From 🍊:
Hi! I’m an artist ESTP currently in crisis! Could you compare the differences between an ESTP in ENTP, especially within leadership and art?
I don’t have experience with ESTPs and ENTPs in art, but do have plenty experience with them in leadership. ESTPs and ENTPs are both “sharp” types, often associated with wit, humour, and adaptability. The sharpness comes from their shared auxiliary introverted Thinking (Ti); their dominant function–extraverted Sensing (Se) for ESTPs, and extraverted Intuition (Ne) for ENTPs–is what drives the difference in how it manifests.
ESTPs are much more driven to take action–now. The study group says we should meet more often. Let’s go to the library today! It’s 5 minutes away. Let’s walk there! Let’s pick up ice cream on the way! ESTP leaders are an elevated version of this bias to action: so we want to build a new product line to increase revenue? Let’s restructure our organizations by end of week to align our goal. Let’s pull our leaders into a room in half an hour to brainstorm. The further something is pushed into the future, the less real and impactful it becomes.
ENTPs are–comparatively–more patient with tangible action. An ENTP’s excitement and inspiration is in possibilities; you’ll never catch them lacking in ideas or analyses of current opportunities. ENTP leaders are meritocratic, interested in assessing interesting ideas no matter who they come from, flexible, open-minded, and (similar to their ENFP cousins) drum up excitement and momentum towards their goals. The more innovative, the better.
ESTP leaders have to watch out for overemphasizing Se (bias to action, immediacy) at the expense of Ni (long-term objective). ESTPs can carry a “we won’t know until we do it” mantra, but that can inherently clash with the wisdom of Ni-doms (INTJs, INFJs), who spend a large amount of their conscious and unconscious thought projecting into the future. ENTP leaders have to watch out for overemphasizing Ne (possibility, vision) at the expense of Si (practical expertise). ENTPs can become drunk on the heady explosion of ideas and leave Si-doms (ISTJs, ISFJs)–who inherently think through details and their consequences–picking up the pieces of an ill-thought through big picture.
Both ESTPs and ENTPs are liable to use their charm to move action forward. Their tertiary extraverted Feeling (Fe) is strong enough to understand the contours of social dynamics and play around with them, but not strong enough to be held back by it. Both types have fun (jokingly) poking and prodding people, and can carry out some exceedingly embarrassing things without embarrassment. Sometimes this charm can be used as a knife, a straightforward way to get what they need out of people; sometimes, it can be an EXTP’s weak spot, a reminder that people and relationships are frustratingly hard to manage.
EXTP leaders in crisis have run up against the limits of their dominant function/leadership style. Well-rounded, mature EXTP individuals tend to have slowed down, becoming the ESTP who respects the edge case, and the ENTP who respects the process. If they don’t build out those skills themselves, they’ll recruit team members who round out their weaknesses and bring much-needed perspective. That allows them to lean into their leadership advantage: being at the forefront of change and action. Sometimes they’ll be tapped by others to lead important projects, and other times they’ll carve out their own path, but both types seek and embrace the challenge in unproven territory.
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