Thursday, July 17, 2008

I Am Not An Evil Overlord!

It's true! I swear! Recently I've been delving into my inner world just a little as part of my ministerial supervision. This has proved to be a good experience. Especially in recent weeks completing and then beginning to process my MBTI profile. Somewhere along the way I got mis-categorised as an ENTJ - which is fine - ENTJ's are good people too. And for me, its an easy mistake to make if you see a more externalised view of me. But as you get closer its pretty clear that the J is really a P which takes me away from "The Evil Overlord" description and into "Mad Scientist" territory (check out the alternate definitions). It is actually a very pragmatic tool for understanding "fit" in certain roles and how you relate to others who may be different to you. It has already led me to initiate a conversation with a person to rationalise my involvement with what they're doing - so they get the best out of my limited availability rather than the worst!

I found a good description of the ENTP which captures much of the stuff I'm discovering:

The Visionary

As an ENTP, your primary mode of living is focused externally, where you take things in primarily via your intuition. Your secondary mode is internal, where you deal with things rationally and logically.

With Extraverted Intuition dominating their personality, the ENTP's primary interest in life is understanding the world that they live in. They are constantly absorbing ideas and images about the situations they are presented in their lives. Using their intuition to process this information, they are usually extremely quick and accurate in their ability to size up a situation. With the exception of their ENFP cousin, the ENTP has a deeper understanding of their environment than any of the other types.

This ability to intuitively understand people and situations puts the ENTP at a distinct advantage in their lives. They generally understand things quickly and with great depth. Accordingly, they are quite flexible and adapt well to a wide range of tasks. They are good at most anything that interests them. As they grow and further develop their intuitive abilities and insights, they become very aware of possibilities, and this makes them quite resourceful when solving problems.

ENTPs are idea people. Their perceptive abilities cause them to see possibilities everywhere. They get excited and enthusiastic about their ideas, and are able to spread their enthusiasm to others. In this way, they get the support that they need to fulfill their visions.

ENTPs are less interested in developing plans of actions or making decisions than they are in generating possibilities and ideas. Following through on the implementation of an idea is usually a chore to the ENTP. For some ENTPs, this results in the habit of never finishing what they start. The ENTP who has not developed their Thinking process will have problems with jumping enthusiastically from idea to idea, without following through on their plans. The ENTP needs to take care to think through their ideas fully in order to take advantage of them.

The ENTP's auxiliary process of Introverted Thinking drives their decision making process. Although the ENTP is more interested in absorbing information than in making decisions, they are quite rational and logical in reaching conclusions. When they apply Thinking to their Intuitive perceptions, the outcome can be very powerful indeed. A well-developed ENTP is extremely visionary, inventive, and enterprising.

ENTPs are fluent conversationalists, mentally quick, and enjoy verbal sparring with others. They love to debate issues, and may even switch sides sometimes just for the love of the debate. When they express their underlying principles, however, they may feel awkward and speak abruptly and intensely.

The ENTP personality type is sometimes referred to the "Lawyer" type. The ENTP "lawyer" quickly and accurately understands a situation, and objectively and logically acts upon the situation. Their Thinking side makes their actions and decisions based on an objective list of rules or laws.

The ENTP, who does not naturally consider the more personal or human element in decision making, should take care to notice the subjective, personal side of situations. This is a potential problem are for ENTPs. Although their logical abilities lend strength and purpose to the ENTP, they may also isolate them from their feelings and from other people.

The least developed area for the ENTP is the Sensing-Feeling arena. If the Sensing areas are neglected, the ENTP may tend to not take care of details in their life. If the Feeling part of themself is neglected, the ENTP may not value other people's input enough, or may become overly harsh and aggressive.

Under stress, the ENTP may lose their ability to generate possibilities, and become obsessed with minor details. These details may seem to be extremely important to the ENTP, but in reality are usually not important to the big picture.

In general, ENTPs are upbeat visionaries. They highly value knowledge, and spend much of their lives seeking a higher understanding. They live in the world of possibilities, and become excited about concepts, challenges and difficulties. When presented with a problem, they're good at improvising and quickly come up with a creative solution. Creative, clever, curious, and theoretical, ENTPs have a broad range of possibilities in their lives.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

When it rains it pours!

Just don't click any links on that alternative Myers-Brigs site. I seem to remember Frank chastising me for linking to it a while back!

Anonymous said...

When it rains it pours!

Just don't click any links on that alternative Myers-Brigs site. I seem to remember Frank chastising me for linking to it a while back!

Vania said...

that link got blocked by Reubens anti-porn filter??? okay...

BJ said...

Yes good advice from Rhett and I should have mentioned it...DO NOT click on any links:

"Xero is the magazine of erotic art, photography, fiction,
essays, and articles, for those who love cyberpunk and BDSM.
We know you want it."

Its still funny though...

Anonymous said...

There is a post on "Rhett's Blog" about this stuff. Actually, its almost like he's talking about your Myers Briggs profile ;) Not that I mind your blabbing. You blab good.

BJ said...

Funny! I assume you mean in the comment? No I don't think he's talking about me: "blabbing on about ideas (without too much practical outcome)" is not really an ENTP attribute - we are very much ideas people with a solutions bias. He's probably referencing the blogging world! I think its true to say we are the centres of our universes and surprised to find some other people process life differently to us.

Anonymous said...

Actually, I was thinking of you. I hope you don't mind; I thought it obvious. I think this is probably the biggest value of something such as Myers-Briggs; not simply gaining an understanding of yourself but of your relatedness to others. From what I understand, your personality type gains inspiration from sharing ideas and visions of the future. Whereas mine just likes to think about how said vision will make sure such and such gets done.

I suppose the hope with these tests, is that understanding differences like that helps people to work better together. Also, they can be fun. :-)

BJ said...

Interesting. I think what it also demonstrates then is that one needs a greater understanding of these concepts to apply them than is perhaps available without training? Because "blabbing on about ideas (without too much practical outcome)" is not an ENTP trait nor is it descriptive of me. The quality you're describing is more typical of an ENFP. The T is what draws the ENTP towards outcomes and not just ideas.

BJ said...

But you do actually describe the blogging world quite well.

Anonymous said...

Your absolutely right; in fact, as I blogged I thought, "This is exactly what I'm doing...", it's just that I do it with a specific outlet (my blog).

Perhaps my generalisation was a little bit off. I was going on parts of the description of your type which you put up; namely... "ENTPs are idea people. Their perceptive abilities cause them to see possibilities everywhere. They get excited and enthusiastic about their ideas, and are able to spread their enthusiasm to others. In this way, they get the support that they need to fulfill their visions." and "ENTPs are less interested in developing plans of actions or making decisions than they are in generating possibilities and ideas. Following through on the implementation of an idea is usually a chore to the ENTP."

Actually, I get a bit jealous of that, as someone who sometimes has to go looking for inspiration (as I have said, personality type one step above a coma).