How compatible are ENFJ and ESFP patterns of communicating, thinking, and working?
Reading time: 5 minutes
Gregory Park, Ph.D.
Author
In this article, you’ll find a comparison of ENFJs and ESFPs across five important personality domains: Interpersonal/Communication Style, Emotional Style, Intellectual Style, and Organizational Style.
One important note: the following comparisons cannot be made simply by comparing the cognitive functions (letters) of each personality type.
For this analysis, TraitLab gathered data about personality traits from thousands of participants who identified themselves as a particular type in the 16 Personality or Myers-Briggs framework.
The comparisons here show the average similarities and differences between ENFJs and ESFPs. However, remember that all personality types are oversimplifications. For an assessment of your unique position in these areas, you’ll need a personalized assessment that doesn’t rely on personality types.
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Your particular style of communicating and interacting with others can be described fairly well by two dimensions: assertiveness and warmth.
Assertiveness describes your tendency to assert yourself, lead, and influence others in social situations, while warmth describes your tendencies to empathize and put others’ needs ahead of your own.
People with the same personality type often share some similarities in assertiveness and warmth. In the graph below, you can see where most ENFJs and most ESFPs fall along both of these dimensions.
First, take a look at where people in each type, on average, fall in this interpersonal space.
Most ENFJs and ESFPs overlap heavily in their interpersonal and communication style.
ENFJs and ESFPs often support, openly sympathize, and actively offer help to others At their best, they are gentle sympathizers, who are easily trusted and accepted. ENFJs and ESFPs may be overly revealing and have difficulty being alone. At their worst, they can require too much attention and admiration from others and be excessively involved in the affairs of others.
One aspect that you and many ESFPs have in common in their interpersonal warmth. Both ENFJs and ESFPs tend to be on the friendlier side and are attentive to the needs and interests of other people, sometimes at the expense of your own goals.
Likewise, you and most ESFPs both tend to be more assertive and dominant in social situations. You are both managing, directing, and leading others, and feel comfortable taking the lead. This may lead you to butt heads with some ESFPs, because at times, you can both be domineering or overly direct.
Another characteristic of your personality is your emotional style — your tendencies towards different kinds of moods. There are two dimensions that influence emotional style: arousal and valence.
Arousal describes your relative energy level across different situations. Those with high baseline levels of arousal tend to be generally more alert, active, and engaged, while those with a lower baseline are more reserved, subdued, and inhibited.
Valence describes whether these moods tend to be positive (pleasant) or negative (unpleasant). People with a more positively valenced style are more likely to experience emotions like joy, enthusiasm, satisfaction, and serenity. People with a more negatively valenced style are more likely to experience sadness, frustration, dissatisfaction, and anxiety.
The graph below shows where each type, on average, usually sits in this emotional space.
ENFJs tend to be energetic and enthusiastic across most situations. They take on new challenges with excitement, confidence, and a sense of adventure. ENFJs are usually more optimistic than most people, and they generally feel like they can handle what life throws at them.
ESFPs tend to be tense, concerned, and vigilant in many situations. They usually have a pessimistic outlook and are often looking for what could go wrong next. ESFPs are highly active and tend to juggle many tasks. When things go wrong, this energy can turn into frustration and impatience, and they are more likely to express their dissatisfaction to others.
Like most ENFJs, you and many ESFPs share a relatively high energy level. You both prefer to be in motion, actively engaged in something interesting, rather than sitting back and observing. In the best case, the two of you feed off the other’s energy and excitement, and there’s rarely a quiet moment when you’re together.
One difference between ENFJs and ESFP is in their typical emotional valence, which describes tendencies towards positive or negative emotions. You and most ENFJs tend to fall on the more positive side. Compared to most ESFPs, you and most ENFJs experience positive emotions such as joy, satisfaction, and happiness more often than most ESFPs. ESFPs have the opposite pattern, and they tend to gravitate towards more negative emotions.
These subtle emotional differences often surface in your reactions to new information. The same news that sparks enthusiasm in you and most ENFJs can induce worry in ESFPs. Compared to ENFJs, most ESFPs may need additional time and space to recover from stress.
Your intellectual style describes how you receive, process, and pursue different kinds of information. Differences in intellectual style are captured well by two dimensions: ideas and aesthetics.
Ideas describes your appetite for new information and your interest in complex, challenging material. People high on the ideas dimension have an appreciation for complexity and technical details. People lower on ideas are less interested in learning for learning’s sake, and they prefer to simplify complex topics down to the essential details.
Aesthetics captures your relative interest and sensitivity to aesthetic information and its emotional impact. People higher on the aesthetics dimension usually have strong artistic interests and a deep appreciation for beauty in many forms. Those lower on aesthetics tend to value practical application over artistic merit and usually adhere to more conventional standards of beauty.
In the graph below, you’ll see where ENFJs and ESFPs, on average, fall in this intellectual space.
ENFJs tend to be deep thinkers — bright, curious, and philosophical. They are highly receptive to new ideas and drawn to complex, abstract concepts. ENFJs enjoy taking in large amounts of information and typically have one or more creative outlets.
ESFPs are practical realists. They focus on building practical skills and essential knowledge and are less likely to spend time learning for learning’s sake. In addition, they usually value conventional, tangible accomplishments over artistic expression and rarely feel compelled to develop a creative outlet.
As with many ENFJs, you tend to have a stronger need for information and complexity than most ESFPs. You are much more likely to become enamored with a fascinating new idea and dive head first into learning everything you can about it while your ESFP counterparts are focused on the practical matter in front of them. You may find yourself pulling the conversation to a more theoretical level when you’re together, while your ESFP partner resists and keeps things down-to-earth.
Another difference between ENFJs and ESFPs is their relative interest in aesthetic, artistic, and emotional experiences. As a ENFJ, you are more likely to value artistic expression and unconventional ways of thinking, while your ESFP counterpart is more practical and traditional. ENFJs tend to reflect more on emotional experiences, looking for patterns and connections, and they are more receptive to eccentricity and fantasy. In contrast, ESFPs often avoid reading too deeply into their emotions, and they can be dismissive or skeptical about unconventional ways of thinking.
Your organizational style describes your habits around organization and planning. Your organizational style influences how you structure your time and physical space. Differences in organizational style fall along two dimensions: industriousness and orderliness.
Industriousness describes your persistence, need for achievement, and intensity of focus. People higher on industriousness usually organize their behavior around a few important long-term goals. People lower on industriousness are usually more focused on the present and will more easily change their focus when new opportunities appear.
Orderliness describes your need for regularity, order, and structure in your environment. People higher on orderliness prefer tidy, organized physical spaces, detailed schedules, and reliable routines. People lower on orderliness can tolerate more disorganization and prefer a more spontaneous, unstructured approach.
The graph below shows the average position of ENFJs and ESFPs along these dimensions of organizational style.
ENFJs are usually systematic and highly organized. They like setting big, long-term goals and then creating detailed plans to accomplish them. ENFJs are generally good at ignoring distractions and making steady progress through consistent routines and habits.
ESFPs thrive in unstructured environments with fewer constraints and more room for improvisation and serendipity. They generally focus on enjoying the present rather than preparing for the future. ESFPs highly value spontaneity and the flexibility to change their mind, and they resist setting hard deadlines or rigid expectations.
As with most ENFJs, you and many ESFPs can clash over your need to set goals and use time efficiently. While you have an easier time getting down to work and staying focused, your ESFP counterpart may be more easily distracted and unpredictable. Working consistently with a narrow focus often comes naturally to many ENFJs like you, but you may find that ESFPs benefit from additional structure to keep them on track. While you enjoy planning and tend to mind the future, your ESFP counterpart helps you enjoy the present, injecting some much-needed spontaneity into your schedule.
A second difference between ENFJs and ESFPs is in their relative need for order, structure, and regularity. While you and most ENFJs thrive on well-defined systems and consistent organization, your ESFP counterpart often feels overly constrained and bogged down by too much structure. They are more comfortable with chaos and are happy to take life as it comes, whereas you try to create order, routine, and predictability. Your differences in tidiness, punctuality, and compliance with social expectations may occasionally create conflict, too.
Most people have complex personalities and don’t fall into a single personality type.
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For comparisons between ENFJs and other types from the 16 Personality typology, visit any of the type pairings below:
For comparisons between ENFJs and other Enneagram types, visit any of the type pairings below:
