ESTJ vs. ENTJ

Sometimes it can be hard to tell ENTJs and ESTJs apart, both like to run things, and are found all over executive ranks. But two current Republican politicians provide a good example of how they differ.

ENTJ New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is a big reformer, who not only wants limited government, but wants to overhaul the school system entirely. ESTJ South Carolina GOP candidate Nikki Haley is charismatic and uses forceful tones like Christie, but shows far less interest in reforming things, but rather more traditional ways of making government more transparent and balancing the budget.

One of the big differences between ENTJs and ENTPs is the ENTJs like to reform institutions by working within them, while we ENTPs often prefer to just replace the institution from the outside. ENTJs aspire to be CEOs and political leaders the way ENTPs can aspire to be successful entrepreneurs. But once inside government or business, the ENTJs can tear up bureaucracies and established practices as well as we can.

ENTJs, like Christie and Margaret Thatcher, are far better than ESTJs in fighting an entrenched political interest than ESTJs, who are often efficient caretakers and less agitated by entities that create poor results than they are by a lack of results in general. This agitation is often the marker between an ESTJ and an ENTJ. The ESTJ gets agitated by weak results, but the ENTJ gets agitated by institutions that create weak results. ESTJs will often express agitation with inefficient procedures, but they tend to like institutions too much to tear them down. Chris Christie is agitated by the NJ teachers union the same way that Maggie Thatcher was agitated by all the unions in Britain. Nikki Haley seems more agitated with process and government transparency, but does not show any particular interest in battling with any established institutions.