ESTJ – Executive Personality type: An ESTJ’s presence is strongly felt in whatever room they’re in as they’re usually seen exercising control and never shy away from expressing their opinions.
The ESTJ personality type or the executive personality is from the Sentinel group of the 16 personalities as described by the Myers-Briggs Indicator and Carl Jung’s personality theory.
Inspiring your journey, one story at a time. #LifeFalcon.
ESTJs are bold, opinionated socialists who feel comfortable living a carefully planned out life!
With their intimidating persona comes their enthusiastic energy and loyal dedication towards their loved ones.
ESTJs hold their families especially close to their hearts, and often from a young age, feel a strong sense of duty towards their family and community.
Being as hardworking, reliable, and honorable as they are, ESTJs will work towards making sure they fulfill whatever responsibilities they have.
However, that is just an overview of this interesting personality type that holds most organizations and communities together.
To find out more about ESTJs’ greatest strengths and weaknesses, their relationships, and work habits, just keep on reading!
Table of Content
Personality traits of an ESTJ
A person’s personality type (aka ESTJ) is essentially an acronym for their preferences in 5 different aspects of life which make up their personality.
These aspects are mind, energy, nature, tactics, and identity. Each of these aspects has 2 categories.
Mind– The mind trait describes how we engage and interact with our environment. This can either be Extroverted (E) or Introverted (I).
Energy- The energy trait describes how we view the world and process it, which is either Observant (S) or Intuitive (N).
Nature- The nature trait describes how we deal with our emotions and make decisions. The nature trait is either described as Feeling (F) or Thinking (T).
Tactic- The tactic trait describes how we tackle our daily tasks and can either be Prospecting (P) or Judging (J).
Identity- The identity trait describes our overall confidence in our abilities and decisions. The identity trait can either be Assertive (A) or Turbulent (T) and varies in every individual.
In ESTJs, these personality traits are extroverted, sensing, thinking, and judging.
Now let’s take a closer look into each of these traits tell us about the ESTJ personality type.
Extroverted (E)
As Extroverts, ESTJs are energized by the time they spend around people.
Even though they love socializing with people, these interactions mustn’t revolve around emotional discussions and hold some sort of logical basis instead.
Observant/ Sensing (S)
As observant/ sensing types, ESTJs are more focused on living in the present moment than they are on discussing ideas and theories.
They enjoy getting their hands dirty and putting all their ideas into action.
Similar to all other Sentinels, ESTJs are very good at storing very vivid memories of their present surroundings and experiences in their minds for later use.
Along with that, all their present experiences are compared with those stored memories from the past to find connections and to determine how they feel about it.
Thinking (T)
This trait implies that ESTJs are more drawn to logical discussions and base their decisions on logical reasoning rather than their feelings or values.
Unlike ESFJs who lead with the function that’s focused on how their actions impact others, ESTJs are focused on what gets the task done more efficiently and effectively.
Judging (J)
The judging trait shows up quite obviously in their personality and explains how the ESTJ likes structure and organization in their surroundings.
Unstructured and chaotic environments are the bane of their existence and will immediately send them into a frenzy as they try to sort everything back in order.
Strengths of an ESTJ
Effective leaders
While ESTJs are respectful of the systems that are put in place, they tend to be very good at bringing people together for a single cause.
As leaders, their main focus is on getting the task at hand done as effectively as possible. They aren’t ones to reschedule meetings or tasks because someone isn’t feeling well.
If someone doesn’t deliver the best result in their work, they can easily spot them and replace them with others who might, regardless of whether it hurts their feelings or not.
Respectful
ESTJs are very respectful of people, rules, and different traditions.
Especially in a work environment, they recognize their place, and while they won’t be afraid to speak their minds, they’ll respect people in a position of authority and listen to their decisions.
Speak their minds
ESTJs believe in open and honest communication in all aspects of life. They believe that if you have something to say, you should not only just come out and say it, but also stick by your argument.
Even though sometimes they come off as quite intimidating in their views, in reality, they are open to listening to other people’s suggestions, especially when they’re in the process of coming up with a solution to a certain problem.
They believe in equal contributions from everyone, however, at the same time, they won’t be afraid to shoot down bad ideas.
Welcome criticism
ESTJs extend people the courtesy of being brutally honest with them and expect the same in return.
When people say, it’s not personal, and continue to critique a piece of work or a certain habit of theirs, ESTJs genuinely know to not take it personally.
Often, they ask for criticism themselves so that at the end of the day, the work that they put out is the best possible version!
Give their 101% to everything
If there’s one thing people love about ESTJs, it’s how dedicated they are to whatever they’re working on.
As long as the work resonates with them and doesn’t counter their morals, they will give it their absolute best shot and ensure that when they hand in the work to their bosses, they are met with awe of appreciation.
Honorable
Another great quality of ESTJs is their honor and integrity.
Regardless of where they are in life, they never sacrifice their strong principles for the sake of anyone; rather use them as motivation to keep doing better in life.
They believe in honest work and will be appalled by people who think otherwise.
Organize chaos
In an environment that’s riddled with chaos, an ESTJ will be the clear-minded personnel who will take charge, assign everyone tasks according to their skills, and control the situation.
If they are not the most qualified person in the room to be made in-charge of something, they’ll pass on the authority baton to the person who is.
Weaknesses of an ESTJ
Judgmental
ESTJs have a very defined sense of what’s right and what’s wrong, and they usually aren’t ready to compromise on that.
So if someone does something that lies on the wrong end of that line, they’ll be very judgmental and usually don’t make excuses for people.
Workaholics
ESTJs are incredibly hard workers, however, sometimes they get so immersed in their work that they find it hard to stop.
They can get stuck in a loop of planning and executing and constantly working on one thing or another, all the time!
Stubborn and inflexible
Most ESTJs value traditions a lot and are proud of their very set ways of doing things. When those ways are questioned, or when they’re asked to change their methods, not only will they offended, but will also be extremely opposed to the idea.
Impatient when people don’t deliver the best possible work
When it comes to working, ESTJs have little patience for sloppiness and for listening to people’s excuses. If they assign you a task, they expect it to be done on time, and well.
Hence, when people fail to deliver, they can be quite harsh and insensitive in their response, which is inevitably quite hurtful to most.
Despite that, don’t even think about going to them with your sob stories and personal excuses, because there’s no use in appealing to a feeling function that lies so dormant.
Don’t do well with emotions
ESTJs struggle when it comes to expressing their emotions.
Most of the times, they can ignore all negative emotions and focus on their work, however, under extreme stress, these negative feelings resurface.
When they do, because an ESTJ is so used to shoving them down, they often don’t know how to deal with them and end up having very mentally draining breakdowns.
ESTJs in a Relationship
In relationships, ESTJs are very committed and reliable partners who foster an overprotective nature and will usually adopt traditional gender roles.
ESTJs feel a strong sense of duty to their partners, especially in a marriage, and as a result, will put a lot of effort into the relationship to fulfill those duties.
Along with that, they’re the kind of people to remember all the important dates in your relationship, from birthdays to anniversaries.
They are lovable; albeit shy and almost uncomfortable when it comes to expressing their emotions verbally.
However, this shyness is immediately dropped when there’s a problem at hand that needs to be brought to light.
Although they’re more likely to look at problems through a logical lens, while ignoring their partners’ feelings, they will not let their problems sit rent-free in their heads, preferring to talk them out instead.
Most ESTJs can be very adamant in their decisions about what’s considered right or wrong, and will strongly oppose their partners’ engagement in anything they consider wrong.
This honesty extends to all aspects of the relationship, which can be hurtful to the more sensitive types!
However, at the end of the day, if you share similar morals, you’re likely to get along very well with an ESTJ.
Along with everything else, ESTJs also bring a lot of positive energy to the relationship and can usually be very fun to talk to because of their extroverted nature.
ESTJs as Friends
As naturally stubborn people, it can be harder for ESTJs to befriend people who have a lot of differences in opinions leading to constant arguments.
However, for the most part, ESTJs are very good at seeking out friends through mutual interests.
They’re very likely to spark a conversation with a classmate or a co-worker and make plans to go do an activity you’re both interested in.
ESTJs are very loyal and dedicated friends who are always pushing their friends along to take part in activities they love.
They can be opinionated in their conversations and might come off as a little too controlling of their friends, however, at the same time, they balance it out with their wit and sarcastic humor.
However, as committed as ESTJs are in their friendships, they need to know that they can count on you as well when needed.
Although it’s very rare for them to reach out for emotional support, and they’re not the type of friends who people go to for emotional support either, they will ask for your help (often as a last resort) when they really need it.
If you fail to come through with support, and if your failure to deliver becomes a constant pattern it will cause them to rethink their friendship with you.
ESTJs as Parents
As parents, an ESTJ’s main focus is on making sure their kids grow up to be responsible hard workers, who respect tradition and stick up for what they believe in.
ESTJs are probably some of the strictest parents because of how they assert their control in their households and are focused on implementing a proper structure with rules as much as they can.
From a very young age, they’ll try to teach their kids the values of self- sufficiency, and responsibility by assigning them suitable chores around the house, encouraging them to partake in community services, etc.
They’ll be very vocal about their disapproval of their kids’ actions and constant mistakes, however, they’ll also be the biggest supporters of their achievements.
ESTJs as Work
These workaholics thrive in a work environment where they get to exercise their organizational and thinking traits to the fullest.
Careers such as managers, financial counselors, real estate agents, public administrators, pilots, principals, judges, and the military are great for ESTJs where the organization is key and they know the hierarchy at play.
As long as they have clear guidelines about their work, know their role, and have their workspace organized, they’ll work very effectively.
They are incredibly hard workers who always pride themselves on being able to deliver on their promises at work.
ESTJs also like to do things the traditional way, following the complete protocol and doing everything in their power to make sure they’re not cutting any corners in their work.
Anyone who does so is met with displeasure.
Enjoying honest and direct communication at work, ESTJs bring their strong ideals to their workplace and usually display immense loyalty to their work as well.
They are often intolerant towards ineffectiveness, messy or rushed work, and excuses.
A job that provides security makes them feel more comfortable rather than careers like being an author or an artist where your income may vary.
Conclusion
Do you know anyone in your life who fits the above description of an ESTJ?
If you already know someone who’s been typed as an ESTJ, it’s important to remember that even though they can be a little overbearing and controlling at times, at the end of the day, their main focus is on making your life and their life better in any way they can!
