ESFJ Personality: How to Change the World (with popularity and diplomacy!)

Welcome back! The ESFJ Myers-Briggs personality type is known for being gregarious, outgoing, encouraging, organized, practical, and strong leaders. Some famous ESFJ changemakers probably include Prince William, Desmond Tutu, Barbara Walters, and Andrew Carnegie. If you are an ESFJ or think you might be, we are going to explore some ways that you will change the world in this video. Welcome back! My name is Amber Melanie Smith and I am a non-profit executive director and public speaker on social impact, leadership, and service. I make weekly videos to help aspiring changemakers with tips and strategies to help you change the world while living a life of impact and purpose. So ESFJs are super cool. They are known for being both popular and grounded, kind of as everyone's go-to friend. If you are curious what kind of Myers-Briggs personality type you might be and you don't yet know, I've left a couple of links in the description below this video where you can take an assessment and figure it out and then come back and comment and share with the rest of us to let us know. If you like this video, don't forget to give it a thumbs up and please subscribe because I am making weekly videos on not just how the different personality types can make a difference in the world, but how we can all be a part of change making and creating a social impact and what that looks like. Before we talk about the many amazing ways that ESFJs can make an impact in the world, let's go through their personality traits. ESFJs, like their counterparts the ISFJs, are one of the larger Myers-Briggs personality types. They make up about 12% of the population. ESFJs are very friendly but perhaps less like their introvert counterparts. They are very social. They just love going to parties and staying heavily involved in their friends' lives. They are supportive, encouraging, energetic, and intense situations, love to create a sense of harmony, and bring people back together. They are practical, loyal, and have a strong sense of duty. A couple of weaknesses. So ESFJs can sometimes be overly needy, perhaps concerned with social status. They also might be a little bit inflexible. ESFJs really need to work in a more structured or organized environment, but one that is very social where they know clearly what their own role is and the role that others on the team play, and where everyone is being very appreciated for their unique roles and contributions. Okay, so let's talk about a couple ways that these gregarious ESFJs can change the world. Your ideal pathway to making a difference in the world is by taking decisive action to help individuals or groups of people. You are super action-oriented and you really don't want to wait around when you see a need or some injustice happening. You want to get to action right away to address it. That said, you are also really good at understanding the value of teamwork and letting others step up to use their own unique talents to make an impact in the situation also. You work really well in structured teams, especially where you can oversee others who are making a difference with you. So all that is to say that you would make a great leader or manager in most any positive change-making effort. You're really good at turning a desire and an intention to help into real tangible action, and this means that you would be able to direct others to make a difference really well. If you work for or aspire to work for a private company or some kind of for-profit business, you work really well in structured corporate environments, but you are extremely and highly focused on building community. So I can see you playing a role in positive change-making in a company by helping others feel welcome, orienting new employees to your positive work culture, and getting people to feel included. This can translate really well to promoting or even managing your company's corporate social responsibility efforts, perhaps through getting your team members to donate to support a philanthropy or charity, or even through volunteering. If you aspire to work with a non-profit or social enterprise organization to make your impact, then any kind of managerial or leadership role would suit you really well. You would make a really good fundraising event planner, executive director, a trainer of other groups of people, or some kind of volunteer manager. But there's a catch. As an ESFJ, you really need to work with a cause that you feel a personal connection and attachment to. Alternatively, you're probably drawn to causes that help people meet some of their basic needs that are very tangible, like providing food to those who are hungry, or clothing, or job training. In volunteer roles, you have a lot of options. Again, you'd be a great leader of other volunteers, so some kind of volunteer project leader where you are leading groups of people to make an impact for causes especially that meet the basic needs of other people, like building homes or packaging food or clothing. Family is also really important to you, so if you happen to be a parent, you'd probably really enjoy bringing the kids along to volunteer with you. You can use your gregarious nature and your detail-oriented tendencies to be an awesome fundraising or large-scale event planner as well. Again, you would really enjoy doing this for a cause that you have personal experience with, or even know someone else who's been affected by that too. As a volunteer, teaching or coaching groups of people where you can impart your wisdom and your knowledge on others on ways to improve their lives could be a really fulfilling role for you. Things like teaching individuals or families about financial literacy, or perhaps working with a community garden to teach others on how to cook healthy meals, or even how to build homes and being a leader of a home building project. As I mentioned before, family is an important theme for you, so you really have a soft spot for causes that help kids or seniors or other families in need. Helping people or entire families get their lives together after difficult family situations could be a really rewarding role for you. You might also enjoy helping families transitioning out of homelessness or even being a tutor or a mentor to a youth in need. That's it! If you are an ESFJ or no one, please let us know in the comments. Let us know if we've hit the mark, what other things you are doing to make a positive impact in the community. And also don't forget, if you're on Facebook, come check out my group Change the World or Bust. We have conversations with each other as change makers on how we can all work together to make an impact in our community. Once again, don't forget to subscribe for my weekly videos on social impact and helping out the world. And I hope to see you next time. Thank you.