INTJ Ability and Job Satisfaction Characteristics!

You are INTJ, Introverted with Intuition, Thinking and Judging, with INTJ ability, or you are interested in someone who is, and you are perhaps seeking information regarding how the INTJ personality type and associated INTJ ability gleaned from the Myers Briggs Test can perform optimally and at their very best in the workplace. You may also be seeking information as to how INTJ ability can be maximally used in the workplace and how all this knowledge of INTJ ability can increase workplace motivation and job satisfaction for you, and your organization.

You can also learn how knowledge of INTJ strengths and weaknesses in the workplace, that is INTJ ability, can insure that the INTJ will not fall victim to job dissatisfaction which has been termed “Falsification of Type” and which is the core reason an estimated 70% of all the workers in the world dislike (or hate) their jobs!

INTJ Workplace Strengths

INTJ ability and strengths are many and would mean for you in the workplace that you:

• are someone who reaches understanding by contemplating and thinking, pondering things, someone who wants to really think about it
• are reflective, quiet, and prone to consider before acting
• prefer physical work space which allows for privacy and concentration
• participate and speak up after observing and formulating your own impressions and questions; may need to be asked what you think or feel
• regard meeting as taking time away from work and as places where more work gets generated or assigned
• are aware of internal guiding principles, philosophy, and commitments
• focus first on and are most interested in the big picture, global issues, future possibilities; you notice the “forest” before noticing the “trees”
• are speculative and work toward “what if”
• work in bursts, await inspiration, may skip around, pursuing what “strikes your fancy;” may work on several things at the same time
• want a team to have an engaging vision and mission; initiate and enjoy consideration of possibilities or theoretical matters
• arouse energy and zeal, especially for pursuing the mission and for innovations
• may seem distant and/or unapproachable; are direct, sometimes at the cost of being insensitive to others
• focus on the work at hand; don’t allocate much time to get to know others and build relationships
• are naturally critical of ideas and proposals; identify deficiencies in ideas and plans, and impediments to achieving goals
• believe that what is accomplished is more important than how a group works together; expect the best ideas and solutions to emerge from argument and debate; enjoy give and take
• analyze impersonally; are able to step back and be impartial
• champion sticking to the principles
• are dependable, deliberate, decisive, and focused; stick to commitments, plans, and schedules
• are methodical and systematic, and often develop routine approaches to work

Basically those jobs/careers that would allow the INTJ to use the strengths listed above, INTJ ability, as a natural part of doing the job would be the jobs/careers providing maximum workplace motivation for the INTJ. With increased workplace motivation normally follows increased job satisfaction. Likewise, jobs/careers not allowing the INTJ ability to be used will provide much less workplace motivation and consequently much less job satisfaction for the INTJ personality type.

INTJ Workplace Weaknesses

INTJ personality and INTJ ability would include a tendency toward the following workplace weaknesses:

• may need to be asked what you think or feel
• may view meetings as naturally negative events that cause more work than is accomplished by having them
• will have difficulty seeing the big picture
• may have difficulty focusing on one thing for great amounts of time
• want the work of a team to be engaging vision and the mission may have trouble being realistic, practical and in-the-moment for too long
• will be uncomfortable to troubled proceeding without plans
• may hurt others by their natural ability to criticize
• their natural impersonal approach to things may be seen as negative to workplace approachability/relationships

Now take a few moments and consider how INTJ’s behave and perform in the workplace from the following six aspects:

What Others Might Observe First

• are serious and confident
• are independent, may seem cool and impersonal and distant, and don’t communicate much
• are inquisitive and skeptical, raise questions about everything, e.g., organizational mission, current goals, why we’ve been organized into teams
• have ideas in mind so they propose solutions and give advice (and may be blunt in doing so)

Work Style

• are comfortable working alone and like to have their own work space
• do their best work when they have a grasp of the big picture and the underlying principles, want to understand something mentally before trying it, and once they understand it may not necessarily be interested in implementation
• function autonomously, often want and provide little feedback or supervision, and may take action without informing or consulting others
• highly value competence in self and others, and like to continue to learn new things and to expand their capabilities

On Work Teams/In Groups

• are not naturally drawn to teams and may appear uninvolved or uncommitted
• boil much of the group’s discussion and deliberation down to essential points or issues
• are intellectually playful, but otherwise earnest
• may not value or be comfortable with the relationship-building aspects of working together (e.g., “small talk,” creating a warm environment)

Facing Change

• project calm and often provide a stabilizing influence
• see change as a means to improve, to address weaknesses and problems in systems, or to achieve specific organizational outcomes; may be less enthusiastic about personal change
• are not particularly responsive to-and may deliberately resist-external pressures, e.g., “This is the latest approach” or “All the other departments are doing it”
• want to know “why,” and take a rational, systematic approach to change, even to the human factors involved

During Conflict

• want to analyze all components, including “irrational” aspects to look for patterns or cause and effect relationships
• may avoid or withdraw unless the conflict is an obstacle to accomplishing something important to them
• sometimes cause conflict without being aware that they are, e.g., may spark discussions and arguments that others experience as conflict, may offer suggestions for improvement that others take as personal criticisms
• under stress, may feel immobilized, have irrational/emotional reactions, or give sudden priority to seemingly insignificant activities or events

Workplace Contributions

• generate and promote “vision,” and take a long-range view of the consequences of today’s deliberations
• able to see things from a new perspective, providing original ideas or insights and synthesizing complex information or diverse perspectives
• drive and readiness to create and improve systems
• advocate focusing energy and resources on activities central to accomplishing the mission

May Be Experienced As

• preserving and determined and sometimes as so confident their position is right that they stubbornly hang on to ideas and visions too long
• competent and self-assured and sometimes as seeming to regard themselves as superior to others
• naturally providing relatively little information, presuming that what is perfectly clear to them is also clear to others
• having demanding standards, and sometimes as being critical of others (as well as themselves) when those standards aren’t met

The Myers Briggs Test can be looked upon sometimes as an ability and personality test. Once you have identified your personality type via the Myers Briggs Test and have some understanding of the associated strengths, weaknesses, abilities and behaviors of your type you can better determine the kind of work environment and associated factors that provide the maximum workplace motivation and job satisfaction for you. Again, view the results of the Myers Briggs Test concerning work as a kind of ability and personality test.

If you would like to study a different personality type link here and go back to the Personality and Work page to find links to the other 15 personality types, follow those links and enjoy!

If you have questions regarding your personality type in the workplace as it relates to using the Myers Briggs Test as an ability and personality test, please do not hesitate to use the Support/Contact Request form on the navigation bar to the left. We would enjoy hearing from you and will try to answer any questions you may have about the Myers Briggs Test and its uses and/or the Myers Briggs focused consultation services offered by Solid Rock Consulting Group, LLC.

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