Knowing the finer aspects of ENFP vs. ENFJ personality types will help us to understand their finer variations. It describes how these two personalities appear so similar, yet carries subtle differences in their way to deal with the various aspects of daily life.
ENFPs and ENFJ are extroverts with an abundance of energy. They are exuberant, social, talkative, and have an expressive communication style.
ENFPs are perceivers. They are relaxed and easygoing, flexible and lively while ENFJs are judging types. They prefer to remain organized and planned in their daily life.
In this think piece, we will highlight all the similarities and differences of these two personality types so that if you meet any one of them in one fine day, you’ll be able to identify them easily.
Stay On….
ENFP vs. ENFJ
Both ENFP and ENFJ look very similar to each other because of their similar personality traits. They are extroverts with an active and energetic nature. Both are lively, emotional, and can be considered the life of the party. They fill up the social space with their individual aura wherever they go.
Both these types are talkative, love to interact, and think about the big picture in life. Armed with strong gut feelings and strong emotional vibes, they tend to take decisions by heart. They are inclined to understand the feelings of others living with them.
ENFPs are more open and flexible. Even though they hold strong opinions and are assertive in nature, just like ENFJs, they tend to listen to the opinions of others as well. They are not as rigid as an ENFJ.
ENFPs are inspiring leaders who have a democratic leadership style. Given the quality of creativity and innovation, they love to play with ideas and imaginations more than an ENFJ. On the flip side, ENFJs are systematic, organized, and prefer to do things with prior preparation.
They hate to keep things messy or do their work in an unorganized manner. ENFPs may have many ideas swirling inside their creative minds but they will not be able to execute all these ideas into reality. These people have a laid-back attitude towards life. They may get stuck in procrastination and fail in their desired endeavors.
In contrast to this, ENFJs are a lot more focused and dedicated. Given their ability to organize stuff much ahead before it is to be put into action, they never miss out on their valuable time. They will prefer to be on time and finish things in the best possible ways.
ENFPs are more feeling-oriented personality types whereas ENFJs believe in actions. For them, actions speak louder than words and they use this ideology in almost each and every aspect of their daily lives.
People with ENFJ personalities are efficient and bold. They take decisions logically and appear tougher and bold from the outset as compared to the sensitive and generous ENFPs.
Now let us find out the similar personality traits that these two types possess.
The Points of Similarities between ENFP vs. ENFJ
Both ENFP and ENFJ look similar to each other. They have a bundle of energy to spare in social activities. Both these types are charismatic and have excellent people’s skills. They are dynamic, proactive, outgoing, and express their needs and wants openly.
Being people-centric personalities, ENFPs and ENFJs have the ability to inspire the life of others in positive ways. They are optimistic, vibrant, and full of life.
They emanate joy and happiness in the social space they are in. Thus, they are very popular socially and others love to be around them.
- ENFPs and ENFJs love to be around others. They hate living alone.
- They have the ability to build rapport and connect to others on a one to one and group basis.
- Both these types are energetic and have an infectious optimism to be shared with the world.
- Their language flair is excellent and this helps them communicate their opinions clearly to others.
- They can observe others in detail, and can understand finer feelings that otherwise would have gone unnoticed.
- Both are thoughtful and understanding. Even, you can term them as considerate and helpful.
- ENFPs and ENFJs are witty and have a great sense of humor.
- In workplaces, both bring innovation into play but it’s more for an ENFP.
- ENFPs and ENFJs are not rude types. They are friendly and polite. They have the ability to feel the feelings of others.
- Both these types are intuitive types. So, they think of the bigger picture in life. All their plans are meant to be executed sometime later in life. You can say they can think far along life’s path with precision and accuracy.
- ENFPs and ENFJs believe in creative problem solving, they think out of the box and bring a lot of innovation in their daily work.
- They are positive-minded with the ability to think far and wide of the time they are in.
ENFPs and ENFJs have similar personality disposition but they are not the same type. Their cognitive functions vary and brings various shades to their innate nature.
Let us now delve deep into the variations and differences that these two types possess.
ENFP vs. ENFJ – The Key Differences
| ENFP personality type | ENFJ personality type |
| ENFPs live in the spur of the moment. They live life with its flow in its stride. You will never find an ENFP struggling with too much planning and organization. They prefer to maintain an easygoing and flexible disposition. ENFPs cannot plan; they can innovate and play with ideas only. | ENFJs stick to routine and schedule. Every small thing in their daily life is pre-planned much ahead of its time. Whether it’s household chores, going shopping, or movies, or a family outing, they set everything well in advance. These individuals are upright and spend a lot of time planning and organizing things in life. |
| ENFPs prefer growth through innovation and creativity. They prefer to learn new things, and get adapted to new changes and challenges in life. ENFPs can thrive in change and spontaneity. | ENFJ are judging personalities. They cannot tolerate change in routine, rather prefer to follow the time-tested patterns of doing certain things in life. They are less flexible, adaptable, in nature. ENFJs cannot adjust to unpredictable outcomes in life. |
| In leadership, they are outgoing and assertive. They listen to others’ opinions and try to incorporate those ideas that are good and can be included. These people build cohesive work teams where each and every teammate shares their part in the organization. They actually believe in what they are doing. | ENFJs are loving managers but they try to assert their opinion more to the team than listening to them patiently. In leadership, they are stubborn and rigid. Their motive is task completion and execution of ideas as soon as possible. Thus, they never prefer wasting time seeking opinions and suggestions from team members. |
| ENFPs are lively, fun-loving, and joyful people. They can easily share their ideas, opinions, feelings, and even weird thoughts with others; much more easily than an ENFJ. | ENFJs are more thoughtful, reserved, and distant when it comes to free expression of their thoughts and feelings with others. They prefer to remain poised and share only when absolutely needed. |
| ENFPs are excellent when it comes to conflict resolution. They will back down whenever needed just for the sake of maintaining peace. These people will not get into fights and accusations, rather move away from such situations completely. | ENFJs resolve issues by force. They never back down or say sorry to calm down the heat of the moment. Being an idealist, they tend to put their opinions forcibly onto others, thus acting more stubborn and headstrong while trying to resolve a conflict. |
| ENFPs are flexible and impulsive, spontaneous and easygoing, calm and happy deep inside them. | ENFJs are rigid and stubborn. Sometimes, they act in obstinate ways, as if stubborn as a mule. They are not at all impulsive and dislike too much spontaneity to be around them. |
| ENFPs see the bigger picture but never get interested to see the details. They prefer to act on the surface even in dire circumstances. | ENFJs love a definite structure. They never do things in haste. They see the big picture and future possibilities only by assessing the present situation. These people build patterns of the future based on the details that they have gathered in the present. |
| ENFPs feel bored when asked to do the same thing every day. They hate to follow routine and do mundane tasks that everyone else does. | ENFJs can follow the same schedule forever. They find no struggle in doing the same task for days and months. People of this personality type are less flexible and more organized in their work preferences. |
| ENFPs never shy away from showing their real feelings to others. They are more expressive than ENFJs. | ENFJs prefer to keep their feelings to themselves. They internalize their feelings too often and suffer from anxiety and stress more than an ENFP. |
| ENFPs respect organizational hierarchy. They remain open to accepting manager’s ideas and opinions. | They hate being micromanaged and prefer to work with their own set of rules and terms. |
| ENFPs are open-minded and prefer to listen to what others bring on the table. | ENFJs have strong opinions about everything in life. |
| The ENFP personality type is not a stable decision maker because of their fickle-minded nature. They are messy in their thoughts and way of dealing with things. | ENFJs are consistent with their decision making ability. Once they decide upon something, they will just stick to it without any issues. |
To Sum Up
Both these personality types value human connections. They are committed and loyal as far as their personal relationships are concerned. They love to thrive in networking and socialization.
What makes these two types set apart from each other is their preference for flexibility vs. rigidity. ENFPs are open-minded and free spirited.
On the flip side, the judging ENFJs are headstrong, bull-headed, and extremely strong-headed in nature.
They will hate to lean down or do things that threaten their well-organized and methodical personality disposition.
