Time to unpack - and Myers-Briggs

I am now in the process of moving in - finally! The apartment looks like a mess, but hopefully it'll get cleaned up when I get back to town on Sunday morning. In the meantime, today at training we learned our Myers-Briggs Type Indicator so we could talk about interpersonal skills and our communication preferences. I am a ENFP - extraverted intuition with introverted feeling. Okay, so that doesn't mean much, but when I dig into the description, I think it fits pretty well....here's the quick summary...

ENFP's tend to prefer what might be over what is. They approach the world with optimism and trust, taking risks others might avoid. They find new challenges more appealing than what is known and verified.

ENFP's focus on possibilities and people's potential. They like to talk with their network to find out what people think about an issue. They prefer collegial relationships, shared rewards and consensus in decisions. They are warm, flexible and encouraging leaders, and can be energetic followers when treated with respect. 

ENFP's value meaningful relationships. They want to make the world a better place. The focus on developing potential in others, finding a purpose in life, and bridging differences. They want to be authentic.

ENFP's like to work with general direction and freedom to accomplish the task in their own way. They like frequent feedback and appreciate supervisors/teachers with warmth, enthusiasm, and humor who provide individual recognition. They enjoy verbal communication and are typically verbally fluent; however, they become awkward when they need to express their deepest values.

When they feel frustrated and misunderstood, they become scattered and have trouble focusing on the task at hand. They fail to follow through on their decisions - become rebellious and excessively nonconforming and ignore deadlines and procedures.

Energizers: variety, challenge, being taken seriously and valued for competency and skills, freedom to innovate creative and effective solutions

Stressors: being disrespected, competence doubted, overloaded with details, supervision that is too close and communicates distrust and doubt, too little outside stimulation, rules that inhibit the creative process

When ENFP's are stressed, they withdraw, shut down and avoid people. They become passive-agressive. The generate possibilities with no data or follow-through. They become convinced that they have medical problems that don't exist.

Okay, there's more, but I think that's enough. If you know me, I think it fits pretty well. For those of you who from NCGA, perhaps this explains why it just didn't work out for me...

Here's hoping my career at USAID is a better fit!