What MBTI type is your boss? How does this work in terms of your relationship and what are the good and bad things about it? If your company had an MBTI type what would it be? (Feel free to include previous bosses and companies in the question.)

What is prompting me to ask is that I have been in my current 'new' job for a year now and it is fairly apparent that I am working for management who are all SPs - two ESTP directors and an ISTP accountant/FD. And to my surprise I absolutely love it! I'm fairly positive that in all of my previous jobs I have always had some kind of xSTJ as an immediate line manager and some of them have been dysfunctional, 'bad' examples of the type; I'm sure I don't need to give examples

Compared with my past experiences, working for ESTPs is a breath of fresh air (it does help that they are all good, decent and professional people too). Gone is the constant suffocating micromanagement, back-covering and blame culture; the ESTPs are confident and trusting, leaving me to use my own initiative to come up with solutions. The atmosphere of trust and support makes for a virtuous circle of good morale.

The IxxP in me particularly appreciates being trusted to manage my own workload and left to get on with it. Another thing I like about ESTP bosses is that they think out loud, on their feet - so when suggesting a way to proceed, they will often give two or three options so I just sit back and wait for them to say my preferred choice and then agree with that one.

I've never had an NF or NT boss and would be intrigued to know how they operate.

My immediate supervisor was ISTJ and fabulous. She had excellently developed Fi, combined with Si groundedness and Te fairness. We got along brilliantly... I made her laugh and sent her octopus pictures (ISTJs often have amusing eccentricities), she always had my back. She's the only one I stay in contact with.

(Having said that, my uber enemy at work was an ISTJ who was utterly lost in his own fantasy world where everybody was against him and his team and nothing you said or did could convince him otherwise. He was managed by an ineffectual ESFJ who would agree that something needed to be done, then would do a 180 and tell her team they were doing just fine. So. Frustrating.)

My manager was xNTP and we had a fantastic working relationship. He was always encouraging and would bounce around zany ideas and puns at team meetings. I was pretty good with the puns as well, so he liked me a lot. The major frustration was the Ne... it would always come up with another idea just as I wanted to lock down a project. He also tended to promise paperwork which he wouldn't deliver (too many other things shooting through his mind). I admired his brilliance, but he really needed some sort of administrative assistant. He and my supervisor made a good team.

One of my project managers was ESTJ and while she was intimidating, I always delivered my work on time so she never had problems with me. She also had trust in my capabilities and decision-making abilities, so we got along well. I admired her as well for her tenacity and ability to make people shake in their boots with just a look.

Interestingly, the project manager I had the hardest time with was an ENFP... he spent so much time trying to make me feel comfortable, and kept trying to get me to do tasks by giving indirect orders... whereas I just wanted to be told what to do (preferably politely). I would have responded better to "please have these reports finished by Friday" than his motivational tactics. It was like we were talking entirely different languages sometimes. I'd want him to hurry up and get to the point, and he'd start dancing in ever-widening circles around the main point.

I also was project managed by the sweetest ISFJ. Poor fellow, he was completely wrong for the job... He was simply too soft and gentle, and people walked all over him. He spent a lot of time wrangling with why he couldn't get people to do their own tasks. He was an incredibly lovely and polite man.

But my favourite people tended to be the STPs in the workshop (though I've never been managed by one). Salt of the earth--WYSIWYG and we could sit back and chat about anything together. The sarcasm was off the charts sometimes, but you could tell they were really softies. We often had in-jokes that we could exchange just with a look. I miss my xSTPs.

If you saw the photo of my ex-boss, you might think he was an IxFP. He certainly had an IxFP aura but he sounded and acted like an ENTJ during our office meetings, so it's hard to tell. Maybe he was a well-developed ENTJ. Important thing for me was that he really valued my contribution to the company, and had a lot of confidence in my abilities. He told me that he postponed a flight abroad to make sure that I would join his team ASAP. Really nice boss and kept everyone in our team updated and well-motivated. He definitely had an "I'm sorry, but you must die" attitude toward under-performing subordinates. Fired six probies after their 3-month temp period. I knew he really couldn't stand the guts of an ISTP-ESTP duo who decided to do everything themselves without informing others or delegating responsibilities, so he really treated them with distrust and fired them both. Definitely an intuitive type because he just trusted his instincts about people and was a bit on the paranoid side, but his intuition frequently proved itself correct.

I think the company culture was ENFJ. It was an IT/Telecomms company that took on the role of David vs. Goliath in the industry, armed with a few gung-ho ENTP geniuses, but maintained a squeaky-clean corporate code of conduct. Top management was an ENFJ-ENFP-INFP triad. I especially liked the INFP lady VP - she upheld very high standards, but was very fair and down-to-earth. Our ENFJ CEO was typically charismatic, approachable, and inspirational - charmed his way into having my mom prepare a dinner for them at our house. *shakes head* But I wanted to strangle the ENFP director, though. So stereotypically the smug, swaggering, ENFP conquistador! Blech!

_________________

(Ah, I haven't been on these forums for a while and I've missed them! )

I wish I knew for sure what my manager/boss' type is. I gravitate between ISTJ and INTJ, but I'm not entirely certain. I remember one of the first things I noticed about him was "wow, this guy doesn't like confrontation at all." Yet, at the same time, he still manages to intimidate all of his subordinates. They're afraid to ask him for help or questions, but they don't realize that even though he's avoidant, he isn't malicious in the slightest. In fact, I've never heard him once express ill will towards anyone. They fear him, yet don't stop to think that when he notices you doing something wrong, he doesn't chastise you - he gently teaches you the right way, often actually imparting the information indirectly in such a way that he doesn't appear to be overly judgmental of your behavior. In fact, one might say that he is averse to saying anything overly negative or positive.

He rarely expresses emotion, but when he does it's genuine, and he's definitely a perfectionist. I still question his inability to confront people (once, there was a conflict, and he sent someone else to impart his message to the worker who had an issue, so that he wouldn't have to directly address the person - even though it's his job to resolve such conflict).

In regards to personal life, there's not much to say. Even those who have worked for him for years claim to know almost nothing about his personal life, and he never discusses it. Once, when a coworker found out and spread the word that it was his birthday, he was distinctly uncomfortable - even something as simple as that. Additionally, first, when they called to wish him happy birthday, thinking they were being considerate, he apparently responded with "oh yeah, it's my birthday..." At other times, though, it's like he can tell exactly what's going on in your head, and what needs to be said.

Once, let's just say I was upset - I dismissed the notion that there was a problem repeatedly, and then walked away thinking it was over. He found me where I had retreated, all the way across the building, and wouldn't desist until the issue had been resolved, and until I had fessed up - yet he never once demanded that I do so, he just somehow managed to get me to speak.

I remember initially I told myself, I can't respect this guy, he can't carry on a conversation, he's cold, impersonal, never shows up when we need help... but I've come to understand him a bit better. I've realized that he's constantly doing a crap ton of work to keep us running efficiently, but that he isn't showy about it at all, and that he neither needs, nor demands recognition for his work. He's simply sort of silently in the background cranking out work - while those around him still don't see just exactly how much he does on a daily basis (sort of like got stuck at my initial observation and felt no need for further analysis).

He has funny quirks, too, that come out every once in a while - for example, once I accidentally said "S***!!!" (not supposed to swear at the workplace), and he responded with, "Hell, it's OK, I'm just surprised to meet someone who curses like a sailor, like myself." And my eyes just widened, haha. If you had met this fellow, that would've been the last thing you'd expect to hear from him.

It makes work an interesting, but he's at least better than my old manager. *shudders* To her, people were merely tools to be manipulated.

My last boss was an Extrovert and probably also a Judger. He was good at public engagement and had a certain polish to his presentation. Upbeat and enthusiastic. My conversations with him revealed that his taste in books wasn't what you'd expect at first glance ("I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell" among others). I am not sure about his S/N and T/F category. He probably was also a Type 3 on the Enneagram.

_________________
"It is a melancholy fact that massive works of the intellect do not spring from the abstract workings of the brain and the imagination; they are deeply rooted in the personality." -Paul Johnson

INFP, 4w5 sx/sp