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[INTJ] INTJ's and disregard for authority

highlander

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Staff member
Joined
Dec 23, 2009
Messages
26,562
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
6w5
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
Of late I have began to wonder wether I am disadvantaging myself by having this 'attitude' especially as far as work goes. Unfortunately I do also wonder what the pros and cons of this are for me as a female.

What have other INTJ's found to be the outcomes of their disregard for authority and lack of time for politics?
When does it work and when does it not?
How can I make it work for me?

It is both an advantage and a disadvantage. The advantage is that it frees you to come up with your own thinking instead of blindly following orders. It helps you to take initiative in the absence of direction. You're more independent. The disadvantage is that you have a tendency to have to learn everything for yourself. Think of it this way. It's inefficient. If I could do one thing differently in my career, I would have done a better job of enlisting the right people at a higher level who would mentor me in my career. You make it more difficult for yourself by trying to do everything on your own and believe it or not, others can help you to understand the things you need to do be successful. I wouldn't be surprised if you did not know these things. I believe I hesitated to do this because I felt it was a sign of weakness and put me in a subordinate position. I was afraid that this person would see my flaws and it would harm me in some way. 6s have a weird relationship with authority so it might be about more than just being an INTJ.
 
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WhoCares

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if by work you mean in a position as an employee then yes this attitude when openly displayed will be the death knell of your career. In a socially oreintated world social ability is prized beyond it's value to get stuff done and certainly prized more highly than technical ability. This is a realisation that many INTJs take hard.
We prize technical ability, getting stuff done and doing it right. The social world prizes feel good measures, committees and consensus. There's a whole grand canyon of difference there. Most companies are socially orientated. But it's not all doom and gloom.

The INTJ can do very well if they learn to merely stay silent about the things which bug them and harness their energy is more socially acceptable ways. By all means, be great at what you do, get the job done well and right and on time. Yu will be valued for these things. Take care to pace yourself with the people around you, remember their birthday's the minutae of their lives and the fact that they need to look good even standing next to you.

YOu don't have to play politics to get promoted. INTJs who simply fail to piss off those around them are promoted easily. It's the ones who overstep the mark that are sidelined and managed out of businesses. It's really important to remeber that no matter how clearly you see the soslution and how incompetent the 'system' is, any business you work for is not your baby. It's not your crusdade to fix the things which are broken. Make suggestions yes, but take care when you do that those suggestions aren't mistaken for you being critical of someone's pet project and their competence in the workplace. The backlash for that is enormous. Make sure you understand who did what, when and who else is involved before you point out how stupid anything is. Chances are excellent the dysfunctional system was created by a much loved and valued person in the company and your observations will be construed a a personal attack and a challenge to their authority.

Non-rationals can create the most convulted and 'interesting' processes and systems because their focus is on the human factors involved. The sword of rationality is rarely welcome there. One brilliant example was when I called the company helpdesk. The person on the end of the phone was a feel-good type who got really offended when I asked her for something based upon competence she couldn't answer. She was there to comfort, suport and encourage others, in her own words she wasn't a 'computer person' and I was, again in her own words, 'making her feel like she didn't know how to do her job'. My immediate reaction was predictably WTF!!? But you will encounter this a lot in companies.

It might make no sense at all that your company pays some woman full time wages to sit around and staple photocopies together but trust me on this. Someone once thought this was the best idea on the planet, and if they still work there you don't to be vocal about the stupidity of it.

I survive being an employee by doing my job to the level appreciated by my superiors then channeling my excess brilliance into a business of my own.
 
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