just being effective in the moment I think of like that effectiveness piece where there's a template that's adopted and it's just driven forward it despite maybe information that conflicts with that being the useful template I think of from a military strategy standpoint I think as you as an ENTJ listening probably resonate with some military strategy I know a lot of ENTJ isn't like the ideal military strategy and we think
• 11:00 - 11:30 about from from the American history here the Revolutionary War the time period where the British Army was coming over to basically set the colonies the United States colonies before the United States they were just colonies in their place and it was very much a effective let's get a lot of resource a lot of soldiers let's line up in straight lines like we've been doing warfare for years and let's march across fields and combat the enemy and here the American colonists said uh-uh we're not doing it that way
• 11:30 - 12:00 whenever hiding behind trees they were picking off officers with you know sharpshooters and rifles and the British Army kept doubling down on this effective strategy that has worked in the past they were like no this is work this is the template of how war happens so we're gonna continue throwing resource and man power toward this effective strategy that we know has worked on the continent of Europe to dominate other armies and it didn't work they they obviously lost that war for various reasons but one was their military strategy because they weren't adaptive in the in the moment to what
• 12:00 - 12:30 was coming at them and they just kept doubling down on that template in an effective way this is obviously not a person or a personality we're talking about but this is the type of limit of thinking effectiveness can lock itself into if it doesn't open itself up using that perspectives process you're you're talking about had a perspectives person or you know an ENTJ come along and said wait a minute let's let's take some assessment here we're lining our men up to get slaughtered in droves when they're hiding behind trees and in swamps maybe we should change our tact instead of just continually following
• 12:30 - 13:00 that Napoleonic you know strategy type set up or whatever it was at the time that they were adopting in a military strategy so this is just a quick illustration of how effectiveness can get locked into something that's a template from a military standpoint that can actually be to its own detriment when it's been very effective in the past the opposite mental process from perspectives is called extroverted sensing or sensation and it sits in the ten-year-old position in that car model and I have noticed that if an ENTJ
• 13:00 - 13:30 doesn't focus on developing perspectives if it does if an ENTJ does not really actively work at developing their particular intuition and that means that they're probably going to be visiting that ten-year-old process of sensation more and I have seen INTJs synthetically keep themselves in a limited position not playing a big game not completely fulfilling their potential not doing not
• 13:30 - 14:00 basically giving the world what they could be giving because they're living too much in the moment they're too reactionary in Alaska when I was living there I had a I was part of a Dungeons & Dragons tabletop role-playing group and yes I am that big of a geek shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody that I play Dungeons & Dragons but the best my absolute favorite now there was a couple different teams that we had Dungeon Master's that we had that I thought were great one of them she might be actually
• 14:00 - 14:30 listening to the podcast she was fantastic I loved her but my favorite was an ENTJ and he could set up a game he could set up monsters he could set up like like he had this whole world in front of him that he was so incredibly good at damning he was just amazing at it and I remember thinking man you were you have so much potential you could be bringing this to like I mean this what you're what you're showing here what I'm just seeing the tip of the iceberg
• 14:30 - 15:00 before I was like you could be doing so many big game things and he was like yeah I could be but I think I'm just gonna sit around play video games I'm gonna I'm gonna have temp jobs and I'm gonna work as a fry cook and I'm gonna play a lot of video games and I was like really that's what you want to be doing and that's fine if that's really what he wanted to be doing that's totally fine but I don't think it was I think what what really he was avoiding was he was avoiding seeing that bigger game and every time he was introduced to it I could see that he could start flirting
• 15:00 - 15:30 with it but something was keeping him from really entering that intuitive process now I know he had some I know he had some issues growing up and I have observed when INTJs have a rough childhood when they have some issues going on from the past so maybe wounding or maybe some hurt feelings or just some trauma there's a an instinct to not go inward there's a there's something that tells them that there be dragons and that perspectives process remember it's technically called introverted intuition
• 15:30 - 16:00 and I think a fear that if they go too far inward into that intuitive process that they're gonna run into stuff that they don't really particularly want to see something that's painful something that's going to require them to attend to their own emotional space maybe acknowledge that they've not been behaving the way that they wanted to behave or maybe that they have anger that they still haven't you know cycled through and they want to they don't want to disturb their own calm and that's an understandable fear because the three-year-old position in the car model for an ENTJ is called what we call
• 16:00 - 16:30 authenticity is technically named introverted feeling so their three-year-old their inferior process or their blind spot is about managing their own emotions it's about going inside and going hey what's going on for me and how am I feeling about this and what's my identity based on you know based on the things that I've experienced and what's hitting me in a certain way that's their blind spot they don't particularly want to visit the place that will get them all emotionally like riled up and oftentimes what ends up happening is if an ENTJ does go to that three-year-old
• 16:30 - 17:00 or inferior place if they're stuck there if they're in the grip what oftentimes looks like is a a sort of depression that isn't like it's not crying and sadness usually what it looks like is dysthymia it's almost like they have to monitor themselves for depression like they would be monitoring a friend are they having trouble getting out of bed are they having trouble like you know just doing basic tasks are they finding their head fuzzy like they have to be sort of taking off a list of like this is depression and you're
• 17:00 - 17:30 experiencing it because it doesn't really overwhelm them in quite the same way it is overwhelming but it's not overwhelming quite the same way and then is just a really inefficient thing to experience is this diamond-like like why would on earth would they ever want to possibly go to a place that would cause them to not be able to get things done why wouldn't they just avoid that altogether so there is a sense of not wanting to have to go to that perspectives process just in case it would have them running into authenticity just in case they'd be
• 17:30 - 18:00 going in and going oh that's not a very fun place to go and I maybe have some down there that I haven't really processed yet and maybe I don't want to really process that stuff yet so there is definitely a sense of avoidance and then when there in that space of avoidance what they've done now is they've prevented themselves from fully developing their potential and playing that bigger game not to say that an ENTJ can't take over the world and not have done inner work or whatever that definitely happens as well but have
• 18:00 - 18:30 noticed that the more a person is avoiding their past or voiding wounds or traumas or avoiding emotions within themselves an ENTJ is the less they're going to be reaching their full potential and what's nice about entering that perspectives process is that there is a way for them to observe their own mind there is a way for them to watch what's going on inside of them without having to depth you know go into the depths of their emotional stuff they don't have to necessarily visit all their baggage they can take a more
• 18:30 - 19:00 impartial place so my brother is a science fiction writer and he's one of he's got the Midas touch whatever my brother wants to do like as soon as he decides to do it he just he calls himself the luckiest man in the world but he knows he's full of crap he knows that he worked super hard and he makes it happen and he's really good at positioning and he's really good at influencing people and he almost always lands on his feet so he's started companies and he's been the CFO for a couple companies and he's been the CEO for a couple other companies and he worked his way up and he just and this is by the way he's I mean he had like two seconds of college
• 19:00 - 19:30 and he's just always been so incredibly capable that people hand him a lot of responsibility so he gets to a point in his career was like you know I think I want to be a science fiction writer I think I'm just done with this corporate game so he ends the corporate you know he leaves the corporate world and then what he immediately gets invited into this like incredibly high-quality Writers Workshop filled with like you know all these different very very well-known writers he ends up becoming the personal assistants for what is I would argue is probably the most famous
• 19:30 - 20:00 popular writer at our time right now like the number-one writer you know his name I'm just not gonna mention him but you know his name and he's incredibly famous and he ends up being his personal assistant for six years and of course that gives him all these inroads into publishing so his very first novel ends up not only published he's now on his fifth book and his books is he and his writing partner series of books cuz he has a writing partner who actually did he's way up in the writing field by the way like took over a decade to get to
• 20:00 - 20:30 the same place that my brother got to in like two seconds the two of them now have a TV show that is based on their books right that's coming on the sci-fi channel that's next month and so it's like this ridiculous story this ridiculous like and it's not even a rags to riches story it's a riches to riches story because everything he's ever touched like he just it just makes he just makes it happen and he has a lot of trauma from his past right he didn't have a great upbringing there was some stuff that happened to him when he was a kid that were just that was just very
• 20:30 - 21:00 very difficult for him to manage he still has a lot of resentment and anger or he had traditionally had a lot of resentment and anger but I've noticed he's really been working on his prospectus process in particular because of the imagination that writing requires of him it requires of him a lot of just being inside his mind and architecting this world and I mean he's really had to do a lot of work so when I was talking to him I flew out and stayed with him for a week and you know we play video
• 21:00 - 21:30 games and drink margaritas and really cut it like caught up for the first time a long time and we were talking about how he felt about his you know our past basically like our parents and our upbringing I know he's got a lot of trauma and he just had this really philosophical way of looking at it it was like yeah I probably have a lot of wounding I probably have a lot of emotional stuff going on but I'm also recognize that I'm a really judgmental person and I'm probably not gonna be able to change that but that doesn't mean that that's anybody else's problem
• 21:30 - 22:00 that's my stuff so what I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna he didn't use a whole phrase hold space he would hate the world hold space but he said whatever his version of hold space is he's like yeah I'm just gonna I'm just gonna kind of allow myself to feel that way and I'm just gonna kind of watch my you know watch my thoughts and just observe them and just let them be whatever they are and I'm just gonna assume that I don't know what's going on for anybody else I don't know where they're at I don't know what position they're in I don't know a hundred percent of their story I don't know why they did the things that they did I can imagine why they did but I'm
• 22:00 - 22:30 just not gonna care about like I'm not I'm not gonna let that destroy me I'm just going to allow that to be and I'm gonna recognize that you know that's just how it is and I'm going to continue to move on and I'm gonna Cassin take names and that's how I'm gonna roll I thought that was a really smart way of going about things I know another eating TJ what she's done is she's allowed herself to be in really bad situations she actually has the power to be you know to get out of that situation but she's chosen that that's more work than she wants to put into it so she just
• 22:30 - 23:00 kind of totally ignores her inner wisdom totally ignores a space where you know like she she's decided that she's just gonna go ahead and just stay here as opposed to leave and she's gonna find a way for herself to be happy now if she couldn't change her circumstance I think that that would be really smart way of going about it like finding the perspective in which you're happy but she's actually done it to avoid work her a fish of Nespresso says defaulted to efficiency or actually what is really done is it's defaulted to not wanting to
• 23:00 - 23:30 ever have to expend resources and so like at all like she's just gonna let herself be in a really bad situation and that she's just you know she's not gonna expend the energy to get out and I don't really find that to be nearly as effective of a strategy as other en CJ's who have decided that they're gonna go ahead and get out of bad situations and they're going to see like the sustainability of getting out of a bad situation and they're going to allow themselves to future pace to a better situation to a better time and they recognize that that doesn't mean that they have to you know fall into a deep
• 23:30 - 24:00 depression it doesn't mean that they have to like go into that authenticity puts pace and like it sort of caught in the grip of it they can simply see the end of the road if they make actions that lend to their own happiness and I think that's probably an ENTJ at their healthiest if their future pacing happiness if their future pacing away where yeah it might be a little bit of expend resource expenditure now and it might require big game thinking of them
• 24:00 - 24:30 and it might require a sense of confidence that they might not a hundred percent be filling right now but they're gonna go ahead and go for it anyway I find that those INTJs are the ones who generally are at the top of their game and they generally are the one who have that Midas touch that no matter where they go they're just a success so I want to talk about a metaphor as as you're talking this metaphor came into my mind and I thought about it before but never in the context of ENTJ and I think this this works well for you as an ENTJ to
• 24:30 - 25:00 think about what's going on for you let's assume let's take that car metaphor how we look at our our cognitive functions that you're using the effectiveness perspectives sensation authenticity as you're in ENTJ interacting the world you're interacting with people and people require the feeling part of you the the you know the relational part of you and that's your inferior process the feeling part that you bring to the table that introverted feeling that authenticity is something that's a blind spot for you it's a three-year-old in your car you're much more focused on resource management and
• 25:00 - 25:30 getting the task done so let's assume that your your life is you driving along in a car at an automobile and everything is going great you're efficiently going down the freeway and all of a sudden the check engine light comes on in your car in the vehicle you're driving and that check engine light is something tied to that authenticity process it's saying I don't know exactly what's wrong with the engine but you need to check it because something's going wrong you as an ENTJ
• 25:30 - 26:00 are most likely going to be tempted to take as you're driving rip the cover off the off where the the light comes on and just snip the wire so you don't see the wire anymore it's gonna be so much more efficient for you than to pull over the car take the time to get off the freeway stop the vehicle open the engine and look inside and see what's going on which would be you getting into that perspectives process to figure out the system of what's happening and there may be some emotions in there stuff it's so much easier for you just to snip the check engine wire so the light goes off now you don't see it anymore huh that's
• 26:00 - 26:30 fine our life is going well I don't see that check engine light coming on I'll have to deal with that icky emotion that I'm not even sure what it is it's just a check engine light of emotion and I'm not sure even what that means or what that means for me that might totally make my entire experience inefficient I might have to pull over and let my car rest or get it fixed or whatever I'm just gonna keep going through my day and snip that wire and what happens if you do that does that make the problem go away as an ENTJ does the emotional trauma from your past or the emotional
• 26:30 - 27:00 stuff that you have to deal with just end when you snip the wire and you no longer see the light on of course using ENTJ have to still address the issue of that check engine light you could probably drive a while on the engine that's not functioning correctly but eventually it's gonna stop functioning properly and you're going to be forced to pull over and fix that it's gonna take even more resource and more inefficient time of yours so what Antonia is talking about is when that check engine light comes on we
• 27:00 - 27:30 don't want to snip the wire and we don't want to sit there and think well I've seen this before I'm sure it's just the intake valve of such-and-such you don't know that to be true so you can't just explain it away like her one friend did or snip the wire like some other people might do it's you need to take the time pull the vehicle over and this is gonna be a challenge for you to stop everything for a moment get into that perspectives place open the engine and say okay what in the system is happening what can I shift my perspective around to see what's happening here for me because you're not going to be skilled in understanding what emotions are coming up for you but you do have a
• 27:30 - 28:00 skill in understanding how your mind works how things interact together in your mental space so if you can take the time to get to pull the car over and to really examine what's going on for you why am I having this perspective what's happening here why is this person angry with me and this emotions being blasted I want to just tune them out because they're giving me the strong emotion but I know that's not healthy for our relationship so I've got to address this but I can't play in the emotional space so how do I figure out what's happening with them oh I can access my
• 28:00 - 28:30 perspectives process I can shift into their perspective and see I see why they're behaving this way they're coming at it from this angle and that perspectives process can really be used for you as an ENTJ to see the emotions that are coming up that just don't make sense to you sometimes that are baffling or sometimes just overwhelming to you and I think what we're really talking about is is addressing the issues before they become a problem and this is gonna require and this is something on the survey we did get back a lot of ENTJ said they struggle with patience I think you as an ENTJ you intuitively know that
• 28:30 - 29:00 the answer lies in slowing down and getting more inside of your own mind and understanding what's going on for you and other people in that perspectives process but you're so excited about just closing loops or you're so driven to accomplish or just keep the ball rolling keep the tasks completed what works let's get the job done that that slowing down makes it seem like all of that's gonna go away and it will maybe temporarily you might not get as much done this week if you slow down and take
• 29:00 - 29:30 some time to meditate or to go on a run or to listen to some binaural beats or to just take the time to sketch out the strategy you want to have for your business your life or your relationship but therein lies the power as an ENTJ if you begin to get into that perspectives process you are going to ultimately be more effective over the long term and you'll be unstoppable there will be there will be no check engine light that will come on that will throw you out of frame because you understand that you can access that perspectives process to
• 29:30 - 30:00 be able to deal with those things as they come up and I think what we're encouraging you to do is to take the time to develop that patience because it's gonna be a challenge for you especially at first when you first start doing this you're gonna resist it like crazy I don't want to slow down I want to keep moving but but the power and your personality type is gonna come from slowing everything down and getting into that perspectives process for you yeah there's a there's one thing that came up in the survey a couple times that really relates to this and and that is a couple
• 30:00 - 30:30 people were like yeah I don't really like emotions I don't really want to have to deal with them and at the same time I have them and I want people to know that like I don't really want to like I don't to spend the toilet time there I don't want to have to like dive deep into emotions all the time but I'm not an automaton like I'm not a robot I definitely have my emotions one of the issues with having authenticity or introverted feeling as your blind spot is that you are better at ignoring your emotions than most people are it's part
• 30:30 - 31:00 of your super power is to ignore emotions in order to get the job done which is something that needs to happen at times there are times when we just can't stop any longer to check in with how everybody's feeling we have to keep going their tasks to be done the the issue with this is that there can be an ignoring of conscience at the same time in order to get something accomplished you can ignore maybe a part of your for
• 31:00 - 31:30 lack of better word in her wisdom a part of your inner conscience that goes maybe we shouldn't do this and because you have the ability to ignore you know needs or the ability to ignore pesky emotions the ones that are interruptive you can also apply that to ignoring conscience one of the things that perspectives does beyond just you know allowing you to future pace and all that actually really cool stuff that that Joel just mentioned that
• 31:30 - 32:00 perspectives does it allows you to address your check engine lights and address all these other parts of you so that you you know that you you're not you're not driving with a big smile on your face just about to have the engine blow up like that's not the case one of the great things that perspectives does for you too is it allows you to go inside and figure out what's important to you you're able to add in a dispassionate way not in an emotionally indulgent way not maybe in a way that like is all about you know how things are making you feel but more in a
• 32:00 - 32:30 theoretical way what's important to you and I've noticed that INTJs that spend time in their perspectives process tend to be the ones that have the highest amount of integrity they're the ones that are the most loyal they're the ones that are they have these actually very admirable traits that oftentimes we would apply to conscience they have them in in spades they're loyal they give to the people that are important to them endlessly they're checking in with morale they want to make sure that the people around them
• 32:30 - 33:00 like they have a sense of responsibility for the people around them and they want to make sure everybody is okay it's the ones that don't slow down that don't allow themselves to go into an introverted state regardless of whether or not sper spective Zoar authenticity that ignore that and just use sensation that ten-year-old process which is all about whatever is happening in the moments they use sensation to give them feedback that says that everything is okay but sensation is not looking at things in a sustainable way it's only
• 33:00 - 33:30 looking at things in a moment-to-moment and so if you're using that feedback to say everything's a-okay and to ignore any sort of inner red flag that might be coming up for you you can actually be unconsciously bulldozing people or you can be unconsciously running over the top of their feelings you can be disloyal you can be taking actions that are actually against your own conscience but you don't know that because you're ignoring your conscience when it tries to tell you that this is why we get the stereotype of the evil corporation
• 33:30 - 34:00 that's the dumping battery acid and the river you know upstream in a river that ends up destroying people's lives and you know a village downstream like this is that stereotype which is the ability to just do what's profitable and ignore the consequences and anti J's aren't built to do that they're built to think in terms of sustainability as long as they are taking advantage of all their cognitive processes that long range future pace perspectives process is
• 34:00 - 34:30 where sustainability comes from and treating people without ecology treating people poorly not looking at things conducive to happiness is not sustainable in the long run even if even if that form of sustainability has to extend beyond your lifetime sustainability should be a very important piece of what you're incorporating into just the way you experience reality and engage with it so that perspectives process does so much for an ENTJ it in short and again your your personal relationships are very
• 34:30 - 35:00 much going to be rewarded the more you use perspectives a lot of times you NCJ say I don't understand my spouse I don't understand my mate I don't get what's important to them I don't understand why they get fussy or they get emotional or whatever the phrase is I don't understand why they're experiencing what they're experiencing that perspectives process gives you an inroad into how other people are thinking what other people are experiencing so at least you understand it even if you're not totally there even if you're not empathizing most of time for people of this type all
• 35:00 - 35:30 they have to do is really kind of understand what's going on or at least recognize that there might be things outside of their awareness that's going on and then they can hold space for their spouse so that perspectives process does so much I don't think that we can really we can't we can't talk it up high enough do what you can another reason an ENTJ might avoid perspectives though is that this process sometimes gets attached to concepts that are cool you know quote unquote woowoo now we've said this before Podcast we always get negative feedback whenever we say this anybody who's
• 35:30 - 36:00 listening and just heard me say perspectives introverted intuition is this I you know is oftentimes associated with things that are woowoo I'm not saying it is I am NOT saying the introverted intuition is in and of itself whoa I am saying that to the outside observer it can appear woowoo because it does form patterns based on a subjective internal process and other and those patterns may not gel with something that is definitive and concrete in the outside world so that
• 36:00 - 36:30 impression of something being woowoo might cause an ENTJ to avoid developing their perspectives process but I think the more there's or the less judgmental the ENTJ is of things that are potentially considered woowoo the more openness that they show the more openness to new concepts and new patterns and new ideas even if it feels like oh well I totally would never like be into that New Age stuff there's a lot
• 36:30 - 37:00 of introverted intuition patterns that don't have to be new-age so if that's for some reason throwing you off don't please do not associate those two things introverted intuition or perspectives can you know it can be imagination without necessarily having to enter a space of like being super into things that feel weird a new agent now I totally am any things that are weird new agey so I don't think those things are bad at all but I have seen some ent J's have a knee-jerk response to it my recommendation is to to gain a little bit of openness you don't have to buy the farm like just be open to new
• 37:00 - 37:30 concepts and new ideas and you know allow your mind to work with it it doesn't mean you have to commit it doesn't mean you have to create a new neural pathway that says that thing is true or false just feel free to play in that space and hold loosely to certain concepts but be willing to you know to engage with them and see them from multiple perspectives and understand how they could be true in future pace and and really see perspectives as opposed to play like a sandbox to play in not necessarily something you have to commit to
• 37:30 - 38:00 absolutely we also have a lot of ENTJ females that tend to be part of our audience and if you're a female ENTJ listening I think you have a unique challenge in that you know our culture women and and I think this is changing but traditionally women have been painted into this corner that it's almost like the world expects you as a woman to show up a certain way and if you're wired if your mind is wired differently I think you have a unique challenge I think men do too in some ways but I think women a particularly ntj women have a challenge in the world
• 38:00 - 38:30 when they show up with their strengths and the culture or the people around them are like well you're a woman you you shouldn't be this way you should be different and they're tried to people try to box you into something that you're not well and I think that they end up being considered intimidating or blusters and I hear the word you know well she's just really because maybe you take leadership and you're willing to just call the shots and and people resist that or they think that you're just bulldozing over them or something so I think there's there's a unique challenge for you as as a female
• 38:30 - 39:00 and again we're gonna keep coming back to the same answer at least in this podcast because we think that's the highest leverage thing for you as an ENTJ and that perspectives process to understand just I mean and you probably is a female already understand this you understand OK culture expects me to show up a certain way and I've showing up different so I get that if I shift perspective and I see how people expect me to be because they're projecting this onto me as a woman I'm gonna go ahead and work with that and and and sit with that and your perspectives process helps you get there and you can probably see
• 39:00 - 39:30 an ENTJ female who's not developed hasn't gone in that perspectives being very frustrated having a lot of struggle and challenge with this and and you can see females who've got in that perspectives process understand what's going on and realize that this is a unique challenge that you face in the world as a female I think one thing that we mentioned before about the perspectives process encouraging patience I think that's something that can really serve an ENTJ woman who is experiencing a lot of pushback for who
• 39:30 - 40:00 she is there is a need to develop patience on a higher level when you're of this type and the world is giving you nothing but resistant feedback now fortunately we're in a time period of history where there's a lot more openness to an assertive woman who's very task-oriented project-oriented knows what she wants and goes for it like there's a lot more openness to that but there's still it's still threatening I think overall to a lot of people both men and
• 40:00 - 40:30 women other women will find it very threatening as well so I think developing that perspectives process allows an ENTJ woman to experi get a more patient frame it also helps them understand why other people might be feeling the way that they're feeling and that patient actually helps soften the entire demeanor not that the ENTJ woman needs softening but it might help encourage a more approachable or accessible demeanor or presence yeah and
• 40:30 - 41:00 I can I can see you as an ENTJ woman going well what's wrong with me I'm fine I don't need to be more approachable I like myself I like how I show up to the world and and that's great I don't think you need to necessarily change yourself or fit yourself into a mold like we're just talking about how do you deal with some of the pain points that come with the culture projecting something onto you that may not be what you feel or what you're thinking about showing up as like you that's not your natural state so it's like why are you keep projecting this onto me I think that's just what we're talking about what I think is
• 41:00 - 41:30 great about the effectiveness process though as you know for an ENTJ whether they're a woman or man that effectiveness process is looking at what works so I don't think a lot of Eagan TJ's in general have attitude about like well why should I have to change like they understand that we all have to accommodate each other as one of the things I really appreciate about people who use effectiveness is they're like well if what I'm doing isn't working then I need to change what I'm doing so that it does work so I don't think a lot of ntj women necessarily have an
• 41:30 - 42:00 attitude around this I think though that there is a sense like you said there's a lot of stuff that's projected onto them and a lot of confusion can be cleared by really focusing on developing that perspectives process to get inside the minds of why other people might be approaching them that way it works it works to get into prospectus for you as an ENTJ so what do you what do you think about what we've talked about you're an ENTJ listening or you know an ENTJ in your life come over to personality hacker.com leave a comment or a question underneath this podcast we want to hear
• 42:00 - 42:30 what you have to think about this we're gathering a community of like minds one of the places we gather everyone is over at facebook.com forward slash personality hacker people that are very similar to you to think similarly to you and we want to know what the community here thinks about this these podcasts are discussion starters and I think we had a good conversation about the auntie-ji a personality type but I'd love to hear what you think now that you've been listening to this and what your perspective is if you like our podcast you can subscribe to us on iTunes you can also leave a rating and review that
• 42:30 - 43:00 helps us out a ton if you leave a rating review iTunes will give us more seniority and more preferential treatment if we have lots of cool rating and reviews so if you have feel a sense of reciprocity and would like to give us a reading review on iTunes that would be awesome you can also subscribe to us on various Android platforms and we would love to have you join us every week yeah you can also subscribe on iTunes way they're giving a review as well my name is Joel mark Witt and I'm in Tony and I can't wait to talk with you on the next personality hacker podcast
• 43:00 - 43:30 [Music]