INFJ

I first took the Myers-Briggs Personality Test in 1994 in an interactive corporate management setting. Only two other members of upper management shared the same personality description that I tested out as. One was the founder and president of the company, who came up to me at some point later and said that it was too bad the two of us had not met sooner and built something great together. The gesture was sincere and provocative. One can only imagine what Mark and I could have dreamed up with the right timing and circumstances.

So what does it all mean? The Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator is a self-report test designed to identify a person's personality type, strengths, and preferences. The questionnaire was developed by Isabel Myers and her mother Katherine Briggs based on their work with Carl Jung's theory of personality types. It is the standard used by 88 percent of Fortune 500 companies and with more than 70 years of science-based, research-based insight, the MBTI assessment is a robust tool for self-awareness and improvement. It provides positive language for understanding and valuing individual differences. With practical insight that’s easy to understand and implement, the MBTI assessment has helped thousands of organizations and millions of people around the world improve how they communicate, learn, and work.

My Type is I N F J, perhaps the rarest type of them all, shared by only one percent of the population. In broad terms, the questionnaire concluded that I am Introverted, iNtuitive, Feeling, and Judging, which in turn means I am thought-oriented, reserved, reflective and observant; I am imaginative, future-oriented, conceptual, and abstract; I am empathetic, accepting, warm, and I value harmony; and I am organized, systematic, achievement-oriented, and a definte planner. Generally, it says I am warm and caring, organized and able to juggle many responsibilities, highly intuitive, creative and imaginative, and nuturing and patient.

Among those in the one percent that I share this Type with are Carl Jung, Mahatma Gandhi, Plato, Tolstoy, J.K. Rowling, Doestoevsky, Solzhenitsyn, Eleanor Roosevelt, Ron Paul, Al Pacino, Michael Landon, Daniel Day-Lewis, Sidney Poitier, Nicole Kidman, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tom Selleck, Mel Gibson, Billy Crystal, Cate Blanchett, Taylor Swift, George Harrison, Peter Townsend, Peter Gabriel, Roger Waters, Leonard Cohen, and composer John Williams. Many of my favorite celebs, interestingly.

Much is written about each of the Types. We can dig down as far as we like to better understand our strengths, proclivities, and potential. What I read about the INFJ fits like a glove. In short, INFJ's are dreamers whose genius, caring, and concern can be an inspiration to many other people. In social situations of every stripe the INFJ's quiet strength is very noticeable by others. An INFJ's driving force is their iNtuition, which is directed inward (Introverted), generating a never-ending stream of possibilities and ideas. The more and INFJ introverts, the more life opens up, but the external world may have a way of interrupting the flow of inspiration and creativity because INFJ's feel called upon to render service to humanity (Feeling) in a very orderly and demanding way (Judging). Spot On.