Hi Mr. ENTJ, I Hope you and your family are doing great this holiday season! I would really love to get your perspective on the working relationship between ESTP and ENTJ (e.g. doās, dontās, competitive advantages of the team, likelihood of conflict, etc.) Both are in leadership positions (different markets - similar roles), with ESTP being more senior (Group level, where ENTJ is country level reporting to ESTP) and much more experienced. Thank you!
Itās been fantastic, thanks, weāve just returned from the holidays and I hope yours were just as great. Sure. On working relationships between ESTPs and ENTJs, thoughts from my experiences below.
ESTP x ENTJ working relationship
Bias for action:Ā Both types have a bias for action making them quick to build plans, expand on ideas, seize opportunities, and execute. In the professional world, speed is critical to success so this is a huge competitive advantage.
High tolerance for pain:Ā Both typesĀ are gladiators (no matter the enneagram). Take these two and throw them into the most insane, high-stress, high-impact, demanding projects and they can not only survive but succeed. ESTPs will grind it out with the best of them.
Results oriented:Ā Both types are motivated by realizing actions, plans, and strategies into tangible results. Theyāre not content with intellectual exercises and philosophical discussions that go nowhere. If there are goals, metrics, and targets to hitā theyāll be hit.
Communication styles:Ā Both types have clear no-nonsense communication styles. If thereās something to sayā say itā donāt worry too much about the nuances. This minimizes misunderstandings, hurt feelings, and politics. It also saves a ton of time, energy, and effort.
Insensitivity: Insensitivity is a huge issue for both types especially when it comes to managing relationships, navigating politics, and having to use consensus over brute force to make decisions in environments where thatās the preferred way of doing things. Keep each other in check or find the local xxFJ to help with this.
Impatience:Ā Both types want to realize tangible results as soon as possible, and if not, they have the tendency to push other people (teams, clients, etc) harder. ESTPs are generally more impatient than ENTJs. Be clear about timelines and expectations, remember that results donāt happen overnight and lack of visible movement doesnāt mean total failure
Lack of detail orientation:Ā Both types are weak at detail-orientation and work that requires precision. ENTJs are weaker at detail oriented work than ESTPs. Check your work multiple times especially when dealing with budgets, contracts, and sensitive documents and get multiple reviewers to look at it. Get an ISTP or ISFJ when in doubt, theyāre human scalpels.Ā
Likelihood for conflict isnāt MBTI related, itās more determined by the individuals but below is where Iāve clashed with ESTPs and advice on how to navigate those conflicts:
Reactive vs. proactive: ESTPs tend to be more reactive, ENTJs tend to be more proactive. Proactive strategy requires long-term planning, foreshadowing possibilities, and preparation. Weāre better than ESTPs at this. A strategy to help ESTPs understand the value of proactive planning is simply to map actions now to results and risks later. āWe can get $1,000 in 1 week or we can wait 2 weeks and get $5,000. With that additional $4,000, we can buy computer monitors for 40 more employees. The downside is 10 employees will have to wait a week for their monitors which will cost us $500 in project work.ā Be very clear about tangible results and trade-offs. If being abstract and theoretical (exploring theĀ āwhat ifsā), make sure to concretely quantify the probability and impact of those possibilities.
Inconsistency: ESTPs are excellent at delivering in high-pressure situations but once the adrenaline wears off they can get bored and they struggle to sustain the effort. Repetitive tasks can wear them down so a strategy to keep them engaged is to regularly report results even if the actions are repetitive. Doing push-ups every day isnāt exciting but losing 1 lb this week and 3 lbs next week shows tangible results, movement, and variety. Emphasize progress, itāll inspire consistency.
Disorganization: ESTPs arenāt organized. To be fair, we arenāt the best at it either but theyāre worse. The solution to this is to manage up especially if the ESTP is the senior because theyāll have more on their plate to simultaneously juggle. This means keeping excellent and accurate meeting minutes, organizing project documents into folders, archiving sensitive documents, proactively scheduling meetings/1 on 1s, and reminding them of obligations, tasks, commitments, and deadlines. The bad news is that itās a constant effort because youāll need to keep doing it, the good news is that ESTPs are receptive to being managed up as long as you arenāt naggy and theyāll respond quickly to whatever you need (albeit always last minute).