Whether you’re an ENTJ or ENTP type, the name of the game for you is “high risk, high reward.” You enjoy a mentorship or leadership role and go about your activities with strong intuition, great confidence, and often ingenious ideas.
To you, it might look like these two types are the same. But is there any difference between ENTJ vs. ENTP?
There are, in fact, more differences than similarities between these types. So let’s dive deeper into the subject.
What Is the ENTJ Personality Type?
In terms of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, ENTJ stands for:
The ENTJ type is a rational and objective thinker that often considers the future. This type can be very organized and adhere to specific standards when setting particular goals and reaching them.
At the same time, ENTJ people are open to almost anything new. They look forward to new experiences and accept change without issues.
In contrast and a bit paradoxical to the rational nature of the ENTJ type, they can be somewhat impulsive and quick to judgment. These traits may cause them to make hasty decisions despite their capacity for rational reasoning.
Finally, emotions can be challenging for ENTJ people, and understanding feelings isn’t a particularly strong suit. For that reason, this type tends to separate emotion from logic when deciding on their next step.
What Is the ENTP Personality Type?
The Myers-Briggs system defines the ENTP type with the following four functions:
ENTP types can gather, understand, and connect information with ease. When trying to grasp a particular concept, people of this type will focus on understanding the functionality and the “why” behind it. On the other hand, ENTP people tend to formulate plans around future possibilities and new ideas while not considering the practical details.
Charismatic and open-minded, the ENTP type gets along with others easily. Together with their innovative minds and rational decision-making, ENTPs are excellent entrepreneurs. However, they can be very objective and keep their emotions separate when making choices.
A strong focus on the potential behind their ideas can cause ENTP people to disregard their past experiences. This can impair ENTPs in predicting or improving outcomes.
What Do ENTJ and ENTP Personalities Have in Common?
If you’re an ENTJ or ENTP type, you’ve probably picked up on similar beats in the above descriptions. There’s logic, separation of emotion and reason, and a few other general similarities. However, understanding the specific common traits between ENTJ and ENTP will help you better grasp the differences.
Firstly, both types are relatively rare, each making up between 2-5% of the population. They are highly independent but simultaneously enjoy spending time with other people. These traits may stem from the personal confidence that ENTJs and ENTPs have in abundance.
Secondly, each type can view a variety of options presented to them. As a result, they’ll quickly discern different paths and may reach a conclusion in a relatively short time. However, how ENTJ and ENTP types make final decisions will differ widely.
Finally, ENTJ and ENTP are prone to active exploration due to high ambition and curiosity. As a result, both types can get deeply involved in various subjects, presenting a risk of extreme distraction.
While it may seem that ENTJ and ENTP types are more or less the same, the similarities can often be only surface-level. Although these personalities have many potentials in common, they’ll exhibit massive differences in how they act upon those potentials. Let’s look at the differences between ENTJs and ENTPs in more detail.
5 Key Differences Between the ENTJ and ENTP Personalities
Not only do ENTJ and ENTP types differ in how they approach the world, but the differences are pretty significant. In fact, we’ll name five areas in this ENTJ vs. ENTP comparison where the two types follow entirely different paths.
1. Exchanging Ideas and Achieving Goals
ENTJs and ENTPs are drawn toward specific types of action. For example, the ENTJ type is focused on daily task execution, precise time management, and drawing from reliable resources.
ENTJs will always have a list of ideas for discussion in their agendas and come with detailed notes outlining the key points. All these tools will help them be more efficient and achieve results smoothly.
ENTPs tackle their goals with more imagination and brainstorming. Rather than striving for an impeccable organization, the ENTP type will juggle numerous ideas and try them out against the opinions of others.
This approach can combine tireless testing and debating different subjects from various angles. The result is a mix of intuitive and experimental decision-making.
2. Big Picture Thinking
The ENTJ type can easily envision the big picture in somewhat abstract terms and on a larger scale. This ability helps predict market and business trends, allowing ENTJs to become masters of business and economics.
However, these traits can also result in tunnel vision, getting in the way of assessing immediate issues. In such cases, ENTJs will tend to discredit potential pitfalls, which can prove dangerous for their goals.
With ENTPs, everything revolves around creating an internal system as a framework for thinking. Whenever new information shows up, an ENTP will test it against the framework to see how the info fits their worldview.
This systematic approach makes ENTPs excellent natural troubleshooters. This personality type can identify flaws, especially in structured systems like business, law, or coding.
3. Experiencing the World
For ENTJs, the experience of the world around them primarily revolves around physical concepts like spatial awareness and strength. However, as an internal reflection, ENTJs also value bravery, perseverance, and dedication.
When these traits combine, the result is a type of person that loves to experience life first-hand and strives to achieve their goals efficiently and gain power.
ENTJs often exhibit physical strength, which they enjoy showing through competitive sports. This may mean playing, teaching, or even just watching such sports. They hold certifications, trophies, and accolades in high regard and will collect them proudly.
An ENTJ person will often encourage close people to set goals and become efficient at attaining those goals.
ENTPs often experience life through the lens of their charisma. Of course, this applies to social settings where an ENTP’s charm can shine the brightest.
Networking events without a single familiar face won’t present an issue for the social skills of a well-developed ENTP due to their extrovert tendencies. They’ll be able to easily create new connections and make new friendships quickly.
ENTPs can be described as people persons. This type can grow to love various aspects of other’s personalities through socialization. Then, an ENTP can mimic a person’s mannerisms to great effect, creating strong and positive first impressions.
However, if less developed, the ENTP’s extraverted feeling can turn into a people-pleasing instinct.
4. Dealing with Stress and Healing
ENTJs may seem tough on the outside, but they often hide a soft side that they’ll show only to select people. This is an aspect of the ENTJs introverted feeling.
This personality type will reveal their most delicate feelings only to people they trust and love and will go to great lengths to keep those people happy. As a result, an ENTJ person can take extra steps to express their deepest feelings.
When under severe stress, ENTJs tend to feel less appreciated. In such circumstances, they might start questioning their relationships and core beliefs. This re-evaluation can bring the ENTJ type to a conclusion that they’re being taken for granted.
ENTPs have a daring side that propels them towards new experiences. However, this side can take a back seat when the ENTP type is under emotional duress. Venturing into such situations will seem challenging, considering how chaotic ENTPs’ thoughts can get when stressed out. So instead, this type will turn to self-isolation as a means of creating a safety net.
The ENTP personality type often deals with stress by visiting beloved familiar places, watching their favorite shows from childhood, or eating comfort foods. All these are mechanisms to create a feeling of safety and familiarity. This type will heal the best through therapy with a specialist they trust.
5. Career Choices
ENTJs feel at home in positions of leadership and vision. Due to their big-picture worldview, people with this personality type are often comfortable in marketing, sales, consulting, and management.
The traits that make an ENTJ a good leader include being goal-oriented and apt to solve problems. ENTJs are also strongly oriented toward work ethic and can be pretty influential, setting an example for their coworkers.
The creative and open-minded nature of ENTPs makes them great entrepreneurs. They can also excel at team organization through problem-solving capabilities and a visionary approach to novel ideas.
Another strong point for ENTPs lies in their positive outlook, which can transfer to others easily. These traits make ENTPs strong candidates for acting, film directing, and mentoring roles like jobs in higher education.
Final Thoughts on the ENTJ and ENTP Personalities
The comparison of ENTJ vs. ENTP personality types reveals how different the two types can be, even if they share certain seemingly strong similarities. Perhaps the best illustration of these differences is how the two types are described. For example, ENTJ is often called “the commander,” while ENTP carries the title of “the visionary.“
By understanding their definitive traits, ENTJ and ENTP people can improve how they interact with the world and better grasp their thoughts and emotions.
Do you know which Myers-Briggs personality type you are? If not, you can find that out easily. So take the Myers-Briggs personality test and start discovering more about yourself.
Finally, if you want to identify YOUR personality type, then take one of these 11 personality tests to better understand what makes you tick.
