ESFJ

Share this profile

Share this profile with friends and colleagues on Pinterest, Twitter, Google+ or Facebook. Find out what character type they are and learn about each other.

For a free team profile visit the Team Map section. Plot out the character types of your group and better understand your team dynamics.

• Tweet
• 

Characteristics of an ESFJ

(E) Extraverted - (S) Sensing - (F) Feeling - (J) Judging

The ESFJ character shares the same action-orientation of the ESTJ but with a people-based focus. The drive, energies and pragmatism that the ESTJ channels into tasks, the ESFJ will channel into people. Driven by a sense of duty they are the cooperative, helpful, sympathetic and personable pragmatists, disliking anything ethereal or woolly as they prefer practical solutions to people issues and they'll work hard at making this happen. Unlike the ESFP the ESFJ will want a plan and closure, they do not like loose ends or anything they perceive as sloppy or messy.

As with most 'S's, they prefer the concrete, they inhabit the here and now and their desire will be to provide immediate answers and solutions - don’t think too deeply just ‘do.’ Asking an ESFJ to sit and think things through or reflect before ‘doing’ is not easy as their natural propensity is for action; thinking is seen as a passive and useless activity.

The ESFJ makes a priority task of ensuring people are taken care of, and will work long and hard at making sure harmony is maintained. Whilst the ESFJ wants everyone to feel valued, they will also want to feel part of the group themselves - they need to feel included. If someone is hurting, the ESFJ will be the first to respond.

Due to their caring nature and desire for harmony, the ESFJ may find it difficult to take the hard decisions. The ESFJ will be good at follow-through, being conscientious and making sure the routine is taken care of, but may struggle with anything which appears complex, or which is perceived as not clearly getting the intended result or which causes conflict or disharmony.

Read more about ESFJ characteristics »

Famous ESFJs

Colin Powell

Officer and politician

Sarah Palin

Politician

Desmond Tutu

Archbishop

Sarah Jessica Parker

Actor

View more famous ESFJs »

ESFJ Relationships

• People-centric
• Keen to take charge
• A doer
• Caring
• Sensitive
• Easily hurt
• Eager to please
• Action oriented
• Serious
• Supportive
• Expressive
• Practical
• Remembers facts
• Organises
• Chatty

ESFJs value family links, friendships and tend to be slightly sentimental in their approach. They will want to appreciate and involve others. Under pressure an ESFJ may become like the 'controlling parent,' smothering others in their attempt to provide support and believing that their way is best, becoming sensitive to any perceived criticism. The ESFJ will need to ‘talk it out,’ vocalize what they are doing and this extraversion, combined with ‘S’ means they will go into minute detail rather than chunk up the message. If you ask an ESFJ how they are feeling they will be grateful, (as they are usually the one checking up on others), and then may go into what will appear a lot of unnecessary detail in explaining how they are. This is because the ESFJ will have to go through all the facts and in the order in which they happened. Leaving out a fact is like an omission, and the ESFJ does not like omissions.

Read more about ESFJ relationships »

ESFJ Careers

• Harmonious
• Action oriented
• Able to get on and do
• Serious
• Duty bound
• Get hands around the role
• Supporting
• Ordered and structured
• Clarity of role
• Needs direction
• Team-based
• Caring for people
• Service oriented
• Predictable
• Stable, not agents of change

The ESFJ prefers a familiar routine and established practice and does not like being thrown into unfamiliar situations and any change will be treated with caution and suspicion. This is because the value system of the ESFJ has been built over time and anything that seems to threaten this will be feared. They prefer the known, the tried and tested and, when faced with change, will need time to assimilate and translate this in their heads, into the ‘new norm.’ The tried and tested holds no fear for the ESFJ so during times of major upheavals they will feel uncomfortable as they have an underlying fear of failure, and then need to fully understand the implications and, most importantly, the practicalities and what it means for them. Once they are clear they will integrate the changes into existing work patterns and be fine.

Read more about ESFJ careers »

ESFJ at Work

• Needs harmony
• Nurturing, the glue
• Practical
• Caring
• Needs clear rules (or will create them)
• Needs structure (or will create it)
• Conscientious, caring, serious
• Detailed and precise
• Works through the list
• Difficulty in letting go
• Duty bound
• Predictability and stability
• Can be dogmatic
• Prefers the known
• The organiser

In a team situation, the ESFJ will be the harmonious team builder, good at maintaining group morale, accentuating the positive and encouraging contributions from all team members making the team more open and participative. Great at precision and built for attrition, the ESFJ will blast through mountains of work making sure that it is completed on time, as agreed and with the highest levels of accuracy; the ESFJ rarely gets it wrong.

Read more about ESFJs at work »

Team Map

Find our what your colleagues at work are really like.

Create a Team Map »