How to Deal with Work Stress and Job Change by Personality Type

Talked to someone this week who was really disturbed and angry about changes in the large organization this person works for. The 70 year old organization is finding it needs to change with the times; in some ways very drastic.

The bigger the organization, the bigger the impact and the harder it is to make change within the organization. Certain types of personalities become more stressed by change than others and are less able to cope. Those who find changes stressful do so for different reasons, depending on their personality.

Check out "In the Grip" by Naomi Quenk. She describes these differences in behavior and reactions in the context of when a person is in the grip of stress.

The book "In the Grip Understanding Type, Stress, and the Inferior Function" by Naomi L. Quenk explains the part of our personalities that bubble up during times of stress, fatigue, and illness. She examines what triggers it for each of the 16 MBTI personality types and how these different types expressed it.


I have found that an understanding of personality types and the normal behavior for a given type helps me recognize a person is overly stressed. There can actually be 8 different patterns of anxiety symptoms to chose from, base on personality type.

A stressed person doesn't act his or her "normal" self. We can actually be so stressed to the point that we act the opposite of our norm and we don't feel "ourselves". This can be what is often referred to in exasperation as a feeling that we or someone else has gone "crazy".

This video one tip, Stress Tip #1 for anyone's stress management.

Here is a book, at the right, that my organization is reading. I have found it a provides a way to begin to see how I can positively engage in inevitable change always happening in organizations.

I've heard some say it is one of the most important business books published during the last several years. When read and digested carefully there is additional information and assistance to obtain at a specific online site. 


Here are a few books that deal with the stress of change in our lives.

Focus on What Are Your Natural Interests and Talents

 Natural interests begin early in life.

Natural interests are a part of a person's own "bent," as some would say. These interests begin early in life and are at the root of our intrinsic abilities and competencies. When we perform a task on the job, it is these natural abilities and talents that are the ones we tend to focus on using and are the ones we are most motivated to use.

What abilities do you feel most comfortable using when you carry out a task? It is those that we find the most satisfying to use.                                                               

Jobs or a career that use 60% of our natural abilities prevent boredom and emotional drain and burn-out.

For example, an idea and possibilities type person can really tire quickly if day in and day out all he or she does is make change as a cashier ... over and over.

	ABILITIES
Competent	NATURAL ABILITIES	Energizers
	Abilities that are a natural expression of who we are
Not competent	LEARNED SKILLS	Energy Drainers
	Skills our job requires us to learn in order to perform a task

Learned skills do not come so naturally.

Alice made her job a better fit

Alice’s current employment in the field of social work has involved some of her natural investigative and social interests, in particular when she finds resources to help the needy. However, she finds the unpredictability of people’s needs together with the regularly changing procedures of the job to be quite a stressful combination. In such a situation the organized environment of her job becomes jeopardized with too much uncertainty.

She loves to investigate and had loved so much the predictable research assistant work she had done for a professor in college. Such work allowed for more uninterrupted time so that she could better employ her interest in creative exploration that could help some 'cause.'

When Alice realized how much research energized her, she asked her boss whether it would be a help to document resources and arrange them by topic. She suggested that these pages could then become a helpful reference for the other social workers in their section.

She was pleasantly surprised to find that her boss appreciated the initiative Alice showed and so she was allowed some time each day to do this research and see what she would come up with. In time, Alice produced some helpful tools that helped coworkers save time—the time it would have taken for them to find the resources. Alice also found that this added research time, where she could focus on using her investigative interests, left her energy less depleted at the end of the day, and all the more motivated for the next.

Do you want to discover or understand better your own natural interests? There are a number of online information sources and quizzes, to help you get started on discovering more clearly what are your particular natural interests. The one I use is for professionals found at cpp.com. Start here, though, if you do not have a professional to help you. 

NF Personality Types Help Empower Others - a Profile

The iNtuitive-Feeling, or NFs, of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator^® (MBTI) make up approximately 12 percent of the population. The NF type is one of four primary ways people differ from one another when defined by attitudes and actions. The life view of an NF temperament type (like me, for example) is that everyone has potential, and we desire each person's full potential be realized—including our own.

By our i(N)tuition we have our own take on people relationships, theories and future possibilities. We also like to have a plan ahead of time, while not in detail; putting that off until later.

(F)eeling means we are always looking to base our decisions on person-centered values and concerns because we want to create and keep the harmony. Some may think we have a good "gut sense" about people.

The four personality types with this temperament are ENFJ, ENFP, INFP and INFJ.

These types who love to empower others are also

• introspective,
• intuitive,
• highly idealistic,
• subjective,
• imaginative,
• creatively inclined, and
• passionate about their choice causes.

Nurture own personal development

What is often said about the NF empowering-others type is that they have the goal of becoming. Or, they are on a "never-ending" search for themselves. This tendency may be more intense for the Introverted-NF, who tends to be more introspective than the Extraverted-NF.

However, as the NF type wanders through life and time seeking spiritual, psychological and physical "enhancement," this can be taken by others that the NF type is never truly happy. This emotional "search" can make them seem less reliable than, say, the ISTJ personality type. This search, though is simply an adventure they naturally like to embark on every once in a while to make sure they've not missed some personal improvements—within reason—they'd not thought of 

before.

As an NF type, myself, I see it more in terms of a continual desire to realize my potential as a person, more and more fully. We NF types tend to work hard toward perfection in our work, and that work tends to be more focused on our inter-relationships.

Nurture personal development of others

The hunger for meaning of the Empowering-others NF type is centred

1. not on things but people, and
2. not on abstractions butrelationships, and
3. finally, not on action but interaction.

What we often have on our mind is the question, "How can I improve myself and my relationships with others?"We invest heavily in our relationships.

Therefore, we desire to contribute goodness and meaning to the lives of others. As the NF empowering-others type we are effective at doing this through our natural abilities of 

• nurturing,
• insightful-ness, and
• encouragement.

The alternative is what NFs despise; conflict! We do everything we can to make sure our loved ones get along well with each other and are happy.

This focus on inter-relationships, which may also include a significant cause, often make the NF empowering-others type natural leaders, as they enjoy actualising potential in others and themselves.

Ways we may seek to bring out the potential in others in times of change:

• Focus on developmental opportunities for others, the atmosphere and the morale of each individual.
• Ensure the change, whatever it may be, adds value and is meaningful to the people involved.
• Support and encourage people as they move through the change.
• Work with others to deal with negative affects of the change that they are experiencing.

How the NF type can see potential

NFs are...	the UNIFIERS.	How NFs unify people:
Boundaries are ...	blending points.	Minimize divisions to aid change
Discerning, so easily decifer the ...	whole picture.	See others as a whole person
They find their true quest ...	deep within.	Search for the ideal
Confident in others' potential gives ...	boundless trust in them.	Belief in peope is boundless

Occupations that interest the NF empowering-others type

Some of the most creative people come from the NF strain of personality type, including

• creative writers, and
• artists.

At the same time, NFs also make up a big percentage of those entering

• the ministry,
• teaching,
• psychology, and
• counselling careers.

Just as I am interested in doing through this hub article, "The transmitting of ideas and attitudes tends to attract NFs," like me.

Myers explains that the following four of her 16 personality types focus on the same iNtuition-Feeling mental functions, while they differ from each other in their use of these functions.

Four NF personality type profiles

• The Enabler ENFJ Personality Type - a Profile
  ENFJs are warm and positive people who immediately engage others with your unique charisma. You often take on the role of a "Creative Enabler." Evidence of positive impact on others is important and affirmative feedback gives you a sense of ...
• The Enthusiastic ENFP Personality Type - a Profile
  ENFPs love to talk about what is going on in your lives. You love life, seeing it as a special gift, and strive to make the most out of it. You ENFPs are the most optimistic of all the types, and are genuinely warm and interested in people. Life ...
• The Noble INFP Personality Type - a Profile
  INFPs are invigorated by the freedom to look for inner inspiration to express a practical, realistic and helpful result. You often take on the role of a harmonizer or a "Big-Picture Maker"...
• The Rare INFJ Personality Type - a Profile
  We INFJs are invigorated by taking on new challenges to discover new alternatives and possibilities. When taking on a task, believing it is possible, we take on most any challenging situation and see it to completion. We find satisfaction in ...

Finally

I encourage you to look at any of the above four NF personality profiles. Is there one personality type you can relate to more than any of the others?

^© Ms_Dee all rights reserved