ENFJ personality traits are enduring qualities that make this personality type behave in exclusive ways. Commonly known as the protagonists, ENFJs are idealists with a big purpose in life. They are warm, humble, and friendly but only to a certain extent.
These people love organized and planned work, not preferring many changes in their daily life. They are value-oriented and never shy away from doing the right thing at the right time.
ENFJs are passionate leaders. You may find them in professions that require dynamic communication skills and people-centric behavior.
In this post, we will talk about their unique qualities and attributes that make them a go-getter extrovert.
20 ENFJ Personality Traits
The American mother and daughter duo of Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers developed the Myers-Briggs Test Indicator (MBTI) in the middle of the twentieth century.
This is actually a personality testing method. It classifies human beings on the basis of their personality traits.
According to the “Briggs-Myers Type Indicator Handbook”, commonly known as the MBTI manual, there can be sixteen different personality types. One of those is the ENFJ personality type.
The acronym ENFJ means extraverted, intuitive, feeling, and judgmental. Individuals with this personality type are outgoing and proactive.
They have a caring side to them, as they are emotional and sensitive. These people also have a strong sense of morals, values, and beliefs. They always try to stick to these beliefs under all circumstances.
ENFJs are one of the rarest personality types out of the sixteen different ones. According to American psychologist David Keirsey, less than 5% of people in the world have an ENFJ type of personality.
If we make a list of famous persons who are ENFJs, that list would include the personality types of the former US president Barack Obama and the iconic social reformist Martin Luther King Jr.
Like any other personality type, an ENFJ also has some unique characteristics or traits. These unique traits are what make them stand out in the midst of a crowd.
Let us now take a look at some of the common personality traits shown by individuals with the ENFJ personality type.
1. Friendly
People with the ENFJ personality type can be great friends. They always look out for opportunities where they can make new connections and new friends.
They are very good at maintaining social relationships. This, in turn, helps them to keep a large friend circle.
ENFJ individuals are usually attractive and appealing. They like to keep themselves very well-groomed. This helps them to befriend others easily.
2. Sociable
Because of the fact that ENFJs have an extraverted personality, they tend to be sociable by nature. Their ability to easily befriend others also helps them in maintaining social relationships. They are generally very talkative and other people also enjoy their company.
In short, these people are fun to be around. In addition to making friends, they also tend to care for these friends. This helps them to make long lasting relationships with others.
3. Thoughtful
ENFJs do not make hasty decisions. They do not have an impulsive or whimsical nature. They always spend a good amount of time thinking in all possible directions before reaching for a solution.
ENFJs always try to make any situation favorable for the people around them. This may be true for any personal as well as their professional relationships. They are very good at empathizing.
They would rather place themselves in other’s shoes to give a better judgment, than choose an easy conclusion for a problem. This is why ENFJs can be a good “people’s person” because they become easily likable by virtue of their actions and behavior towards everyone.
4. Community-oriented
ENFJs love to cater to the needs of people of the community. They have the ability to bring together people from different backgrounds together, and thus form a community. They always throw themselves at the forefront to mediate conflicts between other people.
They also do not like any tiffs or disagreement between other people, no matter how minor it is. In brief, they are good at conflict resolution and are community oriented. For this reason, ENFJs can be good natural leaders.
5. Ability to think of the bigger picture
ENFJs have the capability to always consider the bigger picture in any situation. As we have already mentioned earlier in this article, ENFJ individuals take quite a long time to carefully consider their decisions.
This helps them to see every possible alternative under any circumstance. In this way, they get a fair idea of the big picture. This helps them to take an account of future aspects of any problem, which can be beneficial for others.
6. Helpful
Because of the “feeling” side of their personality, ENFJs have an innate soft side to them. They are gentle, calm, and caring.
They always want to help other individuals and can go to any lengths to do so. On some occasions, an ENFJ may even willingly accept difficulties in their own personal lives, for the sake of helping others.
7. Selfless
It follows from the previous point that ENFJs are absolutely selfless individuals when it comes to helping others. A good example of this can be the famous Pakistani children’s rights activist, Malala Yousufzai. As we mentioned previously, Malala has an ENFJ type of personality.
Malala had to endure intense hardships in her personal life. This even included being shot and attacked by terrorists.
Despite that, she did not give up campaigning for education rights for girl children. This proves the extreme levels an ENFJ can go to, to help other people.
8. Philanthropic
This also comes as a direct outcome of the “feeling” part of an ENFJ’s personality. These individuals often feel charitable.
They cannot bear to see others in pain and suffering. So, they are willing to even donate money or other physical belongings to alleviate the pain of people who are suffering.
According to an ENFJ, you do not necessarily have to be rich in order to be philanthropic. An ENFJ can even go to extreme lengths such as donating their own savings to charity.
Because of their charitable and philanthropic nature, many people call ENFJs as “the giver” type of personality.
9. Strong moral sense
An individual with the ENFJ personality type has an extremely strong sense of morality.
These individuals tend to adhere to their own sets of morals, values, and beliefs. ENFJ individuals are highly unlikely to do immoral deeds such as cheating on a partner, taking bribes at the workplace, or cheating in an examination.
10. Affinity towards rules
ENFJs always like to follow rules and regulations. They are extremely unlikely to show rebellious behavior. In the school environment, ENFJs tend to be class monitors or prefects.
Not only do they themselves like following rules, but they also want other people around them to be following all established rules and norms. Because of this nature, many adult ENFJs tend to be police officers.
11. Punctual
ENFJs give a very high importance to punctuality. They value the importance of deadlines and timelines. An ENFJ feels like it is better to reach a meeting even 1 hour before the scheduled time, rather than be 5 minutes late.
As a student in school or college, ENFJs always submit their projects and assignments before the proper due date. On the other hand, if they are a teacher, ENFJs are very strict towards students about submitting assignments on time.
12. Good judge of character
An ENFJ can be an excellent judge of character. As a matter of fact, two of the terms in their acronym mean “intuitive” and “judging”.
We have mentioned before that ENFJs are friendly. Yes, it is true; they can easily become friends with everyone. However, this does not mean that they trust everyone easily. ENFJs can freely interact with someone but at the same time, be reserved and cautious.
They are good at perceiving the feelings and the character of other people. So, they can form a pretty good idea of whether someone has nice intentions at heart, or ill ones. Accordingly, an ENFJ decides what level of closeness to maintain in that particular friendship.
13. Good listeners
ENFJs are strongly empathetic. This means that they are naturally skilled at understanding other people’s feelings and emotions.
They can also be very patient and calm. For ENFJs, the term “patience is a virtue” rings quite true.
Because of these two qualities, ENFJs can be good listeners. Others find solace and peace in confiding their worries to an ENFJ.
What makes things better is that ENFJs give utmost importance to loyalty. So, even if they hear secrets or confidential things from someone, they make sure to not reveal those secrets in public.
This is why people feel comfortable in sharing their problems with an ENFJ. This is also one of the qualities that make an ENFJ a good “people’s person”.
14. Inspirational
Many people call ENFJs as “the protagonist” type of personality. They are very proactive. They are always at the forefront of any issue and are never afraid to voice their opinion. ENFJ individuals are extremely righteous.
They always believe in fighting for the right cause. But they do not stop at just believing. They take the extra step to act on it. This makes ENFJs inspirational to other people.
Famous inspirational figures like Martin Luther King Jr, Maya Angelou, and Barack Obama – who have inspired and changed the lives of millions of people – had an ENFJ type of personality.
15. Non-domineering parenting style
It is needless to say that this trait is applicable only to those particular ENFJs who are mothers or fathers.
These individuals tend to be very good parents. They are deeply involved in the lives of their children. They fully devote themselves to caring for their children.
For an ENFJ, preferences are given more towards listening to their children, rather than telling them what to do and what not to do. They generally give a good degree of autonomy and independence to their children.
But at the same time, they keep a close eye on the children to make sure that they do not do anything wrong.
Parents with the ENFJ personality type are compassionate, caring, and loving towards their children. At the same time, they also make sure that their children follow appropriate rules and regulations. This helps in developing an emotionally healthy parent-child relationship.
Famous American psychologist Diana Baumrind had described four different parenting styles that are commonly seen.
One of those is the “authoritative style” of child rearing. In this technique, parents provide the perfect mix of control and support.
Interestingly, the features of an ENFJ’s parenting style match with this authoritative style of parenting. According to these experts, this is the best method of raising a child.
16. Planners and organizers
ENFJs love to keep things organized. They are most likely to have all of their schedules updated properly on their online calendars. They use diaries, sticky notes, and other accessories to plan every task properly.
People with this type of personality prefer to have a fixed routine for everything. They do not mind if their daily life is mundane. They also love being punctual.
ENFJs hate whimsical plans. They want to have an itinerary for everything to do – even if it is something simple like going on a night out with friends.
This can sometimes become annoying for their friends. In some extreme cases, the tendency to keep things organized can take an obsessive or compulsive form in an ENFJ individual.
17. Peacemakers
ENFJs are peace-loving individuals. They hate conflicts and they always jump in to mediate when they see one.
Because of their peace-loving nature, they are also easily forgiving. They do not hold a grudge against anyone for a long time, even if that person has hurt them. ENFJs are truly believers in the principle of “forget and forgive”.
18. Creative
ENFJs have a very creative mind. In terms of creativity, they trust their inner gut feelings.
An ENFJ’s artistic mind may not be as well developed as that of an ISFP. But their creative outlook is definitely not one to be overlooked. As a matter of fact, among women, ENFJs are the third most creative type.
The creative side of an ENFJ is likely to come to the forefront through music, poetry, or arts.
Another common art form can be acting. Stalwarts in this field who have the ENFJ personality include the likes of Ben Affleck, John Cusack, and Jennifer Lawrence.
19. Curious
Because of their intuitive nature, ENFJs are extremely curious about everything. When presented with any situation, they want to uncover the hidden facts beyond the face value.
For this reason, ENFJs as students are often inquisitive about everything. They do not hesitate to interrupt the class and ask questions.
20. Tendency to seek others’ approval
This trait is actually a negative one, but it cannot be overlooked. Most ENFJs want to seek the approval of the people around them. They are also often attention-seeking and want to be under the limelight at all times.
We have mentioned before that ENFJs are natural leaders. But even as leaders, they always want to be loved and appreciated by all of their subordinates.
Perhaps this trait matches closely with the personality of Michael Scott from the famous TV series, “The Office”.
To Sum Up
To give a recap, ENFJ stands for the Extraverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Judgmental personality type. In this article, we have discussed some common personality traits of individuals with the ENFJ personality type.
Some of these are kind-heartedness, helpful nature, proactive, outgoing, selflessness, creativity, desire to follow rules and regulations, etc.
It is important to note that not all of these traits are unique to an ENFJ type of individual. For example, consider an ENFJ, an ESFP, and an ENTJ. All of them are extroverted and outgoing.
So, readers should not use these above traits to typify an ENFJ. We hope that this article serves as a guide when you are trying to interact with an ENFJ friend or colleague in a better way.
Or if you are an ENFJ yourself, you may sometimes wonder whether a particular behavior you are showing is normal or not, because the people around you may not behave in that way. We hope this article will help you in that case.
