People with the ENFJ (Extroverted, iNtuitive, Feeling, Judging) MBTI personality type are often referred to as Givers. They are sometimes also called the Protagonists due to their extroverted personalities.
ENFJs are true believers in a better world and they will give everything to try to improve it. They are altruists who are always prepared to help others in any way, even if that only entails showing them their own potential and supporting their personal growth.
Optimists by nature, Givers believe that there is a silver lining to any situation, no matter how bad it may look. They are driven by their will to implement their vision of what is best for humanity, and foster cooperation using their persuasive and social skills so their goal can be achieved.
ENFJs are extroverts who present a high level of social empathy. They are altruistic through and through. Givers are idealists who dream of improving living conditions and the world in general for everyone and work actively to do it, using the best of their abilities.
Their extraverted personality combined with their preference for feelings makes them very empathetic and extremely charismatic. They can naturally sense what others are feeling and are good at influencing their behavior. However, their altruistic side and their values ensure that their influence is always intended for the greater good and not for personal gain. Likewise, they are also very ambitious but not in an egotistical way. They derive satisfaction from helping others and working towards a common goal of making a better world for everyone and not only for themselves.
Givers are very optimistic which also supports their charismatic nature. They understand the pain others might be going through, but they keep a positive attitude and influence them to realize that anything can be improved.
This positive mindset is also evident in the way they foster cooperation. They understand that they cannot achieve a better world by themselves - they need others. What better way to do that than by promoting everyone's self-potential and encouraging cooperation between everyone?
People with an ENFJ personality type also have a judging preference, which means that they enjoy having plans, schedules, and well-established structures. This makes them very strategic in their ambition and more efficient in their work towards their goal.
People with an ENFJ personality type are charismatic. They draw people to them and tend to maintain good social relationships with everyone.
Their good communications skills paired with their positive attitude helps them get along with virtually everybody. It also provides them with the natural ability to influence others’ behaviors and ideas in such a way that they feel compelled to help them achieve their goal of creating a better world.
Givers are very good at perceiving the emotions and feelings of others and at “reading the room”. This ability allows them to adapt their approach and behavior to better suit the needs of those around them, thus being able to help them rather than becoming a burden.
This keen intuition is also directly related to their influencing powers, as they can adapt their discourse with a great degree of accuracy to get others to do what they want.
Extroverts are by nature people-oriented but the ENFJs take this personality trait even further by focusing completely on others rather than themselves. They want to help other people as much as possible, and to do so, they have to listen to them and understand their emotions. This in turn generates a sense of empathy that connects both the ENFJs and their audience.
For this reason, Givers can forge strong relationships with virtually any other MBTI personality type. Even with people with an ISTP personality and who are the exact opposite of ENFJs.
Their charisma, influencing powers, and extrovert personality already make Givers potential good leaders. However, what makes them exceptional in this role is their ability to detect potential in others and foster it, while at the same time promoting a strong team spirit.
As leaders, ENFJs can draw the best out of everyone and influence them in such a way that they become passionate about their work or tasks. They also make everyone feel needed and special in their own way, encouraging a more cooperative and productive environment where consensus tends to be the rule.
As fans of the MBTI judging preference, Givers enjoy and are good at anything related to organization, schedules, and planning. They like to have a course of action established ahead of time, and try to never stray away from it to ensure efficiency and increase the chances of achieving their goal.
This organizational skill also spills over to their ability of team management, creating an organized work environment where each task is delegated to the person with the best skills to do it.
ENFJs have an optimistic attitude. They always find the silver lining to any misfortune and unforeseen obstacles that might come theirs or anyone’s way.
However, this attitude is not a careless one. Not only do they find the positives in any negative situation, but they also shift their focus immediately to work on those positives and expand them.
ENFJs are very sensitive to any kind of feedback, be it positive or negative. They are so ambitious and focused on their cause that they end up carrying their projects too close to their heart.
They need others' approval to feel that they are on the right track and that their work and efforts are valuable and making a positive difference. This approval, in turn, works as a motivator for them to keep pursuing their targets.
On the other hand, negative feedback can affect them emotionally and make them doubt their abilities.
Although Givers are good at creating a positive team spirit and assessing the potential of others, they are negatively biased when it comes to evaluating themselves. On one hand, when things go well, they tend to only give credit to others, and forget about their own role.
On the other hand, when negative situations arise, they shift the blame to themselves. When facing negative criticism or when something goes awry in their projects, they believe it was their fault alone.
Their sole goal is to help others. Therefore, in a positive situation, they focus on the fact that the other person overcame their problems and not on the help they provided. In negative situations, however, they feel they were the ones failing because they were the new factor - the other person already had a problem, they were the ones who were supposed to change it.
ENFJs are committed to their values and to the cause of helping others and creating a better world. They truly believe in their purpose and are passionate about it, which is one of the reasons why they can be so charismatic and influential.
And this is where sometimes the problem resides. The combination of their ability to engage others in their quest to help humanity and their passion for the cause can lead them to become too strict and even harsh.
They feel disappointed if others are not devoted to the cause with the same passion as them.
Givers' primary goal is to help others and improve the world in the process. To them, these are universally positive values that should be obvious to everyone.
To add to this attitude, people with this personality type enjoy teaching others. They have fun explaining why their cause is so important and can be quite condescending when others do not follow the same values or do not understand their commitment.
Their loyalty to the cause can lead ENFJs to defend a “the end justifies the means” approach. This is normally a consequence of their shift from simply helping others, to try to help as many people as possible.
The more people they want to help, the heavier the duty they carry. With their charisma and passion, ENFJs will always try to be a positive influence gathering others for their cause. However, when that is not possible, they have no problems manipulating people using whichever means to do what they want.
Their ethics might be questionable, but not to them because they are working for the greater good.