After taking the personality test, I have learned that my confirmed profile is ISFP, which stands for the Adventurer, and I am 58% introverted, 62% observant, 63% feeling, 68% prospecting, and 51% turbulent. At first, these numbers meant nothing to me, but while reading the article about Adventurers, I started becoming more and more surprised how well it matched my preferences, behavior, reactions, and even feelings.
Let me tell you more about myself and Adventurers in general. We love to express ourselves, and like artists who use canvas and paint for painting, we use every possibility to show how unique we are – even a little detail, from colors and types of clothes to hobbies and ways of spending time. Charming, kind, and often shy, we tend to help others and will never force our values or opinions on others. Adventurers are open-minded and tend to give second chances, especially because we ourselves do not want to be judged and are willing to have the freedom to live our own ways. Therefore, when it comes to working, you will probably find Adventurers in positions that leave enough space for doing things as we see fit. This type of personality hates being micromanaged, but on the other hand, due to our spontaneity, we are not good at long-term focusing. But don’t be scared if you deal with Adventurers! We anyways will make things happen, and if you want to manage us successfully, just leave us in a sandbox or set goals clearly. Moreover, we love to feel valued and respected, thus we will work hard to gain such an attitude towards us.
Remember the famous quote of Steve Jobs about limited time and that we should not waste it? For me as an Adventurer, his words sound a bit scary, but for Commanders (ENTJ), who is the total opposite of my personality type, it might be a motto. They are leaders, who use their confidence and charisma to achieve any goals they set. Commanders love everything that challenges them, they are extremely good at long-term focusing and planning. Moreover, they plan each tiniest step! Using their charisma, these talented leaders can make other people around them do what they need to achieve really great results. However, as soon as Commanders love challenges, they can be unforgiving and dominant when negotiating. If they are efficient, they will probably not care that somebody can call them insensitive.
As soon as Adventurers and Commanders are total opposites, it might be difficult for them to deal with each other. Moreover, their communication can be sometimes unbearable. Adventurers are intuitive and spontaneous, while Commanders prefer logical structures and planning. When communicating, ISFP must think before saying and avoid being overly emotional, while ENTJ should keep calm and consider what the Adventurer is trying to say, without interrupting (Crystal, n.d.).
I believe that my manager is the Commander type, and I recall some very hard situations where I was almost fired because of my emotional expressions. I was trying to reason empathetically, while she was goal-oriented and did not want to even listen to any other ideas as soon as she believed that her decision would be the most efficient. She did not want to accept changes and was stressed because of the unfamiliar experiences (while adaptability and flexibility are the strong sides of Adventurers, unlike Commanders).
Of course, there were some other difficult situations in my life, which were not connected with this totally opposite to my personality type. For example, not long ago I became a mediator when two of my colleagues had a serious conflict. Both are my friends, and I had no choice but to listen to their versions of what happened during the whole day. I feel very uncomfortable, when such things happen, and just like any other Adventurer, I like to keep harmony and sympathize with different sides. As I have learned studying this course so far, this is a part of social intelligence, which, as any other skill, can be learned and advanced to feel more confident in such settings in the future.
Another difficult situation I had was related to planning. As I mentioned above, Adventurers are creative and spontaneous, and we have issues with long-range plans. Even though my type of personality does the job (but in our own way), not everyone else will believe in this and accept Adventurers’ style. I always had many great ideas and prepared things in advance at work, but at some point, my management decided, that even though my results were good, I needed to write reports which included future planning. For me, it was a horrible experience, and I even started thinking about changing the job no matter how much I liked that one before this idea about reports appeared in my manager’s head. Fortunately, it did not last too long. However, this week I learned about my personality type a lot, and this knowledge includes my strengths and weaknesses – it will help me to deal with such issues more efficiently and I will be less stressed the next time something like this happens.
There will be other difficult situations and individuals with different preferences in my life, and I need to learn how to deal with them. After reading about Emotional Intelligence last week, and about different personality profiles this week, I wrote down some strategies that can help me to deal with such difficulties:
- Actually, plan the future. Yes, Adventurers are not known for good long-term planning, but we can plan! I will just try to ask myself the right questions about my future, which will be open-ended and will still leave enough freedom to use my creative energy.
- Change my attitude to criticism. Adventurers do not like when somebody tells them, what to do, and how to do it – but sometimes these “criticizers” are honestly trying to help. I usually try to avoid somebody who criticizes me and feel that these people try to change me and my ideals. This is not always true and changing my perspective can help me to avoid many difficult situations and conflicts.
- Slow down. Adventurers tend to be too impulsive and hasty, and we often suffer from this weakness. I need to learn, how to slow down a bit and prepare for what may happen later. Not every situation or person will accept my spontaneous behavior and over-emotional phrasing.
- Concentrate on what is more important and have timely breaks. My personality type gets easily bored, especially because of routines. However, especially at the workplace and in my studies, I need to concentrate on details no matter how “boring” or “interesting” they are. Some calls and messages should be ignored, as well as other distracting factors. Having timely breaks, even short ones, can help to keep in good shape and be more productive.
- Accept that people are different. Sometimes it can be very difficult, especially because Adventurers are sensitive to other people’s feelings, and I often hope to get the same behavior from others. However, it is normal that we are all different and I should always remember that. This will help me to avoid many conflicts in the future.
To sum up, it is important to know more about our strengths and weaknesses – such knowledge can help us to be more productive and successful in all aspects of our lives. However, it is important to not only know about them but also use them in action.
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References
16Personalities. (n.d.). Adventurer Personality. Retrieved from https://www.16personalities.com/isfp-personality
16Personalities. (n.d.) Commander Personality. Retrieved from https://www.16personalities.com/entj-personality
Crystal. (n.d.) ISFP and ENTJ Relationship. Retrieved from https://www.crystalknows.com/personality-type/relationship/isfp-entj