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[ESTP] ESTP Leadership Style

Vasilisa

Symbolic Herald
Joined
Feb 2, 2010
Messages
3,946
Instinctual Variant
so/sx
I'm working on a project showcasing an ESTP's leadership style.

I'm interested in general information about the type and leadership style, but I would also very much appreciate hearing about your personal experiences and what you have observed. Thanks :)
 

Aleksei

Yeah, I can fly.
Joined
Mar 10, 2010
Messages
3,626
MBTI Type
ENTJ
Enneagram
7w6
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
ESTPs, generally speaking, use Se and Fe to lead. They analyze people for cues (body language, tone) that they can use to figure out how to coax them in the direction they want. As such, ESTPs are smooth operators, getting what they want when they want without causing the least bit of friction.
 

miss fortune

not to be trusted
Joined
Oct 4, 2007
Messages
20,589
Enneagram
827
Instinctual Variant
sp/so
My style has always been to figure out what I want them to do and then convince them that they really DO want to do that... oftentimes convincing them that it's their idea as well... it makes people work in a much more enthusiastic manner and makes work easier for me :whistling:
 

Aleksei

Yeah, I can fly.
Joined
Mar 10, 2010
Messages
3,626
MBTI Type
ENTJ
Enneagram
7w6
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
^My point demonstrated.
 

Halla74

Artisan Conquerer
Joined
Jan 20, 2009
Messages
6,898
MBTI Type
ESTP
Enneagram
7w8
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
ESTPs are masters of improvising.
Whether performing analysis on the fly, or talking a room full of strangers into taking one strategic direction versus another, our thoughts, words, and actions are seamless and integrated.

When it comes to leadership, ESTPs will quickly amass resources, specialize them, motivate them, and then take charge alongside them to accomplish the objective(s) at hand.
We are fine with authority, but when there is a power vacuum we will fill it.
Hell, if things are just going along half-assed we are prone to re-direct things to a more perfect and efficient order.

If you tell an ESTP that they are in charge of something, don't try to micromanage them.
Give them the reigns, make your expectations known, and they will be met.
One thing we do not like at all is to have to explain every little thing that we are doing to someone that is less than qualified to evaluate our strategy.
Why?
Because it slows us down, and when things slow down then the odds random chance will fuck up the best of plans increases.

Finally, outside of leadership I will address our management style.
We are situational managers.
We are glad to delegate when we are certain that our report understands the objective, our expectations, and has the capability to do what is being asked.
If we need to, we will micro-manage personnel who are not able to keep pace with the project flow, but we don't like to do that, as it is a bother, but is sometimes necessary.
Basically, when things are going well, you will see less of us.
When things are not going as well as we like, you will see more of us.
We will commit our time accordingly to ensure our objective is attained, and if our staff is smart enough and energetic enough to make that happen with little of our time, we are OK with that, and will laud our team, and reward them commensuirate with their efforts.

We are fiercely loyal, and demand the same loyalty from others.
We are resourceful beyond imagination, and able to scale things up or down as needed on the fly.
We will hold our ground no matter what disasters present themselves, because at the edge of the whirlpool most call disaster, we see opportunity, and we are at peace gazing into it, and deciding how to wield it for accomplishing our purposes.

:solidarity:
 
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IheartFootball10

New member
Joined
Sep 21, 2010
Messages
28
MBTI Type
ESTP
Enneagram
8w7
im the GM for a retail store and i manage 65 employees plus my team of assistant and senior managers which is another 5 people. i am by no means a micor-manager and i cant stand when its done to me. Although i realize that at times mico-management is needed i pretty much stay away from it. I observe what each persons strengths are and put them in the positions/delegate tasks out that i know they will flourish in. I let them "own" their responsibliites and go about doing their job the way that best works for them. I am results driven and often dont care how the results are achieved just as long as they are!

there are times when i have employees slowing down or moving in a direction that will end in failure and ill just redirect them and convience them the soultion was their idea. lol i have a knack for improvising and taking care of sticky situations. im always calm and cool under pressure and am the queen of using my resoucres that will be to my advantage. whatever comes my way, i just seem to handle with ease. im a fierce motovator and always make sure my team stays pumped up and ready to go. i make sure that i celebrate the little successes as well as the big ones. im extremely fair to the best of my ability and if an employee is loyal and gives me all they have while they are at work, ill have their back no matter what.

every yr my company does an employee opinion survey and awards the store with the highest score in the company and within their respective divsion. for 2yrs in a row i came in 1st place and only 1 yr i came in 2nd. so ESTP's must be doing something right :) i would hands down work for myself ! lol
 

Sinmara

Not Your Therapist
Joined
Nov 9, 2009
Messages
1,075
MBTI Type
INFJ
Enneagram
6w5
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
Ok, so this is how my brief experience with management went.

I worked in the electrical department of a hardware store and was handed the job of being the department manager of my area -- without a promotion, pay raise, or any verbal acklnowledgement that they had those expectations of me at all. My area was merged into the neighboring one, plumbing, which was massive and the DM of that area was technically my DM, but he couldn't do his job and manage electrical, so it fell on me. Nice, huh? Yeah, I thought so too. :steam:

I had two part-time guys in my department to direct. So, let's say our area in the stock room needed reorganizing. I'd tell them, "organize the stock room." They'd say they didn't understand what I meant. I'd elaborate and say, "Put the heavy things on bottom, light things on top, lamps with lamps, junction boxes kept together, that sort of thing - show me what you can do!" They would be like "oh okay!" and I'd leave them to it...only to return the next day to see what they did with the place, to find that they did nothing because they "didn't understand what I wanted."

:wtf:

Because this sort of "miscommunication" and "lack of clarity" happened with them all the time, I was being micro-managed by my ESTJ assistant manager who was in charge of my section. Because my guys constantly went "durr we don't get it," I had to copy ESTJ's micro-managing style and breathe down their necks just to make him happy. I ended up having to make point-by-point instructions in outline format with bulletins and everything when I was leaving job responsibilities for when I wasn't there. When I was there, I had to personally supervise and direct everything they did to make sure they did it right. This ended up making my guys get pissy because they didn't want to be treated like they were fuckups who couldn't get their job done without mommy holding their hand -- which, well, they were and they couldn't, apparently, because nothing got done unless I was there immediately holding them accountable for their work.

My two guys ended up resenting the hell out of me for it, and I resented the hell out of them because they were incapable of problem-solving on their own or applying any kind of personal creativity to a project.

I think the real problem I faced was the fact that morale in the company was incredibly low and no one cared about their job anymore. The managers were dicks, hours got cut to the state minimum and people were getting fired (sometimes the store would make excuses to fire people to the point of lying and accusing them of theft when they had no proof) and laid off all the time; there was no sense of job security. You can't motivate people to do their best when they're totally apathetic because they don't know whether they're going to come into work their next day and be fired or not.

Anyway, in an ideal situation, I'd be able to tell people the general idea of what I want and let them loose to see what they do with it. The more I see of a person's personal vision or spin on my instructions, the better I can see how they think, and the better I can direct them in the future by applying their time to their strengths to maximize their performance. You have to work with an individual's strengths, not try to force them into a hole because you want to turn them into the worker you want them to be.

I feel I should also mention that I don't work so well under intense supervision. I'm better off being treated as I just described, letting me go to determine my own projects and my own priorities. The results are usually awesome and make my managers happy. If I'm given some task that I really don't give two shits about, I'll drag my heels on it because I Don't Wanna.
 
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