11 Personality Traits Every ESTJ Knows to Be True

The first time I took the Myers Briggs personality test to really explore what makes a Hedy, it told me I was an extrovert. As someone who considers myself to be shy and generally quiet, I thought there was no way it was possibly right and I had somehow messed up the test because I didn't read the questions thoroughly enough. I walked away from the test for a couple weeks to get it out of my head before trying again, and again I got an extrovert personality type. ESTJ, to be specific. I read more information on this type to see how far off base it was for me and was blown away by how scarily accurate it actually was. While yes, I can be shy in certain situations, I tried to answer the questions as how I view things in my most common situations, and that's when I realized I actually am quite extroverted these days. My mom claims it's my old age and that I take after her.

The letters of ESTJ stand for extrovert, sensing, thinking, and judging, but my results were borderline ENTJ as well, which is intuition rather than sensing. ESTJs are one of the more popular personality types, with about eight to 12 percent of the global population falling into that category. They are an outgoing bunch of people with strong opinions and little desire to deal with emotions. They value tradition and order, among other things. If you've answered all the Myers Briggs questions and found yourself to be an ESTJ, the following traits, from my personal experience and 16Personalities' expertise, should ring true for you.

  1. You always stand behind your opinions: ESTJs will defend their thoughts in any situation because they have a firm belief in them. They're dedicated to getting their point across, and even if someone disagrees, they'll stick to their guns.
  2. You speak your mind: An ESTJ doesn't really like to beat around the bush about things, so you're highly likely to tell someone the straight-up truth, though not necessarily in a harsh or blunt manner. You just value people being straightforward.
  3. Your friends and family consider you very reliable: You are probably loyal to a fault and can be counted on in all situations. Being held accountable is important to you, and you take your responsibility very seriously.
  4. You're very organized: For me, I'm organized though far from a minimalist. While ESTJs don't enjoy chaos, they also don't lean toward minimalism, but everything in their lives is in good order. This doesn't only apply to things, though. You like your life in general to have order and are excellent at keeping it that way.
  5. You might be a wee bit stubborn: When I read this to my mom, she laughed because she knows how stubborn I can be. Just like how we stand behind our opinions, we can be pretty stubborn about them because we're so unwilling to change our minds.
  1. You care a lot about what others think of you: I like to say that people's opinions of me don't matter, but it's wholly untrue. I place way too much value on what my Twitter followers think of me and spend a lot of time trying to get more of them to fall in love with me. I also claim I don't care what people around me think of what I do, say, or wear, but I most definitely do.
  2. You struggle with emotions: I have said numerous times that I'm allergic to emotions. ESTJs find it difficult to express emotions in most situations and often focus so much on facts that they can't see how facts actually affect people.
  3. You might be high-strung: ESTJs have a hard time relaxing. Some of that comes from valuing organization and respect, which means you sometimes struggle with being anything less than completely on your game.
  4. You take relationships very seriously: When it comes to romantic relationships, ESTJs are willing to put in the effort to ensure a strong, committed relationship. And while we aren't very spontaneous people, we do enjoy a good time, and that extends to our romantic relationships.
  5. You're a great leader: ESTJs are also known as "the executives" because all of your personality traits add up to someone who excels at being a leader. You're organized, reliable, and honest, which are common things needed in someone who is in charge.
  6. You have a busy social calendar: You probably like to be pretty active and have the busy life to show for it. Most likely, you have a solid core group of friends, but an ESTJ should be careful to mix it up a little when it comes to the people they're around. You may have a lot of social events, but it's probably mostly with the same people because you gravitate toward those who share your opinions. Natural, right? It is, but because ESTJs can be so strong-willed about what they believe, they tend to not welcome anyone they consider an "outsider," which is something to be aware of.