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Finding the Motivation to Grow Your Career ESTJ

Finding the Motivation to Grow Your Career ESTJ

By Donna Dunning

Donna DunningPractical ExpeditorsExpeditor

People who have preferences for ESTJ tend to focus their attention in the outer world by taking action to achieve a result, using Extraverted Thinking (Te) as their dominant function. They are most engaged when their actions are organized, efficient and task-oriented. In their inner world, they tend to pay attention to and collect relevant facts. ESTJs use this data to check that their actions are practical and grounded in real-life experience, using Introverted Sensing (Si).

For more general information on type dynamics and motivation, please refer to the introductory post for this series, Find Your Motivation and Grow Your Career.

When they find opportunities to use this core approach at work, the result is usually a satisfying, meaningful career.

Building Your Skills

When learning and developing their competencies, ESTJs need to hone their core approach as well as develop skills and knowledge outside of their preferences.

Some of the skills that may come naturally for ESTJs include organizing, planning, practical problem solving, decision-making, and managing people/tasks. Careers that use these skills are often appealing to people with ESTJ preferences.

However, there are times when ESTJs need to use and develop skills in their non-preferred functions. For the ESTJ, this might include responding empathically, providing encouragement and positive feedback, responding in an open-ended manner, and making long-term strategic plans.

I’m sure the ESTJs out there can add to this list of non-preferred skills and activities.

Finding Your Motivation

ESTJs will be most motivated to learn skills in their non-preferred functions “in service of the dominant function”. In other words, they need to see how the new learning aligns to and supports their interest in accomplishing practical tasks efficiently.

For example, in the workplace, ESTJs can be motivated to demonstrate empathy and use more “soft skills” in their day-to-day interactions if they see how these skills increase their leadership competency and help them get the job done.

Many ESTJs are surprised that others want to take this more personal approach to work, since they usually find it more appropriate to keep interactions at work focused on the tasks at hand. They often define “team work” as working together to get tasks accomplished rather than as developing a personal relationship with others at work.

ESTJs have shared with me that they have recognized how some people are more likely to do their jobs and cooperate on tasks when the ESTJ shows interest in building a personal relationship.

These ESTJs have learned, through experience, to approach and direct people differently. Sometimes they share with me their strategies, such as checking in with people by asking a personal question, or asking not telling when giving direction.

If you want to read more about ESTJs on the website, here are a few posts to look at.

Developing Your Type – ESTJ

ESTJs at Work

Occupations that Attract Expeditors

Resources

Want to learn more about personality type and how to use it to understand yourself and others?

Introduction to Type and Communication describes in detail how personality preferences influence communications.

If you live in the USA, Introduction to Type and Communication is now available on Kindle.

Introduction to Type and Learning can help you find your motivation for learning and help you learn more effectively.

If you live in the USA, Introduction to Type and Learning is also available on Kindle.

Looking for a practical resource to help you plan your ideal career? Check out my book, What’s Your Type of Career?: Find Your Perfect Career By Using Your Personality Type

Want to use your personality type to excel at your career? Check out 10 Career Essentials: Excel at Your Career by Using Your Personality Type

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 27th, 2013 at 7:45 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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