Why You Need to Know Your Personality Type 

Firstly, it’s important to understand that personality typing is not designed to pigeonhole a person or to say that one personality is better than another. Each personality has its unique characteristics. Personality typing is an empowering personal development tool that will help you to:   

• Identify your strengths and weaknesses and understand your thoughts, feelings, and motivations.     
• Make smarter education and career choices.   
• Be confident in a job interview.  
• Thrive in the workplace. 
• Network with others successfully. 
• Improve your relationships.

Introduction to Personality Typology

Understanding one’s strengths and weaknesses, needs, and wants will help you to;   

• Identify relevant opportunities,  
• Access career information,  
• Plan and take career-related decisions,  
• Present oneself effectively to gain access to courses or jobs and,  
• Network and build relationships

The road to modern personality typology was first paved by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst. Based on his work, psychologists Isabel Briggs Myers and Katharine Briggs created the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The MBTI identifies 16 different personalities, and it’s one of the most popular methods of personality typing today.  

To explain how people differ in the way they use their personality preferences/cognitive functions, Myers and Briggs use the following four preferences for their self-evaluation personality assessment. 

1. Introversion (I) or Extraversion (E). Do you draw energy from your inner world or the outer world? 
2. Sensing (S) or Intuition (N). Do you prefer to focus on information from your surroundings, or prefer to interpret and add your meaning? 
3. Thinking (T) or Feeling (F). Do you take a logical approach, or do you prefer to look at people and circumstances? 
4. Judging (J) or Perceiving (P). Do you like to have things decided and organized, or remain open to new information and options? 

The letters that are assigned to each of the above four preferences make up a four-letter code acronym for each of the 16 personality types. This simple coding system shows you how your four preferences interact, and which one you prefer to use first.  

How you use these preferences can change over time and some of these preferences may be used more often than others.  

For example, the ENTP personality type uses the following preferences in this order: extraversion, intuition, thinking, and perceiving. 

ENTPs are extroverts 

ENTPs are extroverts, so they draw energy from the external world, and they like to be around lots of people.  

Extroverts are easy to spot as they are outgoing, friendly, talkative, enthusiastic, and energetic. At a party, an extrovert will make everyone laugh with their jokes and stories. Despite their constant cheerfulness and light-heartedness, extroverts are deeply committed to their closest relationships.

ENTP Personality Profile and Characteristics 

ENTPs are also known by the nicknames “The Debater”, “The Visionary”, and “The Innovator” because they are bold, quick-witted, open-minded, strategic, and inventive. They view the world through an objective lens and rely on logic instead of subjective emotions. 

The ENTP personality is one of the most unusual personality types. ENTPs are logical and rational, but also creative and artistic. While they are serious intellectuals, they passionately express their ideals, beliefs, and values.  

ENTPs excel at debating because they have strong communication skills, like to learn new things, and acquire knowledge about different topics. But they are not just clever conversationalists who can stir up a lively discussion, they are great leaders. People are naturally drawn to them as they are charismatic, confident, and optimistic.  

ENTPs are intensely curious about the world, and they are driven by a desire to understand how people, systems, and principles work. They will conduct research and experiments and may even use unconventional methods to find the answers they seek.  

Visionaries focus more on the future than the present. They believe that the distant shadowy domain is filled with possibilities just waiting to be discovered. But they can focus too much on the “big picture” and miss the little details which are just as important as their prized outcome. Their ideas are ingenious, but not always practical. 

ENTPs have a rebellious streak and they reject conformity. They value their freedom and don’t like being controlled. To achieve their goals, they can be ruthless. They may break the rules, ignore established procedures, or manipulate people to do what they want.  

Despite their “my way or the highway” attitude, ENTPs like to maintain social harmony. They don’t get judgemental or angry easily and aren’t too fazed by conflict. However, they can get impatient when their plans are not progressing fast enough and critical of those who don’t share their vision. They can be insensitive to people’s feelings when they are focused on their end game.