Personality Type INFP - Stuart Wilson Creative Director/Strategist

INFP PERSONALITY "THE MEDIATOR" (According to Jung's and Briggs Myers' theories of personality type, INFP represents individual's preferences in four dimensions; Introvert, iNtuitive, Feeling and Perceiving.)

INFPs' Functional Stack

Dominant: Introverted Feeling (Fi)
Auxiliary: Extraverted Intuition (Ne)
Tertiary: Introverted Sensing (Si)
Inferior: Extraverted Thinking (Te)

INFP IN A NUTSHELL

INFPs are imaginative idealists, guided by their own core values and beliefs. INFPs are sensitive, caring, and compassionate, and are deeply concerned with the personal growth of themselves and others. They enjoy spending time exploring their own ideas and values, and are gently encouraging to others to do the same. INFPs are creative and often artistic; they enjoy finding new outlets for self-expression. INFPs are highly intuitive about people. They rely heavily on their intuitions to guide them, and use their discoveries to constantly search for value in life. A live-and-let-live attitude comes naturally to INFPs, and they dislike being constrained by rules. INFPs give the benefit of the doubt too, and so long as their principles and ideas are not being challenged, they'll support others' right to do what they think is right. They are on a continuous mission to find the truth and meaning underlying things. Every encounter and every piece of knowledge gained gets sifted through the INFP's value system, and is evaluated to see if it has any potential to help the INFP define or refine their own path in life.

Talented writers

INFPs work beautifully in more human and creative endeavors. INFPs are great at writing down their feelings. They may be awkard and uncomfortable with expressing themselves verbally, but have a wonderful ability to define and express what they're feeling on paper. Due to his or her keenly developed imagination, one such as this would likely make an excellent author. Having a gift for language and written expression helps take their rougher translations and inject them with a sense of beauty and poetry.

WHAT MAKES THE INFP TICK?

Open mindedness

INFPs are among the most open-minded (and open-hearted) of the personality types. They bring an experimental attitude to life as they explore a variety of ideas, lifestyles, and experiences. In each new experience, INFPs see an opportunity to not only learn about the world, but about themselves and their life's purpose. INFPs combine their intuitive nature with their open-mindedness to allow them to see things from unconventional perspectives. Being able to connect many far-flung dots into a single theme.

Accepting of others

INFPs are accepting and nonjudgmental in their treatment of others. They are flexible and accommodating, and can often see many points of view. It is important to the INFP to support other people. INFPs want an open, supportive exchange of ideas. Aside from being introverted and internal, "idealists" can get a pretty good sense about a person's true self (including motives) and are very thoughtful of their findings. INFPs make great listeners.

Feeling their way

Most individuals with this type of personality do not really care if their opinion is right, they simply care about how a situation or a person makes them feel. That is not to say that these individuals cannot be logical - they can, quite successfully, with self-training and abstract thought practices. INFPs often drift into deep thought, enjoying contemplating the hypothetical and the philosophical more than any other personality type.

Following their own path

INFPs value authenticity and want to be original and individual in what they do. They are often concerned with a search for meaning and truth within themselves. Following tradition holds little appeal for the INFP; they prefer to do their own exploration of values and ideas, and decide for themselves what seems right. INFPs are often offbeat and unconventional, but they feel no desire to conform. The INFP would rather be true to themselves than try to fit in with the crowd.

Principles and morals

Being a part of the Diplomat personality group, INFPs are guided by their principles, rather than by logic, excitement, or practicality. When deciding how to move forward, they will look to honor, morality and virtue - INFPs are led by the purity of their intent, not rewards and punishments. People who share the INFP personality type are proud of this quality, and rightly so, but not everyone understands the drive behind these feelings, and it can lead to isolation.

Communication style

INFPs have a talent for self-expression, communicating deeply with others, easily speaking in metaphors and parables, and understanding and creating symbols to share their beauty and their secrets through ideas. The strength of this intuitive communication style lends itself well to creative works. Understanding themselves and their place in the world is important to INFPs, and they explore these ideas by projecting themselves into their work.

INFP STRENGTHS

Idealistic

INFPs' colleagues and friends will come to admire them for their optimism. Their unshaken belief that all people are inherently good, perhaps simply misunderstood, lends itself to an incredibly resilient attitude in the face of hardship.

Passionate and energetic

While they may be perceived as calm, reserved, or even shy, INFPs have an inner flame and passion that can truly shine. INFPs seek a life of passion and intensity. They want to know what it means to be fully alive and how they might cultivate a rich and abundant life. They gravitate toward experiences that arouse or intensify feelings of passion, inspiration, or meaning. When something captures INFPs' imagination and speaks to their beliefs, they go all in, dedicating their time, energy, thoughts and emotions to the project.

Democratic yet determined

People with the INFP personality type have no interest in having power over others, and don't much care for domineering attitudes at all. They prefer a more democratic approach, and work hard to ensure that every voice and perspective is heard. INFPs have far-reaching vision to help them stay focussed and get through tough moments. Knowing what they are doing is meaningful gives them a sense of purpose and even courage when it comes to accomplishing something they believe in.

INFP WEAKNESSES

Too altruistic and codependent

INFPs take pride in the progress and growth they help to foster, although sometimes they push themselves to commit to a chosen cause or person, forgetting to take care of the needs of others in their lives, and especially themselves. When something captures INFPs' imagination, they can neglect practical matters like day-to-day maintenance and simple pleasures.

Value oriented perfectionists

The INFP may react strongly if they feel their own values are being violated. They especially hate being steamrolled by people who insist there is one right way to do things. INFPs tend to be perfectionists and often strive to reach personal ideals that can be exhausting or even impossible to obtain.

Avoids conflict

INFPs do not like conflict, and go to great lengths to avoid it. If they must face it, they will always approach it from the perspective of their feelings. Where INFPs will not thrive is in a high-stress environment that burdens them with bureaucracy and tedium. INFPs need to be able to work with creativity and consideration. In conflict situations, INFPs place little importance on who is right and who is wrong. They focus on the way that the conflict makes them feel. They don't want to feel badly. This trait sometimes makes them appear irrational and illogical in conflict situations.

Outsiders

INFPs' seeking impetus is informed and perpetuated by their critical observations of society and culture. They often see themselves as characteristically different from, or at odds with, their surrounding culture, sometimes feeling like outsiders or misfits. They can be wary of "conventional wisdom" and societal prescriptions, preferring instead to forge their own unique path.

FRIENDSHIPS

INFPs will focus their attention on just a few people, a single worthy cause - spread too thinly, they'll run out of energy. Friendships are earned on their own merit, by dint of the intuitive respect INFPs have for those with similar principles and values, rather than more practical alignments like those of coworkers. When INFPs' decide to open up and trust another person, a strong, stable friendship will ensue, marked by passionate support and idealism, subtle poetic wit, and a level of emotional insight that is hard to match. INFPs' friends will be rewarded with calm, sensitivity and depth, and an ever-present desire to help, learn, and grow. However, INFPs will always need to disappear for a while, removing themselves from others so they can re-center on their own minds and feelings.

CAREERS

INFPs feel most comfortable among colleagues - they aren't interested in controlling others, and have a similar distaste for being controlled. Among their colleagues, INFPs will feel freer to share their ideas, and they will make every effort to be pleasant, friendly and supportive - so long as their coworkers reciprocate. INFPs don't like conflict or picking sides, and will do everything they can to maintain harmony and cooperation. People with the INFP personality type aren't looking for easy, forgettable work that pays the bills, they're looking for meaningful work that they actually want to think about, and it helps for their managers to frame responsibilities in terms of emotional merit rather than cold rationalization or business for its own sake. Most any cause, idea, or field can benefit from the artful and natural expression that INFPs bring to the table. There will always be a need, and now more than ever, to win people's hearts and minds with the written word. INFPs value harmony in the workplace, they need an emotional and moral connection to their work, and loathe bureaucratic tedium.

INFP Managers

As managers, INFPs are among the least likely to seem like managers - their egalitarian attitudes lend respect to every subordinate, preferring communication as human beings than as a boss/employee opposition. People with the INFP personality type are flexible, open-minded and give their subordinates the tools they need, be they responsible delegation or an intuitive and receptive sounding board, to get the job done. Keeping their eyes on the horizon, INFPs set goals that achieve a desirable end, and help the people working under them to make that happen.

INFP PERSONALITY CONCLUSION

Few personality types are as poetic and kind-hearted as INFPs. Their altruism and vivid imagination allow INFPs to overcome many challenging obstacles, more often than not brightening the lives of those around them. INFPs' creativity is invaluable in many areas, including their own personal growth. Their greatest contribution is their ability to be present with another person at a deep level.