ENFJ Your gifts as a Project manager: Decisiveness and organization Excellent communication skills Excellent leadership skills Need to be productive

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1 ENFJ Decisiveness and organization: Being able to make decisions quickly, determine necessary resources, plan schedules, track progress, and set up systems to accomplish your goals. Excellent communication skills: Making effective written and verbal presentations, planning and executing public relations events, facilitating and leading group discussions, and working one-on-one. Excellent leadership skills: Often remarkable perceptiveness about people, the ability to make others feel important and valued, form cohesive teams, and to motivate people to do their best work. Also an eagerness to take on challenges and set bold agendas. Need to be productive: A strong work ethic and desire to set and meet goals, find the resources you need, and a drive to complete tasks on time. Enthusiasm and high energy level: An ability to communicate your excitement to others, and a natural tendency to become energized by opportunities for people to pull together as part of a team. Creativity and vision: An ability to see possibilities that don't yet exist, willingness to think "outside the box", and to try innovative approaches. Also, an ability to consider future implications, anticipate trends, and easily make connections between disparate ideas and concepts. Extraordinary commitment: An admirable dedication and loyalty to the organization and the people you work with. This is especially true about organizations in whose mission you believe deeply. each challenge are customized strategies that can help you be more successful. Potential Challenge: Reprimanding and terminating employees. Success Strategy: You need to work at separating how you feel about an individual as a person, from how they are performing as an employee. Despite the fact that reprimanding someone will be personally uncomfortable for you, you need to accept the fact that you cannot please "all the people, all of the time." When it is necessary to terminate an employee, it may help you to realize that if the person and job are not a good fit, retaining the person is cheating the person as well as the company. Although the employee may find the separation very difficult, it will provide him or her motivation to find work that will be more intrinsically satisfying. Potential Challenge: Making mistakes due to inattention to detail because you are in a hurry to get things done. Successful Strategy: You need to slow down. You also will benefit from taking the time to set up and use effective systems. Force yourself to learn to use technology, and get outside help and training when necessary from others more naturally talented in the areas you may be less comfortable with or interested in. Potential Challenge: Dealing with negative, burned out, or dissatisfied employees. Having to mediate personal conflicts, and experiencing disharmony in the work place. Success Strategy: Make time to get people together, both formally at retreats, and informally to build a feeling of team unity. Deal with small issues as they arise so they don't escalate into bigger conflicts. Conduct regular sessions at which people are encouraged to vent and clear the air. Use your creativity to help redesign certain aspects of peoples' jobs, or find them other jobs that constitute a better fit. Potential Challenge: Being distracted by delays caused by others; experiencing impatience at not being able to be as efficient and productive as you want to be. Success Strategy: Develop more realistic expectations about when certain tasks can and will actually be accomplished and when information you need may be provided. Build in extra time for delays. Find other things to do while you are waiting for information you need to move forward. Potential Challenge: Setting unrealistically high standards and not giving your employees clear ideas regarding the tasks you want done. Lacking the patience to provide the necessary step-by-step, detailed instructions that some employees may need. Success Strategy: Be very clear about your expectations and provide as much guidance as employees need. Schedule regular times to check in and make sure people are on track. Try to focus more attention on the fact that you are accomplishing your goals rather then how you are doing so. Potential Challenge: Saying "no" to people. You may experience stress when you cannot provide the resources for your staff that will help them do a better job or enjoy their work more. A few examples are not being able to send them to professional development conferences, upgrading equipment, or otherwise increasing your budget to satisfy their needs or requests. Success Strategy: If you can resist your inclination to become emotionally involved you won't feel like you are letting others down when you can't respond the way they want you to. Use your creativity to come up with alternative solutions. You may also need to be more assertive in lobbying your boss to ensure your staff has all the resources they need.

2 INFJ Creative problem solving: An ability to see alternatives and comfort with "out-of-the-box" thinking; a healthy natural curiosity and willingness to consider possibilities. Integrity which inspires people to respect you and value your ideas: A strong belief system and willingness to stand up for your convictions which instills admiration and respect for you in others. Decisiveness and strong organizational skills: Being able to make decisions, marshal necessary resources, plan schedules, track progress and set up systems to accomplish your goals. Understanding of complexities: A penchant for seeing how ideas and actions are related to each other, which can go way beyond what is apparent, that provides you with a broad and deep vision. Drive to be productive and reach your goals: Motivated by accomplishing what you set out to do and an intense ability to focus all of your attention on the task at hand and resist unproductive distractions. Vision and ability to see the big picture and future implications: A gift for being able to integrate the past, present, and future to look down the road and anticipate trends. Interest and skill at helping others develop their potential: A keen perceptiveness about people, an ability to recognize their talents, and a desire to help them be more successful and fulfilled in their own lives. Potential Challenge: Not being assertive or aggressive enough when necessary. Success Strategy: You need to recognize your natural desire for harmony and be willing to risk the chance that, at times, people will be unhappy with you. It will help if you try and not take things quite so personally and to keep the larger picture - such as the success of a project - in mind. When advocating on behalf of your staff, it may help to focus on the importance of helping your people get their needs met. Potential Challenge: Making errors by skipping over important facts or details. Successful Strategy: This may include a wide range of activities from failing to be aware of certain events to accurately proof-reading reports. Recognize that you are probably not a detail person. Find someone who is and collaborate with them. Potential Challenge: Avoiding conflict. Success Strategy: Try to act quickly to nip unpleasant interpersonal conflicts in the bud so they don't fester and become an even bigger problem. Make use of Human Resource personnel to mediate conflicts so you don't get personally involved and put in the position of having to take sides. Try your best to avoid becoming ensnared in organizational politics. It might help to view them more as an interesting psychological case study than a system that breeds competition rather than cooperation. Potential Challenge: Having to juggle too many projects at one time. Success Strategy: You are much more effective when you can concentrate your energy on one project at a time. Try to be realistic about how many projects/activities you can be involved with at one time. Delegate whenever possible and be assertive with superiors and staff when excessive demands prevent you from doing your best work. Potential Challenge: Staying open and flexible and not recognizing when you are wrong. Success Strategy: The flipside of your independence and single-mindedness, which helps you achieve great accomplishments, can be a real reluctance to compromise on an issue you feel strongly about. You need to adopt an attitude that you may lose some battles, but still win the war! You need to decide which battles are and are not worth fighting. Potential Challenge: Losing interest and enthusiasm for boring or mundane projects. Success Strategy: Once the creative process is completed, try to delegate the execution of the process to competent people who are more interested and talented at maintaining and monitoring systems.

3 ENFP Creative problem solving: An infatuation and comfort with innovation that drives you to see possibilities, alternatives, and to improve and refine ideas. Perceptiveness about people: A keen understanding of others' motivations, needs, and values, and the ability to work well with different types of people to create effective work teams. Broad perspective and vision: The ability to see the big picture, understand the future implications of actions taken in the present, and anticipate trends. Resourcefulness: An exceptional ability to find out information and to be creative about securing whatever resources you need. Enthusiasm and communication skills: An ability to get people excited about your ideas and effectiveness at communicating in many different environments. Flexibility and adaptability: Being flexible, adaptable, and the ability to shift gears very quickly when necessary. Willingness to take risks: An excitement about anything new and different which enables you to disregard convention and try new approaches. Potential Challenge: Being organized and meeting deadlines. Success Strategy: Because you are drawn to anything new and different, you may become easily bored once the creative aspect of a project is completed. You have to be diligent to avoid becoming distracted and sidetracked so you can complete tasks and projects on time. Potential Challenge: Difficulty working alone. Successful Strategy: Make sure you build into your day plenty of time to interact with others. When working on solitary tasks, plan breaks with people to "re-charge your batteries." Potential Challenge: Being inattentive to details. Success Strategy: Since you do not naturally focus on specific details, enlist the help of others to help with tasks like report writing, proof-reading, and record-keeping. Potential Challenge: Being realistic. Success Strategy: You are someone who sees the "forest" more easily than you see the "trees." When making a recommendation, you need to remember to ask the essential questions - who, what, where, when and why - to make sure your ideas are not only imaginative, but workable. Potential Challenge: Difficulty following procedures and dealing with bureaucracies. Success Strategy: Make sure you understand the reason behind the rules - this may make you more inclined to follow them. Develop personal relationships with key players who can occasionally help you bypass the system.

4 INFP Creative problem solving: A desire and ability to look beyond the obvious and come up with innovative and imaginative solutions. Excellent communication skills: An ability to synthesize information and make impressive verbal and written presentations. Commitment: Driven by your strong personal values, you can dedicate a tremendous amount of energy to projects and issues that are important to you. Perfectionism: High personal standards that insure you produce quality work. Unusual people skills: In addition to being perceptive about employees, colleagues, customers and others, you are capable of earning people's trust and respect by being a careful listener who makes people feel understood and appreciated. Ability to work independently: An ability to focus considerable concentration on an issue in great depth and to work with others or independently when the situation calls for it. Vision: Ability to see the big picture and future implications of your and others' actions. Potential Challenge: Work which conflicts with your values. Success Strategy: Recognize that you are likely to experience tremendous stress if you are asked to do something which conflicts with a deeply held belief. Trying to anticipate in advance when such a potential conflict may arise can increase your chances of avoiding it. Potential Challenge: Dealing with interpersonal conflict. Successful Strategy: Recognize your tendency to avoid conflict and try to address problems while they are still manageable. Make use of Human Resource personnel as a neutral negotiator to avoid becoming personally involved when dealing with personality conflicts between employees. Potential Challenge: Being organized and meeting deadlines. Success Strategy: Because by nature you seek more and more information before making decisions, you may have to work hard to keep yourself organized and not become sidetracked, so you can complete tasks and projects on time. Potential Challenge: Being realistic. Success Strategy: Although you have great vision, you can overlook essential details. Seek outside input as to how long certain tasks will take, what resources are likely to be available, etc. to make sure you will really be able to implement your ideas or plans. Potential Challenge: Becoming discouraged. Success Strategy: In order for you to feel motivated and satisfied in your work, you need to feel that your contributions are appreciated. Unfortunately, overt expressions of appreciation are rare in most business environments. You need to remind yourself of this reality and derive satisfaction from the goals you set and achieve, rather than relying on recognition from others.

5 ENTJ Leadership: An ability to see what needs to be done and the drive to take the necessary actions. Your tremendous selfconfidence which inspires others to trust your vision and abilities and want to follow your lead. Drive for competence: A strong intrinsic motivation to excel and do whatever it takes to accomplish your goals. Setting high standards for yourself and others. Being a quick learner with a willingness to take bold steps. Vision and strategic thinking: The ability to anticipate future needs and trends and to factor many variables into your decision-making. Organization and productivity: The ability to organize your time and resources to be efficient and to set and reach realistic goals. Analytical problem solving: The ability to consider complex problems, arrive at creative solutions, and develop and implement effective systems. Decision making: A drive for closure and the ability to make difficult, sometimes unpopular decisions, especially with regards to personnel. Resourcefulness: The ability to determine what resources are needed and the skills to make sure you and your people have what you need to accomplish your goals. Potential Challenge: Setting unrealistically high standards. Success Strategy: Recognize that not everyone has the same level of competence as you and that you need to be more patient with those that don't. Involve others in the process of setting their own goals, so they will have an ownership in reaching those goals. Potential Challenge: Lack of tact and diplomacy. Successful Strategy: Recognize that others may be more sensitive to criticism and need frequent positive reinforcement. Be aware that your powerful personality may be experienced as aggressiveness which can intimidate others. Potential Challenge: Making hasty decisions. Success Strategy: You need to step back sometimes before making final decisions to make sure you've spent enough time collecting information and reviewed all the appropriate options. Avoid your tendency to plow ahead by using others as a sounding board to assure that you have made a thoughtful, deliberate, decision. Potential Challenge: Not recognizing your weaknesses. Success Strategy: Recognize that everyone has some blind spots and weaknesses. To become even more competent you need to objectively examine yours and develop strategies for minimizing their negative impact. Potential Challenge: Over confidence. Success Strategy: Accept that your vision, while often correct, is not always correct and may benefit from other perspectives. It would be especially helpful to seek the opinions of others whom you anticipate will have contrary ideas. You should also be willing to re-examine issues that have already been decided when new information warrants it.

6 INTJ Creative and innovative problem solving: The ability to consider possibilities, see alternatives, and often develop systems that are quite ingenious. Understanding complex issues: The ability to synthesize and process complex information and to use logical analysis to solve challenging problems. Organization and independence: The ability to organize your time and logistical position to make the best use of available resources; an ability - and often a preference - for working independently. Drive for competence: A strong, intrinsic motivation to excel and to do whatever it takes to accomplish your goals; a drive to continue to learn as much as you can. Aptitude for technology: An innate understanding and interest in how technology works and a desire to use it to solve problems. Confidence in your vision.: An unwavering commitment to translate your vision into reality and a single-mindedness that enables you to commit enormous amounts of energy and time on projects that are important to you. High standards and strong work ethic: The tendency to set extremely high standards for yourself and others and a willingness to work long-hours to accomplish your goals. Potential Challenge: Most interested in creative stage. Success Strategy: Be aware of your tendency to be most interested in and energized by the creative process and your inclination to lose interest when the challenging problems are solved. You need to maintain your focus to bring the project to closure. Potential Challenge: Single-mindedness. Successful Strategy: Understand that being so focused also can also have its downside. You need to make sure you pay enough attention to other factors and influences that may seem extraneous, but which can impact your projects. Potential Challenge: Driving people too hard. Success Strategy: Recognize that in your drive for perfection you can be a hard taskmaster. Understand that making people feel that they have not lived up to your expectations may result in serious motivation and morale problems. Potential Challenge: Minimizing the importance of people skills. Success Strategy: Recognize the importance of positive interaction with others in order to motivate them and secure their cooperation. Be especially careful not to be impatient or too critical and make a serious effort to recognize and praise people for their accomplishments. Recognize that having good people skills is a necessity, not a luxury, for successful project managers. Potential Challenge: Inflexibility. Success Strategy: Be aware of your tendency to have difficulty considering alternative points of view once you have come to a conclusion or decided on a course of action. Potential Challenge: Difficulty communicating complexities. Success Strategy: Recognize that others are less likely to be able to understand complicated issues as easily as you are. Try to be patient and break down explanations into manageable pieces.

7 ENTP Charismatic leadership: Confidence in your abilities and excellent communications skills that enables you to communicate with enthusiasm and persuasiveness. Inspiring others to want to follow your lead or be part of your team and a rare ability to speak extemporaneously on many subjects. Creative problem solving: A talent for seeing possibilities, a facility to think outside-the-box, and a belief that all problems can be solved. High energy and variety of interests: Tremendous energy for projects you are intrigued by, a wide range of interests, and the ability to work well with different types of people. Detecting flaws in logic: An ability to analyze issues logically and dispassionately, and to persuasively point out flaws in logic. Unusual skill at playing "the devil's advocate." Natural curiosity: The result of an accumulation of knowledge about a wide range of subjects that allows you to bring a breadth of experience to discussions. Resourcefulness: A "can do", "where there's a will, there's a way" attitude that enables you to use your creativity to secure information or resources that you or your people need. Adaptability and flexibility: The ability to shift gears easily and change directions quickly as well as to juggle several projects at the same time. Potential Challenge: Maintaining your focus. Success Strategy: You need to stay focused and resist your tendency to become distracted by more interesting possibilities once the creative aspects of a task or project are completed. Potential Challenge: Self-discipline and following through. Successful Strategy: Because you allow yourself to be pulled in so many different directions, you can lack the discipline to follow through on more mundane tasks. If you can't delegate these tasks to others, understand that you will be judged not only by the number of projects you start, but also by the number that you finish. Potential Challenge: Being realistic and attentive to facts and details. Success Strategy: Recognize that your tendency is to focus on the "possible", not necessarily the "doable." Consult with others who are more realistic, "grounded", and naturally attentive to facts and details to provide you with the necessary balance. Potential Challenge: Promising more than you can deliver. Success Strategy: Recognize that your credibility and reputation are most likely to be damaged by your tendency to promise more than you can deliver. Pause and give extra thought to what is actually involved before committing to a specific result or schedule. Potential Challenge: Being organized. Success Strategy: Since you are interested in so many things, setting priorities may be one of your greatest challenges. You will benefit from listing all the tasks involved in a project (due in a day, week, etc.), deciding the order they will be accomplished, and then sticking with your plan! Potential Challenge: Being overly confident. Success Strategy: You need to recognize the limits of your expertise, and resist the temptation to exaggerate your experience or training in order to impress others.

8 INTP Creative problem solving: The desire and ability to consider new possibilities and develop innovative and imaginative solutions. Logical analysis of complex problems: The ability to understand and synthesize large amounts of information and to come to conclusions. Independence and autonomy: The ability to work independently, chart your own course and take calculated risks; also, great powers of concentration and ability to focus considerable attention on one matter at a time. Confidence: A deep belief in your competence and abilities that you are often able to use to inspire and persuade others. Objectivity and strategic thinking: The ability to evaluate situations objectively, free of emotion. Able to successfully employ strategic thinking to long range planning. Aptitude for technology: Learning new skills and technology quickly and applying it with confidence and ease. Adaptability: The ability to shift gears easily when necessary and change directions quickly. Potential Challenge: Communicating clearly. Success Strategy: Recognize that you process complex information more quickly and easily than most others. You need to try to present ideas one at a time and work at being patient with others who may not be as intelligent or quick, or who process information differently than you do. Potential Challenge: Being realistic and grounded. Successful Strategy: Since you much prefer to deal with exciting possibilities than mundane facts and details you can be unrealistic about how long a particular task or project will take or what resources will be required. You should try to factor in these important aspects and rely on others to provide them when necessary. Potential Challenge: Ignoring blind spots and weaknesses. Success Strategy: Understand that recognizing a blind spot is not a weakness but a strength, a necessary first step in developing competencies in that area. If you have difficulty identifying your weaknesses, ask others who know you well for their input. Potential Challenge: Being organized and efficient. Success Strategy: Prioritizing your work, and therefore being organized, is likely to be a challenge for you. You may benefit from a system that helps keep you on track such as a Personal Digital Computer, or day-timer. Of course, having an organized assistant will greatly increase your productivity and efficiency! Potential Challenge: Not over-improving things. Success Strategy: Because you tend to believe that things can always be improved, you may tend to "over-improve" them. Being aware of this tendency can help you recognize when a project has reached an acceptable threshold so you can turn your attention in other things. Potential Challenge: Understanding and motivating others. Success Strategy: Recognize that many people are primarily motivated by their feelings. For these people, it is especially important to make sure to express your appreciation regularly and preface criticism by acknowledging their contributions to the organization.

9 ESTJ Drive to accomplish your goals: Tremendous energy to make things happen and to be productive; a strong work ethic that insures the job will be done right; strong sense of responsibility and honor. Comfort with established procedures: Comfortable following familiar routines and requiring others to do so as well. Practicality and pragmatism: Well grounded, able to see what needs doing, and able to apply common sense to solving problems. Realism: Good at setting and reaching realistic goals and excluding from consideration extraneous information. Clear and direct communications: Able to provide clear, explicit instructions and expectations; communicating openly and honestly without hidden agendas. Efficiency skills: Able to set up and follow effective systems and the ability to use available resources to your advantage. Decisiveness and fairness: Able to analyze situations objectively, provide constructive criticism, apply the same standard to everyone, and make tough decisions when necessary. Potential Challenge: Understanding and motivating employees. Success Strategy: Recognize that understanding your employees' motivations are the key to successfully managing them. Make a special effort to find out what they value and need - especially when those values and needs are different from yours. Potential Challenge: Resistance to change. Successful Strategy: Recognize that you are most comfortable having plans to follow. When unanticipated changes do occur, you need to fight your initial impulse to reject the change. Instead, try to see why a change may be necessary and even preferable. Potential Challenge: Lack of tact and diplomacy. Success Strategy: Recognize that others are more sensitive to criticism and probably need much more positive reinforcement than you do. Be aware that your powerful personality may be experienced as aggressive and intimidating to others. Potential Challenge: Making hasty decisions. Success Strategy: You need to step back before making final decisions to make sure you've spent enough time collecting information and reviewing all the appropriate options. Use others as a sounding board to assure that you have examined all the options, especially when some of those options are based on possibilities. Potential Challenge: Focusing on the present at the expense of the future. Success Strategy: Since seeing possibilities that don't yet exist may not come naturally to you, you need to find others whose judgment you trust, to share and discuss their vision with you.

10 ISTJ Strong work ethic and sense of responsibility: An extremely hard worker who is driven to be productive and efficient and can be counted on to be loyal to the organization and its goals. Accuracy and attention to detail: Can be relied on to make few errors when dealing with facts and details, excellent recordkeeping skills. Reliability and dependability: Can be counted on to be a consistently good performer with a reputation for following through, meeting deadlines, and doing what you say you will do. Self-sufficiency: The ability to (and often preference) to work alone without excessive supervision as long as you have been given clear and explicit instructions. Willingness to follow established routines and procedures: Most comfortable adhering to clearly delineated directives and following procedures; good at encouraging others to do so as well. Organization and excellent follow-through: Decisive and organized, makes sure that tasks and projects are completed on time and details do not fall between the cracks. Realism and common sense: A solid, steady influence capable of realistic assessments and expectations; possessing unusual common sense. Potential Challenge: Resistance to change. Success Strategy: Recognize that you are most comfortable knowing what to expect and having plans followed. When unanticipated changes do occur, you need to fight your initial impulse to reject the change. Instead, try to see why the change may be necessary and even preferable. Potential Challenge: Difficulty focusing on the future. Successful Strategy: You need to think more about how present decisions and policies may impact the future. Since you are better at concentrating on concrete realities of the present, rather than vague possibilities of the future, you need to enlist the help of others you trust to whom activities such as brainstorming and strategic planning comes more naturally. Potential Challenge: Working with and through others. Success Strategy: Recognize that while it is sometimes easier to do some things yourself rather than rely on others, gaining peoples' cooperation and support are important skills. Understanding how to adjust your management style to fit different employees is a critical skill you need to develop. Potential Challenge: Unwillingness to take risks. Success Strategy: You are most comfortable when situations are stable and predictable. It will help you be a more comfortable risk taker to review specific past experiences you have first hand knowledge of, where calculated risk taking had a successful result. Potential Challenge: Impatience. Success Strategy: Many things can cause you to be impatient, including people who don't honor their commitments and miss deadlines, as well as with processes that take too long. In both cases, you might need to readjust your expectations.

11 ESFJ High energy and drive to be productive: A strong work ethic and high personal standards that helps you know what needs to be done and make sure deadlines are met and goals are achieved. Working well as a team member: An ability and desire to collaborate with colleagues and form cooperative relationships in order to meet your goals. Organization and follow through: Decisiveness and the ability to set a plan, prepare, and satisfactorily complete all the necessary steps. Building positive relationships: A desire and ability to understand and communicate well with others which enables you to motivate them, build consensus, and secure their cooperation. Realism and practicality: Down-to-earth, good at identifying and using available resources, and attentive to important facts and details. Also able to apply common sense to solving problems. Loyalty and dedication: A desire and commitment to support the organizations and people with whom you work and to promote and protect their interests. Comfortable working within structured environment: The ability to follow sensible rules, policies and procedures, and work comfortably within a hierarchy. The ability to pay close attention to important details. each challenge are customized strategies that can help you be more successful. Potential Challenge: Dealing with unpredictability and loss of control. Success Strategy: As an organized person it may become stressful when circumstances change and you begin losing control of a situation. You need to work on accepting the inevitability of change and try to see the gifts or advantages it may bring. Potential Challenge: Working alone or in isolation. Successful Strategy: When you are forced to work alone for any length of time, make sure you find ways to recharge your batteries by spending even short amounts of time with others. Potential Challenge: Reluctance to embrace new or untested ideas. Success Strategy: You need to learn to trust things that you cannot verify with your own senses. You can become more comfortable with new ideas by researching and understanding where they might have worked before in similar situations. You can also evaluate how other peoples' new or untested ideas have worked in the past. Potential Challenge: Reprimanding and terminating employees. Success Strategy: You need to work at separating how you feel about an individual as a person, from how they are performing as an employee. You need to accept the fact that you cannot please "all the people, all of the time." When it is necessary to terminate an employee, it may help you to realize that if the person and job are not a good fit, retaining the person is cheating that person as well as the company. Although the employee may find separation very difficult, it will provide him/her the motivation to find work that will be more intrinsically satisfying. Potential Challenge: Becoming over-involved in others' problems. Success Strategy: Because you are a naturally caring person, your tendency is to try and help people with their personal problems. You need to recognize this tendency and resist this urge if it begins to consume too much time or weigh too heavily on you emotionally. Potential Challenge: Moving too quickly. Success Strategy: Because you have such a strong drive to complete tasks and move on, you run the risk of moving too quickly and not spending enough time gathering necessary information. You need to stop and consciously ask yourself: "Am I really ready to move on? Are there other things I have not considered?" With practice, you will learn to slow down, be more thoughtful, and do an even better job.

12 ISFJ Helpfulness to others: Desire to be helpful and supportive of others in real and practical ways. Dependability and reliability: Can always be counted on to provide consistently good performance and to do what you say you will do to the best of your abilities. Support of organizational systems: Comfortable working quietly behind the scenes to provide support for people and systems; respect for the chain of command. Listening skills: Good listening skills and the ability to make people feel they are really being heard; able to present information to others in clear, unambiguous ways. Care and accuracy with facts and details: An ability to pay close attention to facts and details; research thoroughly and keep accurate records; also able to work independently without excessive supervision. Stewardship of institutional memory: An interest in and ability to keep track of the organization's history and traditions which helps maintain continuity. Strong organizational skills: Responsible and hardworking, able to organize tasks and perform them in the most efficient way. Potential Challenge: Resistance to change. Success Strategy: Recognize that you are most comfortable when following a plan. When unanticipated changes do occur, you need to fight your initial impulse to resist the change. Instead, try to see why the change may be necessary and even preferable. Potential Challenge: Difficulty dealing with conflict. Successful Strategy: You are likely to become stressed when you have to provide critical feedback to others or try to resolve interpersonal conflicts. You should call on Human Resources or Employee Assistant Specialists for help when necessary. Potential Challenge: Unassertiveness. Success Strategy: Being a person of great humility, you may have difficulty making sure your and your staffs' needs are met. It may help you to realize that your effectiveness as a manager (which includes being able to do right by your employees) depends on your ability to risk occasional criticism and/or rejection in order make it easier for you and your staff to do their jobs. Potential Challenge: Having to juggle too many projects at once. Success Strategy: You prefer, and work best, when you can concentrate all of your energy on one project or task at a time. When forced to "multi-task" beyond your comfort zone, you should delegate tasks to others and/or try to redesign your job to better fit your style. Potential Challenge: Inflexibility. Success Strategy: Because your decisions are generally so well thought out you may find it hard to change directions once a decision has been made. You need to remain open to others' input, especially from people who have very different perspectives and whom may have complimentary gifts and strengths. Potential Challenge: Not seeing possibilities. Success Strategy: Because your strength lies in being able to focus on the details, you can at times fail to see the "big picture." You need to recognize this tendency and make sure you have thoughtfully considered important alternatives and options before moving on.

13 ESTP Realistic needs assessment: The ability to see what needs doing and to marshal the necessary resources; ability to notice and remember important details and to use facts effectively. High energy level and initiative: Your ability to make projects fun and exciting and motivating others to want to participate. Working as part of a team: Your friendly, casual personality and ability to make quick connections with others; enjoyment working with a variety of people towards a common goal. Negotiation skills: Your ability to understand and get along with others, coupled with a competitive nature, enable you to enjoy and excel at negotiations. Understanding and comfort with technology: Your ability to understand how things work, combined with your natural curiosity and logical mind allow you to embrace technology as a tool. Adaptability and flexibility: Your natural preference for keeping your options open enables you to shift gears quickly when necessary; your ability to remain calm and think clearly in a crisis or emergency. Potential Challenge: Impatience with rules and routine procedures. Success Strategy: You probably often feel constrained by too many standard ways of doing things and have learned which rules you can, and cannot bend. But you need to be aware that organizations value people who "play by the rules" and your credibility and career opportunities may be limited if you develop a reputation as being unpredictable and undependable. Potential Challenge: Tendency to "shoot from the lip". Successful Strategy: Because you prefer to think out loud and have a playful nature, you run the risk of inadvertently offending people - particularly those who are especially sensitive. To sensitize you to this tendency, you should seek out people with whom you may have had a strained relationship and get their perceptions and advice on how you can avoid being insensitive to others. Potential Challenge: Preparing in advance. Success Strategy: Because you prefer to operate more spontaneously, you may experience difficulty organizing your time and setting and reaching goals. You need to realize that your lack of preparation is likely to adversely affect others with whom you work, and who depend on you. Potential Challenge: Difficulty working alone. Success Strategy: You prefer to work with others most of the time. If you have to work alone - especially for extended periods of time - make sure you build in enough "people" breaks to recharge your batteries. Potential Challenge: Missing opportunities and future implications. Success Strategy: Since you are such a realistic person who operates most comfortably in the present, you don't usually spend too much time thinking about how current actions will affect the future. In order to come up with the best decisions, you need to factor this into the equation and seek advice of others who are more future-orientated to help you. Potential Challenge: Staying on task. Success Strategy: Because you are such an active, high-energy person and prone to be somewhat impulsive, it is easy for you to become distracted. Making a "to-do" list can help, but only if you prioritize the items and discipline yourself to act on them. You may find a Personal Digital Assistant, day-planner, or other device helps you be more organized and keep better track of your progress.

14 ISTP Independence and self-sufficiency: Your ability to be self-directed and not need excessive supervision. Also, your ability to apply deep concentration to tasks and projects that you enjoy. Understanding and comfort with technology: Your innate ability to understand how mechanical things work, combined with your natural curiosity and logical mind, that enables you embrace technology as a tool. Working well under pressure: Your capacity to stay calm and cool under pressure, especially in emergency or crisis situations. Adaptability and flexibility: Your natural preference for keeping options open which enables you to adapt quickly to changing situations. Risk taking: Your willingness to try new approaches that you think will work and your comfort at taking calculated risks. Using resources well: Your skill at determining, finding, and using the appropriate resources for each job and making the best out of available resources. Working well with defined tasks: Your ability to follow detailed technical plans and working with real things and tangible products. Potential Challenge: Not following through on commitments. Success Strategy: Certain projects will engage you more than others. Once the fun or exciting part is over you need to resist the urge to be drawn to other tasks or activities that you'll enjoy more. Understanding this tendency and its potential negative consequences on your reputation and career should help you try to modify your behavior. Potential Challenge: Ineffective communications. Successful Strategy: Because you are more "mechanically" minded than "people" minded, it is likely you underestimate the importance of communicating effectively with others. It will be helpful to work on two tendencies in particular: not providing enough information, and not being sensitive to others' feelings. Potential Challenge: Focusing only on the present. Success Strategy: Because you are so present-oriented you may not anticipate how current actions will affect future events. You may need to consult with others who more naturally think about future implications to make sure your decisions will be as good as they can be. Potential Challenge: Working with others. Success Strategy: The flip side of your being able to work so well independently may be a reluctance to participate fully with other team members. Although working in groups is not your preferred mode, it may help you to appreciate the wisdom in the saying "two (or more) heads are better than one." Recognize that to be most effective you need to hear others' perspectives and they need to hear yours. Potential Challenge: Preparing in advance. Success Strategy: Because you prefer to operate more spontaneously you may experience difficulty organizing your time and setting and reaching goals. You need to realize that your lack of preparation is likely to adversely affect others with whom you work and who depend on you. Potential Challenge: Making public presentations. Success Strategy: You may not look forward to public speaking, and making presentations within or outside your organization may be stressful. (Most people feel the same way!). If this is a necessary or desired skill, you may consider taking one of many courses available to help people become effective public speakers.

15 ESFP High energy level and initiative: Your ability to make projects fun and exciting that motivates others to want to participate. Adaptability and flexibility: Your capacity to adapt easily to changing situations and shift gears quickly when necessary. Communication skills: Your ability to get along with others and make them feel comfortable, present information in a casual, interesting, yet informative way, and to facilitate group discussions. Practicality and common sense: Your ability to separate the "possible" from the "doable" and apply unusual common sense to solve problems. People skills: Your genuine caring, sensitivity, and desire to help others which allow you to develop friendly, trusting relationships. Loyalty: Your strong feelings about people and the organization you work for influences others and reflects well on you and your employer. Working as part of a team: Your friendly, engaging personality and ability helps you make quick connections with others and allows you to be an effective team player when working towards a common goal. Potential Challenge: Becoming easily distracted. Success Strategy: Because you are so interested and aware of what is going on in the world around you, it is easy for you to get side tracked by more interesting tasks and activities. You need to work at reining in these impulsive desires so you can stay focused and complete assignments on time. Potential Challenge: Avoiding conflicts. Successful Strategy: Disharmony and confronting others is probably very difficult for you, so your tendency is most likely to avoid conflict whenever possible. You may also be less than 100% honest with people to spare their feelings. You need to try and deal with conflicts as they arise when they are small, before they become larger and unmanageable. Potential Challenge: Being organized. Success Strategy: Prioritizing your work, and therefore being organized, is likely to be a challenge for you. You may benefit from a system that helps keep you stay on track, such as a Personal Digital Assistant or day-planner. Of course, having an organized assistant will greatly increase your productivity and efficiency! Potential Challenge: Working alone. Success Strategy: Working alone, especially for extended periods of time, may be very draining on you. You need to break up these spells with frequent "visits" to others to assure you get enough interaction to "recharge your batteries." Potential Challenge: Making decisions that conflict with your values. Success Strategy: Your natural tendency is to make decisions based on your personal values and feelings. However, there are times when you need to be more objective. When you find this hard to do, you should seek input from a trusted colleague or friend who is a more logical, objective decision maker to help you make a more balanced decision. Potential Challenge: Focusing only on the present. Success Strategy: You are so in the here-and-now, you probably rarely think about the future implications of present actions. Likewise, your tendency is to accept most things at face value, rather than trying to seek out underlying meanings and motives. It is important for you try and take the broader view and see the big picture as well, although here again, you may need help from someone who naturally focuses on the future.

16 ISFP Attention to details: Your ability to pay close attention to and remember details and facts, especially those that concern people. Desire to be helpful: Your sensitivity and capacity for caring that promotes cooperation and loyalty among team members and your willingness to adhere to procedures and policies even though you might prefer not to. Loyalty to people and organizations: Your strong feelings about the people and organization you work for that engenders a deep feeling of loyalty, which communicates to others and reflects well on you and your employer. Adaptability to change: Your innate curiosity and interest in finding out things and your ability to adapt to changing situations. Practicality and common sense: Your ability to separate the "possible" from the "doable" and making sensible recommendations based on a realistic assessment of the situation. Affinity for research: Your thoughtfulness, curiosity, and patience that enables you to use resources well and uncover information necessary for your team. Potential Challenge: Inability to see future opportunities. Success Strategy: Because you tend to live in the present moment you may fail to see possibilities - and opportunities - that don't yet exist. By becoming aware of this tendency, you can try to put extra thought and energy into considering the future and brainstorming with other colleagues who may have greater strength in this area. Potential Challenge: Unassertiveness. Successful Strategy: Being a person of humility you may have difficulty making sure your and your staffs' needs are met. It may help you to realize that your effectiveness as a manager (which includes being able to do right by your employees) depends on your ability to risk occasional criticism and/or rejection in order make it easier for you and your staff to do their jobs. Potential Challenge: Avoiding conflicts. Success Strategy: Disharmony and confronting others is difficult for you, so your tendency is to avoid conflict whenever possible. It is particularly stressful for you when you have to reprimand or terminate an employee. You need to try and deal with conflicts as they arise before they become unmanageable and rely on human resources specialists to help with more difficult cases. Potential Challenge: Difficulty managing your time. Success Strategy: Being organized is probably not one of your strong suits. If this is the case, you may find that a "dayplanner" or Personal Digital Assistant will help you keep better track of all the things you have to do. Potential Challenge: Dealing with office politics and workplace tension. Success Strategy: You are a direct and straightforward person to whom relationships are important, so engaging in the inevitable office politics can be a constant source of stress. Your best strategy is, if possible, to refuse to play that game. But if you must, even if you are successful, you may pay a high emotional price. Potential Challenge: Making decisions that conflict with your values. Success Strategy: Your natural tendency is to make decisions based on your personal values and feelings. However, there are times when you need to be more objective. When you find this hard to do you should seek input from a trusted colleague or friend who is a more logical, objective decision maker. Then you can make a more balanced decision.