This thread is kinda funny to me. I'm sure if any of you ever met my INFP boss, you'd type her as ISFJ. It's difficult at work to filter people's true type personalities unless they're cookie-cutter examples of type which few people are. People are dynamic and can exhibit nearly all functions within the space of an hour.
Definitely, but because this guy owns the store (it's a franchise), he isn't necessarily as constrained by the work environment as someone somewhere in the middle of a corporate ladder may be. He's pretty free to run things how he pleases. So even though it's a work situation, more of his actual type will show through, I figure.
We've also spent some time with him outside of work and he seems to behave mostly the same - if a little less fierce.
I don't know if your boss is ENFJ or not, but I would caution against the stereotype that most intuitives are flighty and couldn't put the pants on without detailed instructions. Or that most sensors have photographic memories with every detail seared into their memory.
Wise words!
I think it's good you picked up on the ESFP-ENFJ connection. I find often find certain types to be look alikes: ENTJ/ESTP, INTJ/ISTP, ENFJ/ESFP. If your boss is an ENFJ, what you may be seeing is tertiary Se poking through which may seem ESFPish. Especially since your boss is older, the Se may be more pronounced. Also when NJs are move into their negative shadows, they tend to look like bad SPs.
That could definitely be a possibility. He seems like a fairly healthy individual, (as best as I can tell) and naturally at his age he's going to be using even his inferior function to some extent.
So ENFJs are Fe Ni Se Ti and ESFPs are Se Fi Te Ni. And the ones that are going to be most obvious: I should be on the lookout for Fe and Se or Se and Te. Hmmm.
One clue is the technical problem solving skills. My non-people problem solving skills suck ass. I can do prevention like nobody's business but once the prevention gets shot I'm basically useless. Also don't get caught up on typical "J" or "P" traits. The neatest and timeliest people I know are Ps and I know some seriously slothful Js. It just doesn't fit in a substantial number of circumstances. Your boss sounds generally good-natured if a bit scatterbrained. He sounds like he's bossy, but in a non-obvious way like he'll chide you and wrap it in a smile and joviality.
Re: J/P. Again, you're right. I fall into that trap too easily! But your descriptions sound about right. He's definitely not a pushover, even if he's being all pleasant and social.
How does he manage people and solve interpersonal problems? Does he actively try to head off problems or solve people problems or does he have the attitude that things will work themselves out? Does he try to lead by example? What makes him frustrates him about costumers and what does he like most about them?
He really hates the way those costumers try and dress him in all that nonsense. Frippery, I say!
*cough* Back to the topic on hand:
When a customer has a query for him, if he doesn't know exactly where the item is, he will do generally either give them a nonspecific affirmative, "Oh, yes, we're getting plenty of those in next week." (We may or may not be getting some more in, and may even have some in store now.) Or he'll pass the query off to us and ask us to check the stock levels and help the customer.
He's usually pretty non-specific in his advice: while I try always to be honest, even if all I can tell the customer is "Yeah, we've sold a lot of them". He's usually saying something along the lines of "Oh, that's a good choice, mate." or "Great [product], that one."
If a customer is getting cranky, (he always tells us to direct any problematic customers to one of the bosses, but I think that's fairly standard) he's usually direct but pretty lenient. Uses his special people skillz to calm the person down and maybe offer them something else. If a customer asks for a discount for whatever reason, more often than not they'll get it.
When problems occur, I don't think he's so good at dealing with them spontaneously. Or maybe that's just the nature of the problems we tend to encounter. Hmm. But if something's proving challenging for us, he will usually say something along the lines of "Don't worry about it, leave it with me. You're okay, leave it with me." And then he'll focus his attention on it when he has plenty of time to do so.
He generally lets us do our own thing, though. We know our jobs well enough (and I usually find that any problems I encounter, I can usually solve well enough myself and it would only be an extra complication to bring him into it) and so he lets us be, for the most part.
And when making decisions about changes to the way things run (one eg. changing the way we store a particular item), he frequently seeks advice from us, and listens to our suggestions.
The one little bit of authority he still has to deal with (the head offices of the franchise), he finds generally frustrating. They've lately increased the amount of control they have over our computer systems, and it just makes things more difficult for us. They've also got a 'Mystery Shopper' program which comes in and evaluates our customer service. He thinks it's irrelevant and meaningless and thinks they should do a 'Mystery Shoplifter' instead so he can work out ways to stop people stealing stuff. Apparently he's been pretty belligerent about this with Head Office. But of course, all I hear is what he tells me, so I can't really say for sure.
Re: shoplifters, he enjoys telling us about one old lady he caught putting all this stuff in her handbag only after they noticed it happening regularly and put stuff in place to try and prevent it. "You would never suspect an old lady, but there you have it!" He might bluster a bit about how he'd chase after anyone he caught stealing with a bat swinging, but really he's pretty sensible about it all. Ready to confront someone if needs be, but naturally preferring not to.
Hopefully that gives more of an idea. I think I'm starting to form an opinion, but it's not solid at all so I'm going to wait and see what a few of you think.
The other boss (his wife) - maybe an ESTJ? - was seriously pissed. One of my co-workers told me she was thinking 'Omg, she's so fired."
"What?" and he's all grinning and like, "You didn't even say bye to us!" and she's like omg lol, "Right. See ya."
