By Jesse Gerroir and Ryan Smith
Extroverted Feeling in ENFJs
Extroverted feeling is the ENFJ’s dominant function and, as such, their primary cognitive approach to life. Extroverted feeling is feeling directed outwards, onto the outer environment, and primarily orients itself by attuning itself to people and their needs. Expressive ENFJs often evince an engaging warmth that makes them come across as approachable and congenial. They genuinely like learning about people and make an art form of listening actively. Even if they are not intensely interested in what another person is talking about at a given moment, they will often see listening to them as a way to build rapport and explore the other party’s needs and values as a person.
As extroverted feeling dominants, most ENFJs excel at sensing the emotional mood or temperature of a room. They generally have a gracious social style, and their natural instinct is to want to make sure everyone is doing well and feels that their presence is being acknowledged. In group settings, they will often engage with everyone in turn, acknowledge everyone’s presence and contribution to the situation, and learn how everyone is doing and feeling in a given social environment.
While extroverted feeling, in itself, will simply attune the ENFJ to the moods and needs of those around them, it follows that from there, it is only a small step to seek to harmonize the moods of the people present, to soothe and smooth the social atmosphere into one of agreeableness and amicability.
In other words, most ENFJs will set as an aim in their social style that everyone should be in an affable mood and that everyone should regard their time spent socializing as worthwhile and significant. Likewise, if someone is feeling down, ENFJs can often be seen reaching out to them with relief, lifting disheartened spirits, identifying the implied emotions of the dismayed, and validating what they are feeling so that the other person knows that though they are struggling, they are not alone. That their feelings are justified, valuable, and indicative of a real issue.
As a function, extroverted feeling operates by collecting the emotional responses of others regarding the matter at hand and as a rational or judging function, then identifying the course or solution that best agrees with the expressed values or responses that extroverted feeling has picked up on. Though a so-called feeling function, extroverted feeling thus operates in a rational or methodical manner, gathering information to find the solution to a problem. In this manner, ENFJs can be understood as engineers dealing with the problem of emotional coordination and as scientists of the human equation.
Both extroverted feeling types (ENFJs and ESFJs) could be said to share many of these characteristics. But when extroverted feeling is coupled with secondary intuition, as it is in the ENFJ, the locus of the problem of human coordination is often broadened from the tangible to the abstract, moving from a given social setting or group of persons and toward the societal or academic level, asking itself, “What does this mean in an overall sense? What does this say about us as a society? What is the historical significance of this?”
Since the natural stepping stones or pivot points of extroverted feeling are often to take stock of sentiments and values expressed in the outer environment, many ENFJs can also be seen going about the realization of their plans and goals in an almost democratic fashion. Even if the ENFJ has a vision or goal that others are not immediately on board with, the ENFJ will start collecting impressions and opinions from others and then form a mental map of how their vision could be attained. For example, by aligning their vision with the values of others or by figuring out how others could be motivated to support their vision by stressing the aspects of it that connect to the values and wants that other people already subscribe to or want to see come true.
In this way, a great potential exists for ENFJs to be greatly influenced by their social environment and for them to greatly influence it in turn. Frequently, they will be the advocates and catalysts of grand solutions and visions that bring people together and motivate them toward attaining a version of the future that rouses and animates; one that places our aspirations on a new and higher footing.
Introverted Intuition in ENFJs
Both introverted and extroverted intuition deals with the recognition and perception of patterns. Likewise, intuition deals with the expansion of perspectives; the collections of patterns and observations that steer or guide people through life and determine a person’s conceptual frame of mind.
Introverted intuition in ENFJs allows them to listen to another person's perspective without the need to judge it is good or bad, valid or invalid, true or false. The perception and exploration of the perspective itself are all that introverted intuition by itself is concerned with. Coupled with their extroverted feeling function, which places a premium on connecting with the other person and understanding where they are coming from, this tends to make ENFJs excellent listeners who come across as non-judgmental and attentive on the one hand, yet validating and active in the conversation on the other.
Introverted intuition also grants ENFJs a sense of vision, taking them from the cognizance of an individual or immediate group and its welfare to the societal, historical, or archetypical perspective. Thus, the development of movements, visions, and ideas on a grand scale as they unfold through civilizations will typically be a focus point of the ENFJ.
Unlike the extroverted intuitive types (ENTPs and ENFPs), ENFJs typically do not excel at the spontaneous, rapid-fire generation of a multitude of new perspectives and ideas. Rather than spontaneously coming up with a flurry of loose ideas, they work more methodically and purposefully until a coherent and impelling vision is formed in their minds. Since their ideas are more cohesive and the result of a longer process of deliberation, their visions, once presented to others, typically also avoid taking on the more bizarre or uncommitted flavor sometimes seen with ENTPs and ENFPs. In fact, ENFJs are more likely to nurture and develop their ideas to the point where others are likely to feel that it would be crazy not to get on board with them; that it is self-evidently true that the course the ENFJ has suggested is what needs to be done.
Introverted intuition can also grant the ENFJ instinctive holistic insights into how people develop, grow, and change. They are frequently able to sense where the frustration and pain points lie for someone else, where that person is struggling, how that person came to arrive at their present state and circumstances in life, where they would need to go from here, and the manner in which they could be guided.
To this end, ENFJs often excel in roles where they are able to teach, help, or mentor others. Such guidance may be purely vocational at times, but it is when ENFJs can mentor others with regard to insights that pertain to the learner’s own psychology or personal development that ENFJs are truly excellent facilitators of positive change around them. With introverted intuition, they astutely pick up on the missing piece of the puzzle; the insight needed for the other person to have an “aha” moment where they are struck by inspiration or discover some insight about themselves that leaves them emboldened and enthusiastic. And with healthy extroverted feeling, ENFJs gain an understanding of how to put such matters delicately without seeming arrogant or as if the process is forced.
This combination makes ENFJs subtly different from ESFJs. The two types share dominant extroverted feeling, but where the ENFJ has auxiliary introverted intuition, the ESFJ has auxiliary introverted sensation. As introverted sensation entails a cognitive focus on the classification of the impressions concrete and empirical reality gives off in the psyche, it is essentially a register of memories, details, and facts related to the experience of tangible reality.
On this basis, ESFJs are more likely to analyze another person's mental or emotional states to see how they could be categorized according to the classification of occurrences in tangible reality. Whereas ENFJs, on the other hand, will typically approach the analysis more interpretatively. That is, ENFJs will generally be more inclined to form a grand (if speculative and interpretative) image of how the other person functions, a more psychologically-oriented interpretation of how the other person works, as opposed to a more factual or empirical one.
Extroverted Sensation in ENFJs
As introverted intuition tends to get pulled toward one potential mental image of something, circling it like a bird of prey and repeating its analysis of that one thing over and over again from different perspectives, many ENFJs are inclined to see the intellectual or psychological matters they are pondering as endlessly complex. Every insight reveals another perspective that, in turn, holds the potential for yet another insight. The more each insight is examined, the more undiscovered insights are revealed to potentially exist.
In this manner, introverted intuition is inherently contemplative and introspective and, as such, can cause ENFJs to ruminate at times. If the conceptual problems they are engaging with (such as other people’s psychological composition) are endlessly complex, it is only a matter of time before self-doubting questions such as “How can I be sure that I am not missing anything?” start to emerge.
It is here that the ENFJ’s tertiary function, extroverted sensation, comes in. As the opposite of introverted intuition, extroverted sensation counterbalances the overly-ruminative elements of introverted intuition and provides the ENFJs with a sense of their physical self in the world and their tangible and somatic separation from the mental themes they would otherwise be overly engaged with.
Extroverted sensation gives them an instinctive sense of being a physical, organic being in a specific body, going through life like everyone else, and moment by moment. To see that the emotions and needs of others, which at times weigh heavily on the ENFJ’s sense of responsibility, exist in separate bodies and separate beings from the ENFJ, be they physical, emotional, or mental. That sometimes another person’s emotional state or need must be dealt with or analyzed by that person themselves and that it is ok for the ENFJ to leave it alone.
Another way extroverted sensation plays a part in the ENFJ’s cognition is that it gives many ENFJs an appreciation for physical activities as well as for the established facts of reality. This cognizance can help set more conceptually inclined ENFJs apart from INFJs, as INFJs suppress their sensation into the unconscious. As a consequence, the intellectual or conceptual output of INFJs tends to be more purely noetic, as with the Platonic theory of the forms. By contrast, the output of ENFJs may closely resemble that but will often be found to have certain factual fix points, so that their outlooks or theories are more of an amalgamation between the noetic and the empirical. The divergence between Plato and Pythagoras might serve as an illustrative context here.
Introverted Thinking in ENFJs
Introverted thinking is the ENFJ’s inferior function. As with all inferior functions, it is largely unconscious and presents a challenge (but also a path of mastery and development) for the ENFJ.
Introverted thinking operates by way of inner categories, hierarchies, and principles analyzing occurrences or ideas as pure doctrines in themselves, fitting each idea into mental schemata to gauge its relative relevance and evaluate the occurrence on its own terms. As such, introverted thinking is the opposite of extroverted feeling, which inherently evaluates ideas in relation to the expressed values and needs of the people, societies, or groups that surround the ENFJ.
Where extroverted feeling is frequently harmony-seeking and oriented toward interpersonal alignment, introverted thinking seeks to take a step back and judge mental phenomena in a vacuum and without regard to the social stigma or acceptance that currently surrounds the idea. Furthermore, extroverted thinking is inherently synthesizing, weaving a multitude of complex sentiments and priorities into a coherent whole, whereas, on the other hand, introverted thinking is reductionist, seeking to analyze a thing or idea in isolation and reducing it to the fundamental properties or principles that comprise it.
ENFJs are often challenged the most by their introverted thinking when a matter needs to be pondered that they know is likely to cause emotional harm or be met with a strong disapproving reaction. In any day and age, there are arguments and perspectives that it would not be good form to bring up and which it might, in fact, be counterproductive to speak aloud in public. For example, in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, certain atheist writers were in the habit of attacking religion in an extremely reductionist fashion. These atheists may have been right in a scientific sense, but the way they were bundling their scientific observations with merciless attempts to dismantle the religious outlook, which is so dear to many people, made it difficult to engage with them in a dispassionate manner, going over each argument and asking simply, “Is this observation correct?”
It is often these questions, which should be considered on principle but which carry the potential for social harm, that many ENFJs will put off taking in or recognizing on account of their inferior introverted thinking. Since the inferior function is, as a rule, very difficult to engage with, most ENFJs will, when faced with such a predicament, shy away from the principles-based and reductionist mode of contemplation that introverted thinking operates by and deflect the matter back to their two topmost functions. Instead of following the cool-headed and reductive steps of thinking, they will contemplate and analyze the matter more in the manner determined by their feeling and intuition, attempting to balance the dominant social mores with brilliant and innovative ways of looking at the whole predicament in an attempt to explain away the painful impasse.
Indeed, as with all the types and their inferior functions, the thoughts and conclusions of introverted thinking can be incredibly uncomfortable to the ENFJ. The gap between what is unconsciously known to be true and the social harm or malaise that they sense will be caused if such conclusions are allowed to stand on their own and not made into a part of a greater, inspiring whole, is often a great source of stress for the ENFJ.
ENFJs in the grip of unintegrated or unhealthy introverted thinking may even succumb to some crude version of introverted thinking to ward off the conclusions that would otherwise have been fostered by a more healthy approach to that selfsame function. For example, if an inopportune conclusion is resisted by the ENFJ, the ENFJ may examine the concrete way the observation or experiment was conducted to find minor methodical flaws in the setup and then dismiss the entire possibility of the issue under scrutiny being true on account of minor technical inaccuracies found in the experiment.
If introverted thinking is not allowed its due in the psyche of an ENFJ, the stress it produces can cause some ENFJs to become manipulative and controlling. In this state, they may sometimes use their genuine gifts for counseling and guiding people to guide others down paths that are really an expression of the ENFJ’s own desires, framing positive growth as the avenues that suit the ENFJ’s needs rather than those of the other person.
ENFJs in the grip of unhealthy introverted thinking also risk becoming closed-minded in a sense where they will sometimes see issues and questions in an overly black-and-white manner where primitive introverted thinking is used unconsciously to develop a rudimentary hierarchy of what is good or bad, beneficial or harmful, and where the organizing principles for such judgments are really an elongation of the ENFJ’s own values or wants.
On the other hand, when introverted thinking is more healthily integrated into the psyche, introverted thinking helps ENFJs truly examine a situation in depth; to see all the variables at work and not be afraid of the logical conclusions that might be drawn from them. Instead of continuously seeking to reframe matters that are inopportune but true, a healthy respect for introverted thinking helps the ENFJ align their gifts of inspiration and conceptual perspectives with dispassionate principles that also need to be factored in.
Although it may seem strange, incorporating the otherwise inopportune reservations of introverted thinking might also help the ENFJs gain a better understanding of themselves. For in abstracting away from the nagging objections of introverted thinking, ENFJs are, in fact, cheating themselves at times.
As with all of the types, it is when we do not steer clear of the difficulties and conflicts that arise in relation to our cognition that we learn the most about ourselves. If ENFJs continually avoid conflict, they are really just avoiding their own potential for growth. Likewise, some are trapping themselves, locking themselves into a need to continually harmonize instead of sometimes being the bearer of principle or otherwise unwelcome news. A better relationship to introverted thinking can help ENFJs discover more of their authentic selves in this regard and not feel bad about occasionally causing conflict in the name of growth and the greater good.
Such acceptance of conflict can also, paradoxically, allow ENFJs to act in a much more supportive manner, where they truly respect the autonomy of someone even though it may involve accepting uncomfortable truths about the other person. And in doing so, are able to help that person in a way that is much more in tune with that person’s individual nature as opposed to a commonplace or more generalized vision of what they should do.
ENFJs who embrace their thinking are thus able to look upon people without bias and are often able to operate as truly stellar catalysts for individual change and growth. They can help expose the person to different ideas, thoughts, emotions, and transformative experiences by seeking to go beyond the usual ministrations that others might offer, operating off of a deep understanding that everyone must transform in a way that is unique to them. It is in this manner that ENFJs are truly able to act as great mentors and guides of grand-scale transformations—both in a societal, visionary sense and on the level of the individual.