See how the ESTJ's personality dimensions combine to yield several remarkable patterns
Reading time: 5 minutes
Gregory Park, Ph.D.
Author
ESTJs tend to have distinct patterns on the Big Five personality traits, and these patterns lead to a few common strengths among ESTJs.
ESTJs love rising to a challenge, especially when it involves opportunities to lead.
Their combination of high Extraversion and high Conscientiousness often leads to enthusiasm, persistence, and confidence. ESTJs typically prefer taking a leadership position rather than staying back or following others. They generally set high expectations for themselves and like taking responsibility for planning and making decisions.
With their high Conscientiousness and lower Openness to Experience, ESTJs often have a robust set of internal principles. ESTJs tend to see ideas and actions as either unambiguously good or evil, true or false, and right or wrong. They usually have straightforward, concrete opinions on moral and ethical concerns and are more likely to trust and value traditional institutions and conventional belief systems.
ESTJs are usually highly motivated by goals and have strong opinions on how to accomplish them.
ESTJs enjoy a good challenge and will often look for ways to add a competitive aspect to ordinary activities and several areas of their lives. When the pressure is on, they like taking the lead and making quick decisions. When they become intensely focused on winning or achieving a particular goal, they can sometimes come off as overly stern and critical.
ESTJs will often say what they mean and use very few words to say it.
High Openness is related to using more sophisticated, abstract language, whereas lower Openness (as seen in ESTJs) correlates with more straightforward, concrete words and phrases. Combined with this, most ESTJs tend to score lower on Agreeableness, which influences our use of polite, friendly language. The lower Agreeableness of many ESTJs may be behind their more direct and frank communication.
Understanding an individual’s unique strengths requires more than just knowing a personality type or Big Five personality traits. Even among ESTJs, every person has their own set of strengths that they use when they are at their best.
What are your true strengths?
Discover your personal strengths and lean into what you do best.
One easy way to learn about your own strengths is with the Strengths profile in TraitLab Plus.
