Perhaps you are INFJ, wondering if you would be compatible as friends with an ESTJ or vice versa. Since both of these archetypes are strong personalities and can have conflicting interests, it can be difficult to predict if they will get along. After all, who really knows?
INFJs are introverted, sensitive, and love to think abstractly. ESTJs are extraverted, ordered, and objective. Both are highly principled and love to influence others; however, they differ in their emotional responses. They can benefit from each other in developing sensitivity and practicality.
So, if you’re intrigued by the prospect of whether or not INFJs and ESTJs can be friends, then read right on!
The Myers-Briggs Traits Of The INFJ
According to the Myers-Briggs Test Indicator (MBTI), the INFJ is classified as Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Judging. They’re dubbed the Advocate or the Idealist, and for a good reason! Principled, creative, and compassionate, the INFJ is well-loved amongst other people for an introvert.
INFJs make inferences from both their and others’ emotions in combination with logically founded facts and data. INFJs are also prone to having great organizational skills that they regularly use to make sense of the world, along with their idealistic nature.
This personality is rather pronouncedly reserved and introverted, meaning that they require some time by themselves to recharge instead of being by other people like extroverts. However, they gain great joy and fulfillment from forming profound relationships with others.
Along with this love of forming intimate relationships, they are also highly sensitive to the emotions of others and are adept at expressing their own. This makes them quite good at sustaining relationships which they often use to influence others, albeit in a covert way positively.
Integrity, honesty, and loyalty are also very important values to the INFJ, so they are often very trustworthy as friends and as employees. Ethics is also an incredibly important concept to them, which they will defend at length, even if it seems unlikely for such a reserved personality.
INFJs also tend to feel a bit isolated and cut off from others at times because of their deeply reflective and introspective mindset. They can often be stuck in their own little worlds, dreaming away, while others try to reach them, so this personality is often seen as aloof and distant.
The Myers-Briggs Traits Of The ESTJ
ENFJs possess the traits of Extraversion, Sensing, Thinking, and Judging according to the MBTI. They are known as the Executive or the Supervisor, which accurately describes their perfectionistic, headstrong, and measured personalities that are often overtly present in the police and law career fields.
This personality is reliant on order, structure, and hierarchy as individuals. They love to organize aspects of their lives, often including people, and assign different tasks or information to them. This aligns with their preference to make inferences about situations from logical, objective thinking and facts.
ESTJJs love to follow guidelines, rules, and traditions, especially when it comes to working. This can make them seem rigid and uncompromising at times, making negotiations or conversing about issues quite difficult, much to the chagrin of other personalities.
Highly energetic and extroverted, the ESTJ loves to be surrounded by other people to feel their best and become energized. They love to receive attention, especially during parties or social gatherings, as well as to lead and direct others. They feel fulfilled by guiding others to produce a certain goal or product.
This personality hates to feel as if they are working for no predefined goal or reason. They thrive best when given the time and space to create a detailed schedule or plan on which they can base their movements toward a goal of theirs.
Regarding close relationships, the ESTJ is quite committed and faithful to others. They can occasionally become jealous if the friend spends a lot of time with others or becomes more successful than them. However, this won’t result in the ESTJ abandoning a relationship they still value.
The Compatibility Of INFJs and ESTJs: What You Need To Know
So now that we’ve caught up on the ins and outs of the INFJ and ESTJ personalities now, it’s time to examine their individual traits. Maybe you’ve been wondering if their traits would or wouldn’t get in the way of establishing or maintaining a friendship between the two.
Compatibility As Friends
Both the INFJ and ESTJ exhibit distinct personalities that many would think would impede their ability to create a friendship between the two; however, this is rather presumptuous. Sure, their introversion and extraversion make them opposites, but they both also value close, one-on-one relationships.
Both personalities also place great importance on values such as integrity, morality, and honesty and will defend this to no end. These personalities also love to lead or influence others into self-improvement, albeit in different ways; nonetheless, this makes them quite similar and compatible.
One bone of contention between the two might be the area of emotional expression and communication. The INFJ is highly sensitive with a strong emotional intelligence, whereas the ESTJ is rather blunt and objective and can, as a result, seem insensitive to the emotional needs of others.
The INFJ is a highly idealistic personality who tends to forget the practical aspects of life since they rarely like to be tied down. But, with the more grounded ESTJ, who is incredibly pragmatic, the traits of the INFJ can be neutralized to the level that it can actually benefit them.
On the other hand, the INFJ can also help the ESTJ when it comes to recognizing and considering the emotions of others. This is something that is frequently missed by the ESTJ, which can cause further issues for them. The INFJ can teach the ESTJ other perspectives and to validate their emotions.
The INFJ and ESTJ can conversely help each other to step outside of their personal, intellectual, and emotional comfort zones, but not without some compromise on behalf of one another and deliberation.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, the INFJ and ESTJ personalities are capable of fostering a friendship between each other, even if it seems unlikely. They can help one another to grow as individuals and to strive toward self-improvement. So, friendships between the two can be fruitful and quite long-lasting.
