What Is Your Type – Part II

We’re continuing with a breakdown of my results of a personality test, which gave me the personality type ISTJ. Let’s look at the Strengths & Weaknesses

Logistician (ISTJ) strengths

Honest and Direct. Integrity is the heart of the Logistician personality type. Emotional manipulation, mind games and reassuring lies all run counter to Logisticians’ preference. They like managing the reality of the situations they encounter with plain, simple honesty.

Strong-willed and Dutiful. Logisticians love working hard and staying focused on their goals. Patient and determined, people with the Logistician personality type meet their obligations, period.

Very Responsible. Logisticians’ word is a promise, and a promise means everything. Logisticians would rather burn themselves down than fail to deliver results. Loyalty is a strong sentiment. They fulfill their commitment to people and organizations.

Calm and Practical. None of their promises would mean much if Logisticians lost their tempers at every sign of hardship.  They keep calm and make clear rational decisions. Peoples’ preferences are a factor to consider in this process. Logisticians work to make the best use of individual qualities. However, these decisions are made with effectiveness in mind more than empathy. The same applies to criticisms, for others and themselves.

Create and Enforce Order. The primary goal of any Logistician is to be effective in what they do. They believe that this is accomplished best when everyone knows exactly what is going on and why. Unclear guidelines and people who break established rules undermine this effort. These are rarely tolerated by Logisticians. Structure and rules foster dependability. Chaos creates unforeseen setbacks and missed deadlines.

Jacks-of-all-trades. Much like Analyst personality types, Logisticians are proud repositories of knowledge, though the emphasis is more on facts and statistics than concepts and underlying principles. This allows Logisticians to apply themselves to a variety of situations, picking up and applying new data and grasping the details of challenging situations as a matter of course.

Logistician (ISTJ) weaknesses

stubborn duck

Stubborn. The facts are the facts, and Logisticians tend to resist any new idea that isn’t supported by them. This makes it difficult for people with the Logistician personality type to accept that they were wrong about something. But anyone can miss a detail, even them.

Insensitive. While not intentionally harsh, Logisticians often hurt more sensitive types’ feelings by using “honesty is the best policy” feedback. The Logistician may take emotions into consideration, but really only to determine the most effective way to say what needs to be said.

Always by the Book. Logisticians believe that things work best with clearly defined rules. However, this makes them reluctant to bend those rules or try new things, even when the downside is minimal. Truly unstructured environments leave Logisticians all but paralyzed.

Judgmental. Opinions are opinions and facts are facts. Logisticians are unlikely to respect people who disagree with those facts, or especially those who remain willfully ignorant of them.

Often Unreasonably Blame Themselves. All this can combine to make Logisticians believe they are the only ones who can see projects through reliably. As they turn away good intentions and helpful ideas, Logisticians eventually get to the point where they can’t deliver. Since they’ve heaped the responsibility on themselves, Logisticians then believe the responsibility for failure is theirs alone to bear.

My Observations

• I’ve mentioned this in the past, but I certainly don’t fall into the “Always by the book” category. I’ve found always by the book usually includes “that’s the way it’s always been done. This is the easiest path to a fit of rage for me. I hate that mindset.
• Stubborn can be a weakness but channeled properly, it can be some determination.
• Honest and Direct can be troublesome if in an environment where perception and feelings are very important.

Next up, we really get to some fun stuff – romantic relationships.