ENFP, also known as the Campaigner, is one of the 16 personality types from the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). People with this personality type tend to be enthusiastic, creative, and innovative.
They enjoy being at the center of attention and want to be liked by others but on the other hand, they are eager to help other people and take care of them.
MBTI is a self-report inventory, based on Carl Jung’s Theory of Psychological Types and his ideas about perception and judgment.
Today this test is used worldwide in order to identify the personality type and determine individual strengths, weaknesses, cognitive functions, and personality characteristics.
ENFPs often inspire people with their unique values and points of view. In this article, we will provide an in-depth discussion about the characteristics, values, cognitive functions, and skills of ENFPs’.
You will also find out what they look like in relationships and what are the most optimal career paths for ENFPs. In the end, you can also take a look at famous ENFPs that you might know.
Interesting Facts about the ENFP Personality
Here are some interesting facts about ENFPs:
- ENFPs make up about 8% of the general population.
- ENFP personality is more common in women compared to men.
- ENFP is the fifth most common personality type in women.
- People with ENFP personalities value family, friendships, creativity, knowledge, and social relationships.
- Teaching, counseling, and art are the most frequent career paths for ENFPs’.
- According to psychological studies, of all MBTI personalities, ENFPs have the most adaptive stress coping mechanisms.
- ENFPs have terrible time management skills.
- ENFPs enjoy getting at the center of attention.
- People with ENFP personalities tend to be honest and expect the same from other people.
- ENFPs are motivated to spend their energy on other people. They make great leaders.
What Does the ENFP Stand For?
As described in the MBTI, ENFP stands for extraversion, intuition, feeling, and perceiving. The four core personality traits that are used in the MBTI test to determine the personality type.
It means that people with this personality tend to enjoy being around people (Extraversion) and try to look for deeper meanings in things and people (Intuition).
As a result of their empathy, they easily understand others’ feelings and enjoy expressing their own emotions as well (Feeling). Besides, they are open-minded people who dislike routine and prefer making spontaneous decisions (Perceiving).
ENFPs are also called the Campaigners or the Encouragers mainly because of their desire to inspire and encourage other people. Sometimes they are also referred to as the Champions as a result of their deep enthusiasm to fulfill their objectives.
Key Characteristics of the ENFP Personality
ENFPs are friendly and sociable people who stand out with their outgoing nature. They have great communication skills and enjoy spending time with people of different personalities and preferences. Despite having a very wide social circle, they also have a rich inner world.
The Campaigners are highly independent people. They enjoy taking risks and making impulsive decisions. The reason is that they want to explore the world and find purpose in life. Taking part in various activities spontaneously is their way of getting to know the world.
People with ENFP personalities hate daily routines. They can’t stand a fixed schedule where every single action is determined in advance. They prefer a flexible atmosphere where you can behave according to your current mood. Since they never plan things ahead, sometimes they fail to complete the tasks and have trouble getting organized at work.
The Encouragers have a great sense of humor. They are good at telling funny stories and often make their friends laugh with their interesting and intellectual humor.
ENFP Personality Traits and Cognitive Functions
Apart from the opportunity to identify the core personality traits, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator also allows people to get deeper insights into their personalities and find out the four cognitive functions they possess.
According to Jung, these cognitive functions represent the ways we process information and make decisions. The first two functions play major roles in determining our behaviors. Each function is expressed in two ways – extraverted and introverted ways. Let’s review the dominant, auxiliary, tertiary, and inferior cognitive functions of ENFPs’.
Dominant: Extraverted Intuition
Extraverted Intuition (Ne) is a dominant personality function for ENFPs. Ne determines their ability to see theoretical possibilities and make the right predictions about the future based on abstract information. ENFPs and other personalities with Extraverted Intuition find it hard to focus on the objective world.
They prefer looking for deeper meanings in things and people and searching for hidden possibilities. Spending time in nature and taking part in deep conversations are some of the most common activities for personalities with Ne function.
Facts are not the primary sources of information for ENFPs. Instead, they prefer making predictions about the world and interpreting the facts in their own way.
Auxiliary: Introverted Feeling
Introverted Feeling (Fi) is an auxiliary cognitive function for ENFPs. This function determines how they feel about the world and how they deal with their emotions. Introverted Feeling also shapes ENFPs’ system of beliefs and their thinking patterns.
People with ENFP personalities rely on auxiliary feelings while making decisions, meaning that the majority of their decisions are based on their feelings and values rather than on logic or rational arguments.
Fi makes ENFPs follow their heart and use their emotions to determine their future. Generally, auxiliary Fi isn’t openly expressed. This cognitive function is rather hidden from the outside world and plays its role nonverbally.
Tertiary: Extraverted Thinking
The tertiary function focuses on the skills and beliefs that ENFPs are not comfortable using. It helps people focus on the hidden parts of their personalities that need to be expressed in some situations.
Since ENFP is a Feeling (F) personality contrary to Thinking (T), they usually rely on their emotions while making decisions instead of thinking rationally. However, as a result of Tertiary Extraverted Thinking (Te), they are forced to become aware of some important facts and use factual information while solving problems without fully realizing it.
Usually, ENFPs use this cognitive function in tough times, when they need to avoid mistakes and can’t solve issues impulsively.
Inferior: Introverted Sensing
Introverted Sensing (Si) is the fourth cognitive function of ENFPs. Inferior functions usually have the least influence on our behaviors. They are in our unconscious mind and determine our thoughts and behaviors without us realizing it.
However, Introverted Sensing has a great impact on developing dominant function. Si leads ENFPs to compare the present facts to the past experience and use them while making critical decisions.
This function determines the way they gather information not from outside but from their internal world and private experience. Introverted Sensing helps ENFPs to remember their feelings, and senses from the past and compare them to the current situation.
In the next section, we will briefly review the core strengths and weaknesses of ENFPs to provide a more accurate idea about ENFP personality.
You can check out this page for a more in-depth discussion about ENFP’s strengths and weaknesses.
Strengths of the ENFP Personality
Strong communication skills
ENFPs are extroverted people who have excellent skills of communication. They easily understand others’ feelings and thoughts and tend to be great listeners. Besides, they are great speakers and enjoy entertaining people with funny and cheerful conversations.
Creative nature
ENFPs are naturally very creative. They are good at generating new and innovative ideas which help them solve complicated problems quickly. Their creative nature is one of the reasons why people rarely get bored while being with ENFPs.
Being empathetic
ENFPs take care of other people’s feelings. They can look at things from different perspectives and realize how others feel. They’re very sensitive to others’ feelings and needs and genuinely care about people around them.
Flexible and spontaneous
ENFPs have the ability to quickly and efficiently adapt to new situations. They are very flexible and don’t mind making spontaneous decisions. This character strength helps them to get rid of problems without too much hesitation.
Weaknesses of the ENFP Personality
Being disorganized
ENFPs hate following routines and orders. They just can’t stick to schedules and tend to avoid practical matters. This results in disorganization at the workplace or in everyday life which can lead to stress.
Tendency to overthink
ENFPs hardly accept their failures. Although they make decisions impulsively, they tend to overthink after they get the results. Too much overthinking can provoke stress and anxiety.
Overly optimistic
Although optimism is indeed a positive characteristic, too much optimism is usually accompanied by disappointment and distress. Since ENFPs are overly optimistic, they often make naive decisions and end up feeling disappointed.
Being overcommitted to people
ESFPs are committed friends and employees. However, they can’t realize that over-commitment can be harmful to their personal growth and development. Unfortunately, they don’t know how to say “no” even when they don’t have enough time or energy to spend on other people’s problems.
Subtypes of the ENFP Personality
Even though the original version of MBTI developed by Isabel Myers and Katherine Briggs consists of 16 personality types, the inventory has been revised afterward, and today, each of these 16 personalities has their subtypes.
Specifically, types T and A have been added later to receive more detailed information about our personalities. A stands for “assertive”, while T is for “turbulent”.
Jobs and Careers Paths for the ENFP Type
Campaigners are highly creative and open-minded people. Therefore possible work occupations for ENFP don’t include monotonous, office jobs where you need to sit in front of the desk all day.
They love action. They dream of working somewhere where it’s possible to reveal their creative potential and realize their innovative ideas.
Considering their character weakness of avoiding schedules and being disorganized, ENFPs are not suitable for administrative managers or assistants. They should avoid career paths that include routine tasks and require focusing on lots of details.
The most optimal jobs for ENFPs offer plenty of flexibility. Therefore, freelancing or self-employment is more suitable for them than traditional jobs.
List of 10 Best Jobs and Careers for ENFPs
List of 10 best career paths for ENFP personality type:
- Social worker
- Entrepreneur
- Actor
- Psychologist or counselor
- Journalist, TV reporter, or news anchor
- Sales manager
- Life coach
- Motivational speaker
- Politician
- Director or producer
Common Hobbies and Interests
List of 10 hobbies and interests for the ENFP personality:
- Playing musical instruments
- Painting
- Writing
- Listening to Music
- Taking pictures
- Reading
- Directing films
- Hiking
- Dancing
- Writing music
How Does the ENFP Interact and Behave in Different Roles?
Having great communication skills is one of the key character strengths of the Campaigners. They enjoy being around people, taking care of them, and entertaining them. However, they feel more comfortable while being around their friends or family.
Even though ENFPs are typical extroverts, they don’t feel completely secure in the company of strangers. Still, one can hardly notice they feel uncomfortable because they always try to maintain a collaborative attitude and help others explore their possibilities.
Let’s discuss how ENFPs behave in various social relationships.
Friendships
ENFPs are fun, supportive, and cheerful friends. They value friendship and believe that it’s an opportunity to explore the world from others’ perspectives. Therefore, ENFPs perfectly perform the role of a friend.
They usually have a wide circle of friends because people easily notice their fun-loving and generous nature. ENFPs are extremely reliable friends. They always keep promises and take care of their friends.
Since they are very empathetic, the Campaigners can easily figure out what their friends feel and help them to solve private issues. They tend to express emotional support anytime and encourage their friends no matter what happens.
Parenting
ENFPs are loving, caring parents with strong emotional connections with their children. However, they are not very enthusiastic about becoming parents. The reason is that being a parent is accompanied by plenty of responsibilities.
ENFPs realize that raising a child requires great organizational skills which they lack. Nevertheless, ENFP parents always try to maintain a perfect balance between love and discipline.
They encourage their kids to be creative and push them to realize their ideas and feelings by engaging in hobbies such as music, writing, or dancing. However, they also try to provide rules and guidelines.
As a result, sometimes they are perceived as inconsistent by their children. Still, ENFP parents are valued by their children for being open-minded and helping them to discover their interests.
Relationships
Passionate, excited, and enthusiastic are some of the adjectives that describe ENFP in a relationship. Campaigners value romantic relationships and believe that being in love with somebody is one of the most rewarding parts of our lives.
They are constantly in search of someone with whom they will connect emotionally and open themselves on the deepest levels.
ENFPs are romantic lovers who take care of keeping relationships alive. They enjoy sharing their feelings and experiences with their partners.
Besides, when they love, they love deeply and accept their partners with their strengths and weaknesses, without attempts to change them.
Workplace
ENFPs always try to connect with their co-workers emotionally. They are in constant search of new possibilities and professional growth and try to make the workplace more inspiring and creative.
ENFPs perform better if they have flexible schedules and the possibility to use their innovative ideas for development.
If ENFPs work in the place they like, they easily find original solutions to complex problems. Otherwise, they are indifferent towards the workplace.
Campaigners enjoy helping their coworkers in solving either work-related or personal issues.
Famous ENFP You Might Know
- Quentin Tarantino – popular American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor; widely known for using dark humor, violence, and references to pop culture; famous for movies such as Pulp Fiction, Django Unchained, Kill Bill, Inglorious Bastards, and Once Upon A Time In… Hollywood.
- Meg Ryan – American actress and producer, popular for playing in romantic comedies such as When Harry Met Sally, You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, or French Kiss.
- Ellen DeGeneres – American TV host, comedian, writer, and producer who hosted the popular Ellen DeGeneres Show since 2003.
- Ozzy Osbourne – English singer and songwriter, the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath. He’s also called the “Prince of Darkness”.
- Salvador Dali – Spanish surrealist painter, widely known for his weird work and technical skills. The Persistence of Memory (1931) is his most famous painting.
ENFP Personality FAQ
Are ENFPs rare?
No, ENFPs make up about 8% of the general population of the U.S. It’s an averagely common personality type compared to other MBTI personalities and the 5th most common type among women.
What is an ENFP female?
Women with ENFP personalities are very empathetic and caring individuals. They quickly develop emotional bonds with other people and easily share their emotions, even with strangers.
As a result, they appear to be easy-going individuals, ready to open up with others and share their perspectives. Usually, female ENFPs focus on maintaining peace in interpersonal relationships and do their best to avoid conflicts. ENFP females make up about 9.7% of the general population.
Final Word
To conclude our discussion about ENFP personality, we can say that Campaigners stand out with their creative and caring nature. They are warm, enthusiastic people who are eager to explore the world.
Despite their weaknesses such as being disorganized and overly committed to people, they often manage to build careers according to their desires and achieve goals. People with ENFP personalities enjoy dealing with complex challenges.
So if you are an ENFP, chances are high that you are a people-centered person who always takes time to make their loved ones happy.
