How often do you hear about this smart accountant or that bright engineer? Being smart is a description we tend to apply to anyone who shows great skill and excels in a particular job or function. ESTJs are neurotypes that seem to do well in whatever task they tackle. Yet human intelligence is subjective, meaning it sometimes applies to a narrow field of competency.
ESTJs are leaders, highly rational and practical people who approach life in a very organized and efficient way. This levelheaded pragmatism is a sign of high cognitive intelligence which often translates into success in almost any endeavor they undertake and is seen by others as being very smart.
ESTJs are high-functioning individuals driven by a strong desire to lead from the front. Therefore, you will often find them in senior management positions organizing and promoting growth through their dogged determination to succeed. But how does this relate to intelligence, and are ESTJs really smarter than the average person?
The ESTJ Personality Profile
According to the Myers-Briggs (MBTI) personality assessment, ESTJs are extraverted, sensing, thinking, and judging. They seek out the company of others, prefer structured order to chaos, and make use of careful planning instead of throwing themselves headfirst at a task.
Due to their gregarious extraversion, ESTJs are not typically shy or reserved around other people and will quickly take charge, assuming a leadership role in any social situation, whether at work or outside of it. This makes them natural leaders rather than followers and will behave like instant “project managers” in cases where a challenge presents itself.
You will often find ESTJs involved in societies, clubs, churches, or associations. And their assertive nature ensures that they quickly rise to top positions within these organizations. They adhere easily to tried and tested norms and traditions. They will usually not reinvent the wheel but will strive for better and more effective methods and approaches to existing issues. They are consummate micro managers.
What Does Being Smart Mean?
In the case of both nature and nurture, Harvard University professor Howard Gardner and educator and neuropsychologist suggest that children develop their intelligence based on their individual needs, motivated largely by their environments and personal talents.
These multiple forms of intelligence can be roughly classified into eight distinct groupings; they are unique and fairly independent of each other. And just as there are several forms of intelligence, there are as many ways as possible to measure them.
Someone good at math might be terrible at languages and vice versa. Being book smart usually means that one has a wealth of academic knowledge and can absorb a plethora of facts from educational sources.
Non-verbal intelligence is a form of mathematical or logical ability to solve problems. Musical intelligence is not an attribute that would be commonly applied to someone who’s tone-deaf. A polyglot who speaks several languages might be endowed with linguistic intelligence. Someone with extraordinary mechanical or architectural skills will usually rank highly in spatial intelligence.
It is important to note that intelligence and personality are two psychological traits or constructs that are fairly independent of each other but are considered determinants in the differences between people’s behaviors, developments as well as their individual life outcomes.
Are ESTJs Smart?
ESTJs might be classified as people who score very highly in both intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence. In other words, they are well aware of their strengths and weaknesses and can go after what they want without fear or apprehension.
They also tend to understand others well, recognize other people’s individual skills, and use them to organize and focus every team member’s activity based on this knowledge. This goal-driven efficiency can best be described as a form of practical intelligence.
Being realistic and efficient, ESTJs can sometimes seem somewhat impatient when tasked with certain goals for which they need the cooperation of other team members. This can present itself as aggressive behavior, particularly towards those they perceive as lazy or incompetent, and even someone who seems confused and cannot keep up.
ESTJs make for competent managers, good at getting people organized to get the job done, which is certainly a form of internal intelligence. ESTJs are indeed smart workers and very focused.
Are ESTJs Thinkers?
While some might argue that ESTJs are not quintessential dreamers or visionaries, they most certainly are capable of strategic thinking. This extraverted thinking may focus more on logic and facts required for rational judgments rather than their own subjective or individual feelings.
You might not necessarily find an ESTJ coming up with a great entrepreneurial innovation or forming the next money-spinning tech or financial startup, but you will find one in the driving seat as General Manager or COO, driving a company or organization to the next level by taking care of the decisions needed to get the job done, and focusing on procedures and policies.
ESTJs are great planners and organizers, focusing more on details and facts than concepts and ideas. They are thinkers but prefer rigid structures rather than spontaneity and uncertainty. Therefore, they have a fairly low-risk appetite in the workplace and in their personal lives. They are sometimes referred to as “supervisors.”
How ESTJs Think
On the whole, ISTJs are seen as fairly intelligent people. This “focused” intelligence enables them to see the big picture and the steps required to achieve the desired results. They constantly probe those around them for individual strengths and shortcomings and will use this information to organize activities based on the information they have about people.
Thanks largely to their pragmatic intelligence, ISTJs are very good at developing techniques for maximizing the potential of others. You won’t often find them wasting time and effort on approaches that are duplicitous or wasteful. Efficiencies for them are crucial elements.
Conclusion
ESTJs make up around 9% of the general population. They are smart, savvy organizers who instinctively know how to arrange activities around people and achieve desired outcomes. They are smart, task-orientated, and not scared to get their hands dirty to get the job done. They lead from the front.
Some well-known personalities that can be classified as ISTJs include Judge Judy Sheindlin, Mike Wallace, Colin Powell, George Washington, and Vince Lombardi.
