People tend to enjoy communicating with ENFJs because of their warm, outgoing, and sociable nature. While you can easily notice these and other character strengths of ENFJs, if you know someone with this MBTI personality type, then chances are high you acknowledge their weaknesses as well, such as being too selfless, sensitive, and overly idealistic.
ENFJ or the Protagonist is one of the personalities from Myers-Briggs’ 16 types. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is one of the most frequently used personality tests which aims to determine people’s personality types in order to identify their strengths, and weaknesses, understand their characteristics, and help them find out possible interacting patterns with others.
The meaning of ENFJ is extroverted (E), intuitive (N), feeling (F), and judging (J).
Generally, ENFJs are considered charismatic people who take care of their loved ones and try to grow personally. In this article, we will discuss ENFJ’s strengths and weaknesses and provide tips about boosting strengths and dealing with weaknesses.
Are you an ENFJ?
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List of All ENFJ Strengths and Advantages
ENFJ personality is very perceptive of other people’s motives and feelings. They are extremely empathetic, fun, kind, and affectionate. Typically, the Protagonists are extroverts, full of energy and positivity.
They enjoy spending time with people and find it self-fulfilling to encourage and support others. In this section, we will focus on the major ENFJ strengths and provide an in-depth review of each of these strengths.
5 ENFJ strengths are:
- Tolerant
- Reliable
- Charismatic
- Altruistic
- Natural Leaders
Tolerant
ENFJs easily accept other people’s opinions, even if those opinions are nothing similar to what they think. They have a tolerant attitude towards others’ beliefs and easily welcome people as they are, without judging their strengths and weaknesses.
Besides, they never put their own opinion ahead of others, even if they think they’re right. The reason is that they are broad-minded people who understand that each person has a different background and preferences. Therefore, you can feel like a unique individual around them, who is appreciated regardless of his or her beliefs.
Reliable
Being reliable is one of the most valued personality strengths of the Protagonists. It’s another reason why you can feel safe around them because ENFJs just don’t let people down. They are extremely responsible for their duties and understand that if they make a promise, they should also keep it.
Studies suggest that keeping promises requires a lot of emotional value (del Corral, 2015) but ENFJs manage to deal with these emotions and never break their word. As a result, people around them depend on the Protagonists.
Therefore, ENFJs can be counted on because if they say they will do something, they will actually do it. As research suggests, the reason for this character trait is that ENFJs either have a preference for keeping their word or they dislike letting down others’ expectations (Vanberg, 2008).
Charismatic
Charisma is one of the key strengths of the Protagonists. ENFJs’ actions usually influence other people and make them easily find their way into leadership positions. Charismatic leaders tend to be motivating and charming, often inspiring people with their thoughts and actions.
Even though the role of leadership generally involves building the team, setting goals for the team members, and guiding them through the work process, ENFJ leaders never lose sight of their own goals.
And taking care of others’ needs is one of ENFJs’ major goals. However, not everyone considers charisma as personality strength. In fact, a series of studies suggest that too much charisma can make leaders ineffective (Journal of Personal and Social Psychology) and as a result, charisma is sometimes considered a negative personality trait for leaders.
Nevertheless, ENFJ leaders are empathetic, devote time to their team members, and take care of their needs.
Altruistic
People with ENFJ personalities are known for their kindness and altruism. They are extremely caring and loyal people with a strong desire to take care of the problems and concerns of their loved ones.
Even more, sometimes they neglect their own needs in order to help others. Most importantly, they help others selflessly, simply out of a desire to help. The reason is that they believe in kindness and are concerned about the well-being of other people.
However, sometimes they neglect their own needs in order to help others which can lead ENFJ career paths to reduced effectiveness. Besides, the Protagonists become overprotective of their loved ones, which can be a bit disturbing. Still, they strive to make the world a better place with altruistic actions.
Natural Leaders
As a result of strong communication skills, the Protagonists make great leaders and managers. Leadership positions are very natural for people with ENFJ personalities. They have excellent organizational skills which help them engage the team and lead the team members to success.
Usually, ENFJs have a wide social circle. People around them often rely on ENFJs either while making decisions or solving important issues. Excellent leadership skills allow ENFJs to manage the team, train and educate team members.
Besides, people like ENFJ leaders because they know how to see the potential in others. They usually bring enthusiasm to the team and find it easy to motivate and inspire the members.
Are you an ENFJ?
Take the free personality test to identify your true personality type. 16 Personality Types test reveals who you naturally are and why you do things the way you do. With this knowledge of yourself, you can build successful careers, find a dream job, build strong relationships, and live an authentic life.
TAKE THE FREE PERSONALITY TEST
All ENFJ’s Weaknesses and Flows You Should Know
ENFJs may seem like people with perfect personalities but actually, they do have some character flaws that are not very obvious at first glance. Specifically, most times they are too sensitive about things happening around them.
Besides, ENFJs are very idealistic and sometimes even perfectionist people who are too hard on themselves. In this section, we will focus on ENFJ’s weaknesses and review the characteristics that hinder ENFJs’ personal growth.
List of 5 weaknesses of ENFJ personality:
- Overly idealistic
- Too selfless
- Too Sensitive
- Fluctuating Self-Esteem
- Struggle to Make Tough Decisions
Overly Idealistic
The protagonists strongly believe in their ideals. At first glance, there’s nothing bad about it but actually, over-idealism makes them set very high goals which are sometimes hard to achieve.
Needless to say that not all the goals are achievable. It’s normal to fulfill some of your aims and keep focusing on others but ENFJs need to succeed in everything they have planned. Therefore, if they fail, they feel anxious and find it hard to concentrate.
Sometimes ENFJs think that everyone shares their beliefs about life. They believe that being faithful to your own principles is a key to success and they feel disappointed when people violate this principle.
Too Selfless
ENFJs are too focused on others’ needs and requirements. As we mentioned, they adore helping others and taking care of their problems but the bad thing here is that sometimes they forget to pay attention to their own needs and desires.
Therefore, the Protagonists are too selfless. They are overly devoted to others’ preferences and think of others before themselves. It’s true that being generous and kind are character strengths but only if you think about personal development as well. But ENFJs often forget that self-development is important for achieving goals and succeeding.
Too Sensitive
ENFJs possess a high degree of empathy and as a result, sometimes they are too sensitive. It’s especially evident in ENFJ’s relationships. They are overly sensitive to the feelings of their loved ones and believe that bringing happiness to their partners is a must.
Generally, it’s considered that compassion is one of the key strengths of the Protagonists. However, they have a tendency to focus too much on others’ requirements which leaves them emotionally exhausted. Besides, empathy leads ENFJs to always see good in people.
As a result, sometimes they trust others too much and feel disappointed in the end. This badly affects ENFJs’ mood and well-being.
Fluctuating Self-Esteem
ESFJs are not entirely confident about their abilities. As a result, their self-esteem often changes. Specifically, the Protagonists’ self-esteem can quickly rise once they achieve a goal they had been aiming for a long time.
But if they fail, they lose respect for their own worth and abilities. The fact that ENFJs’ self-esteem varies over short periods is indeed their weakness because they never feel certain about their actions and hesitate before taking a step forward.
Struggle to Make Tough Decisions
The process of decision-making is a big problem for ENFJs. It’s mainly because of their fluctuating self-esteem. ENFJs often feel uncertain about their decisions and hesitate a lot. Even though they can easily help others to overcome even the toughest problems, when it comes to their own lives, ENFJs struggle to make decisions.
Having very high expectations is probably one of the reasons why they have problems deciding between various choices. They want to perform ideally. And this perfectionism develops plenty of problems in the decision-making process.
ENFJ Growth and Development Guide
How to Boost and Maximize ENFJ’s Strengths & Advantages
As an ENFJ, you have a number of important personality qualities that you can use to develop and flourish. Having natural strengths such as being a reliable, tolerant, charismatic person will help you find your place in the world and be more satisfied with yourself.
Here are some tips for maximizing ENFJ strengths:
- Learn to be tolerant of yourself – Accepting other people as they are is great but you should also learn to accept yourself with your strengths and flaws.
- Use your leadership skills wisely – Focus on your communication and organizational skills to develop your career path or grow personally. Strong leadership skills can help you achieve your goals more easily.
- Focus on your needs – In the process of helping others, you often forget that no one will take care of your interests but yourself. So, try to avoid neglecting your own needs and focus on your preferences as well.
How to Minimize and Deal with ENFJ’s Weaknesses
Boosting the character’s strengths isn’t enough for personal growth. People should also learn about their flaws and understand their weak sides in order to work on these undesirable personality qualities and develop.
Here are some tips about dealing with ENFJ weaknesses:
- Set realistic goals – Having realistic goals will help you avoid anxiety. However, you should accept the fact that failure is also a part of human life and there’s always a way for improvement.
- Don’t think too much – Studies show that overthinking your decisions only makes things worse. Making decisions isn’t as difficult as you think it is. Listen to your mind and take risks. Mistakes are an integral part of personal growth.
- Appreciate yourself – Being selfless about yourself badly affects your mood and self-esteem. Think about the reasons why people admire you and your actions and learn to love yourself unconditionally.
Are you an ENFJ?
Take the free personality test to identify your true personality type. 16 Personality Types test reveals who you naturally are and why you do things the way you do. With this knowledge of yourself, you can build successful careers, find a dream job, build strong relationships, and live an authentic life.
TAKE THE FREE PERSONALITY TEST
What are ENFJs Best at?
ENFJs are very good at giving out advice. They have great communication skills and naturally care about others’ well-being. Therefore, ENFJs always try to act as counselors and take care of others’ needs.
As a result, these people-loving individuals are best at doing work that is related to social issues, people, and justice in the world. They have a deep sense of altruism and, therefore, sometimes ENFJs even give up on their preferences in order to do what’s morally right.
What Stresses Out the ENFJ?
ENFJs just can’t stand it when people criticize their actions. Although they’re judging (J) types themselves, irrational judgments from other people are something unbearable to them.
When someone criticizes them, ENFJs feel deeply stressed and find it hard to concentrate on their regular tasks. They lose coordination and feel vulnerable because they tend to take this unreasonable judgment to heart.
