. So for instance in a more negative example, I may get in an interaction with a sales team member in which I want to send a flaming response back to them as they have made multiple requests on the same topic. Each request requires more and more Te and finally, tired, my responses will get more and more blunt. However if i can pause and assess the internal feeling-it feels tired, exhausted and strained. So if I can take a moment, force myself to relax, look at why the info is important or how unimportant the little frustration is, or focus upon the Fi value of providing the information, it can renergize the Te, so that I can be productive in my response.
Work is challenging. I can get pretty beat up.
First, the main sales person is ESFJ, who wants very factual, exact numbers "yes" or "no", which is never the case. (I don't really answer with yes and no.) Also, it never works that way. For example, she wants to have number like "five boxes", but I don't even what to make a list at all because she's just as likely to sell 10. Thus, if I think I have five, then should I put two?
I have an idea of each customer. Some have visited, and I've met them. Some have complained. Some have given praise. If they make any communication, good or bad, then I remember that. For example, two years ago a certain customer made a comment that they like the color yellow. They said to me in the courtyard of a certain hotel, next to the second tree on the left. Etc.
In addition to customers, I remember all the communications with the owners and the office. The interests of the sales person, the customer, myself, and the owner must all be considered and balanced. The salesperson may have a special relationship to a certain customer. Also, the particular order might be for the Owner's close personal friend or for his mother. One customer may get a certain deal, and not another. I want to understand who gets what, and why. Some get a better deal because of their position or because of a favor they can do.
Most customers want more expensive goods for cheaper prices. Thus, if you don't have some ground rules, then they will try to manipulate their best deal. They want discounts overall, and discounts based on arguments about levels of quality. There are multiple layers of pricing based on how much they buy in a year. In addition, there are about five levels of quality based on logical criteria as well as overall aesthetic impression (what the beauty of a fish "feels" like), and these are different for all 25 varieties we sell. Also, this can vary based on how rare something is. Fish are judged at shows, and there are criteria, but different judges can reach different opinions. In addition, our market may be different than what the official judges think.
So, with each customer order, I'm considering all this: the owner's mandates as well as everything I know about that customer, as well as the judging of fish logically and aesthetically.
Add this in: The owner feels that if nobody complains, then they are getting too good a deal. But, Catch 22, if anyone complains, we are in trouble.
There's lots of arguments between everyone. Our opinions of quality differ, but I can't do everything myself. I have to learn to let go of some battles. In others, there's no way to ever make it into the ideal, so I have the choice of how that bothers me. I still want the ideal, but after years of trying I've distanced my emotions from being attached to that perfection. "The perfect is the enemy of the good", as the expression goes.
So, some things I believe I just can't explain.
I can put myself in the owner's shoes, the primary customer, the customer's customer, the sales person, I understand them, and their motivations. But often, I don't feel they understand my situation, and why what they are asking is crazy. A ten minute conversation between the office and the customer can result in us working until mid-night. I'm working to make the world better for all, and move the product. (We are all on the same team.)
I have a great deal of issues with my perfectionism. It's not like we can paint fish a different color. It takes a year to make a small fish, and multiple years to make a big one, but motivating them to sell what we have is difficult. I always say, "It's easy to sell a unicorn. Finding it is the problem." It doesn't matter if I have 400 boxes available; they sell one I don't have.
Last week, they were explaining that the list of what we have is important and that I really DO need to make it, and in the very same phone conversation, they asked for something we don't have. And it's like they are saying, "Ah, I know you can find it because you are amazing!" Answering "No" did not have any effect, like my "No" is not really "No." Thus, I trying to get the best result for positive feedback, thus nearly work myself to death.