Personality Assessment - ESTJ
Katy Ward
Liberty University
BMAL 500: Organizational Behavior
Dr. Megan Saez
27 March 2022
WARD 1
Abstract
The objective of this assignment is to discuss my personality and temperament work in
order to understand myself better. Specifically, I talk about the details each letter behind the
ESTJ personality and how they correlate with my life. In Part Two I will describe how objective
behavior is affected by different personalities using the “Type Talk at Work” textbook. I also
apply the same textbook to what I have learned about myself and how it will make me a better
employee and leader.
WARD 2
Step 1
E-Extraverted
I have taken the Myers-Briggs test multiple times over the last ten years or so and have
seen several combinations but the one that has remained constant through them all has been that I
test as Extraverted. I am fueled by the energy that I feel around me, both in the atmosphere and
through the people I surround myself with. I enjoy talking to people and while I do not love
meeting new people, my close circle tends to keep me balanced and feeling full. However, as I
am aging, I find myself needing a little more time alone than in years past. I scored 38%
Extraverted which is not as high as it used to be, but I am still more often than not fueled by
external energies.
At work, I see this most often when I have had to work alone for a time and then
someone joins me. When this occurs, I can physically feel and see a change in my demeanor. I
become more energized and vibrant and am more productive when I have other people around.
S-Sensing
This category was the closest percentage, with a score of 28 percent more sensing than
intuition. I did not understand the difference in this category until I did some research and found
that Myers-Briggs describes sensing as “Paying attention to physical reality, what I see, hear,
touch, taste, and smell. I’m concerned with what is actual, present, current, and real” (Myers-
Briggs, para. 4, 2022). Once I discovered this definition, I understood how applicable that is to
the way I function. I have always had a hard time seeing the big picture because there is so much
unknown about it, but it is much easier for me to look at the small picture because it is what is
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present. I can see and hear what is actively happening. I am able to process one step at a time
rather than three steps ahead.
T-Thinking
I scored 34 percent more thinking than feeling and was surprised to find that it was not
higher. I am a very analytical and truthful human; I tend to lean into facts and past experiences
more than trying to understand situations from people’s perspectives. To-do lists, pros and cons
lists, and schedules are how I function best and when I do not have those or I am off kilter from
one of them, I tend to get easily stressed. When I analyze a situation, I like to write things down
so that I can visually see the issues that may arise, and I can tackle them one at a time. I very
rarely take other people’s feelings into account when I believe that I have settled on the right
decision.
However, I have grown to be more understanding of how others may perceive this
attitude and how it may come across poorly. About three years ago I was promoted into a
manager position and was given a list of tasks to achieve. We were going on a trip and needed to
pack the truck with everything we would need. My co-manager and I were the ones going on the
trip so we were doing the tasks that could have easily been delegated to our student worker team
while we did other things that they may not have been able to do. Instead, I decided that I wanted
to know where everything would be so I just packed the truck myself. My boss talked to me later
that week about how I was no longer a “task manager, but a people manager”. My team watched
me as I packed the truck and felt as if they were unimportant because they were not being
allowed to help because I wanted it down my way, in my time. But to me, that seemed like the
logical solution. Through my time in this job and going through a second promotion, I have
begun to better understand other’s views and realize now that there are many ways to achieve
WARD 4
tasks, not just my way. While I am still very much a Thinker, I think that my percentage is lower
than I would have guessed, because I have grown into my feeling side more as I have spent more
time managing a small team.
J-Judging
In the last personality preference, I scored 38 percent more Judging than Perceiving. To
the outside world, I seem to be task oriented and list driven, and as discussed previously, that is
an accurate description of me. However, there are times when I am “go with the flow” like, and
people do not take that side of me seriously because most of the time I am put together and well
planned. When the work is done and there is time to play, I love to hang out and have a good
time. I just want to be able to actually have a good time and if there is still work to be done then
it is hard for me to relax with others because I am constantly thinking about how I will get the
work done.
ESTJ – The Executive
My personality type (ESTJ) is labeled as the Executive. I enjoy finding the rights and
wrongs of things and understanding how to apply them to my life. Helping to guide people
through the black, white, and gray areas of work and life is something I am passionate about.
Leading comes naturally to me and I enjoy getting to see a team work together to make
something great. I am not afraid to get dirty with my team but am also learning when and how to
take a step back and let them figure it out for themselves. I analyze situations from a more of a
fact-based approach but try to be easy-going when making my way to a solution. The Keirsey
Temperaments labels the ESTJ as the “Guardian – Supervisor” which are typically responsible,
WARD 5
forceful, honorable, authoritative, structured, and experienced individuals (Keirsey, 2022). I find
this to be highly reflective of who I am and how I work.
WARD 6
Step 2
Throughout this assignment, the various personality tests have both confirmed some of
my thoughts on organizational behavior and opened my eyes to several new concepts. Through
these tests, I am better able to understand how my personality fits into each of the three levels of
organizational behavior through each of my roles at work (Kinicki, pg. 19, 2021). I am an
employee to my boss, I am a co-worker to the other assistant director in my department, and I am
a manager to my seven student workers. Key parts of my personality play a different part in each
of these roles and interact uniquely with people on each level. From goal setting to team building
to conflict resolution, my personality blends with every other person’s personality in different
ways. Type Talk at Work helps break down how each personality type works through each aspect
of work. “No matter where you work in a company, no matter what you do, you are part of a
team” (Kroger, 2002, pg. 176). It is important to not only understand yourself, but to understand
others on your teams as well. In order to understand others though, you must start by learning
more about yourself, your strengths and your weaknesses. Once you begin that process, you can
realize where you need to help your team improve, because the roadblock may have been you all
along. Personality tests help us to understand how we may be getting in the way of our teams’
progress, or the opposite; they can help us learn how we have been pushing our teams towards
success.
I thoroughly enjoy taking personality tests and learning more about myself and how to
work better with others. Although I believe I have a good idea of who I am as a person, I believe
that everyone can always be working towards self-improvement and through that process, they
can help others to do the same. This time around I confirmed that I am still fueled by my
environment, still analytical and work better with logic and facts, and like to play after the work
WARD 7
is done. However, I learned that I have a hard time seeing and understanding the big picture of
things. “Sensors prefer goals that are simple and attainable” (Kroger, 2002, pg. 70). I would
much rather break down the puzzle into one piece at a time and watch the picture unfold with
each piece put in the right place. “ESTJs see the world in terms of hands-on, practical, realistic
situations” (Kroger, 2002, pg. 369). As a manager, this can be difficult for my employees to
understand because they want to know what they are working towards, the big goal. I attempt to
hire those who can naturally see the big picture and can help me to elaborate on the plans. As a
coworker, I am blessed with a partner who is very big picture oriented. They keep me grounded
as I make progress through my small tasks because they can see the picture even before it is
complete and can guide me as to where the next piece needs to go. As an employee, I have had to
learn to shift my focus sometimes to look at the list of things to do and realize that sometimes I
can get to the end goal without hyper focusing on each individual task. My boss has taught me
over the years to take a step back and just admire the little things that make the big thing
beautiful.
Type Talk at Work helps me to realize how I can improve in my workplace by relating my
personality to those that I work with on a regular basis. After re-taking this test and learning
more about myself, I will be able to apply what I have learned about to my current and hopefully
future work environments. I hope to take more time to look at the big picture and take more time
for fun in the workplace. Understanding my weaknesses helps me to grow and become a better
employee, coworker, and manager. On the opposite end, better knowing my strengths helps me
to confirm that what I am doing may be more beneficial than I realize if I am able to put it into
practice efficiently.
WARD 8
References
Jung Typology Test (2015). Retrieved from http://www.humanmetrics.com/hr/JTypesResult.aspx.
Keirsey. Portrait of the Guardian Supervisor ESTJ. https://keirsey.com/temperament/guardian-
supervisor/
Kroeger, Otto, Thuesen, Janet M. & Rutledge, Hile (2002). Type Talk at Work. Dell Publishing
Martin, C. R. (2022). Sensing or Intuition. The Myers & Briggs Foundation - sensing or
intuition. Retrieved April 6, 2022, from https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-
type/mbti-basics/sensing-or-intuition.htm
Robbins, Stephen P. & Judge, Timothy A. (2009). Organizational Behavior. Liberty University.
Personality Page (2015). Information About Personality Types. Retrieved from
http://www.personalitypage.com/html/info.html.
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