From a woman who prefers INTJ – the importance of achieving goals.

“ As a board member I have contributed to and often initiated strategic planning, gap analysis and best practices models, and communications strategy. Recently I have felt the need to be able to follow one process through to tangible results so have stepped off the board to focus on the communications committee. I am enjoying working with the members of the committee who are very goal oriented and seeing the results of our efforts In that first job, I was 17 years old and recommended for a promotion after a year, over several other older workers (all women, back then) all of whom had more tenure in the company and more experience in the workfoce. I was told that I was “doing the work of a manager.” I had no idea what that meant, but I thought it was probably a good thing—truly, I wasn’t even sure. It was the first time I remember anyone suggesting that I was working beyond (or outside of) the scope of a particular job I held. That has been a consistent pattern in my career. Sometimes I’ve been rewarded for that, but other times it’s been a problem. I would rather organize and streamline work, set up systems, etc., than do the nitty-gritty parts of it, and sometimes that tendency to look at that bigger “systems” picture is not particularly appreciated by people who have hired me to do the nitty-gritty parts. Absorbing information and learning new ideas and skills and considering how, when, and where to apply them would be driving forces for me in my work life. I also like to share what I know. I am more satisfied by the “front end” strategizing and figuring out tactics than completing them. I think that made me an excellent supervisor—I’m only too happy to hand off the detail work to someone. I’m glad to let someone else “own” the job, if they will grind out the detail work to completion. I prefer to work in long stretches and by myself. It took me decades to realize that sometimes other people have good ideas, too. I’ve worked in marketing and public relations for most of my career and applied my skills particularly to companies and organizations that are involved in “fine arts and practical arts,” which, for me, includes architecture, interior design, graphic design, galleries & museums, culinary arts, and wine. I lost my job in November, after more than 11 years as director of public relations for the second largest building design firm in St. Louis (the largest headquartered here is the largest in the world!) I have reinvented myself as a freelancer with the description, “Connecting people through fine arts, fine wines, and commonsense social networking.” Yes, I’m on LinkedIn!