Ray Dalio, author of the book Principles gives a clear definition of the difference between a person who likes to look at a tree versus looking at a forest. One looks at the finer details, the bark, the life in it, and finds beauty in it, the other looks at the forest, the sky and finds beauty in it.

In the office life, do you like to fill out forms day after day, with no surprises in your work, or do you like to push a project and accomplish something meaningful? Both sound good to different people.

The second letter of the MBTI test, Sensing (S) and Intuition (N) is how you process information. Someone who is strong in sensing lives in the now and enjoys facts. While being Intuitive means you try and find the deeper meaning in things.

As always, the MBTI test is a very skin-deep test and does not tell you everything about a person. Like many aspects of ourselves, we categorize ourselves in different stereotypes or different groups but as you explore more about a person, they are so much more than a letter. You are a spectrum of everything, and based off of your life experiences, it can change. We’ll go into why balance might be the key to success.

Examples of S and N

One of the ways you can tell what you truly are is how you perceive art. Whether it’s music or a painting, art evokes a type of emotion in you. If you don’t like art, what does the emotion of something you’re passionate about convey?

If I look at a painting, am I focusing on the colors, when it was made, the meaning behind the picture or is it just a painting?

Of course, how you view EDM music might be different from what you see in Picasso’s paintings.

In this sense, perhaps it is easier to evaluate the work you do, or rather the feeling you get when you do work. After all, we are dealing with workplace personalities in this article, and knowing the motivators in doing work is a great way to understand people and make a more cohesive team.

If you’re a sensor, maybe you just do work for a paycheck and spend it on things you enjoy. Many people are like this and that’s ok.

If you’re intuitive, maybe you have an itch to tie deeper meaning in your work so doing things you don’t enjoy might cause you to be unproductive. Most people are also like this.

Though there are many examples of S and N type personalities on the internet (where there are many debates on what is right or wrong) the general purpose is that in terms of the work you do, you enjoy processing information differently than your peers. One of my favorite examples is my partner-in-crime at Isagenix. We were an awesome team because we had different ways of processing the information. Ashley loved to just do her work and stay comfortable with nothing new. I hated doing tedious work (that needed to be done) but I was really good at telling people want I wanted.

Perhaps it is best to say that you need both types to create a powerhouse system. You need Intuitive people to drive the engine forward and you need Sensing people to actually do the work consistently.

Balance it Out

If you’re “Sensing” too much, you become bogged down, stressed, and probably won’t see yourself as an executive at a company. It’s fine for you to stay at your job for 20 years because it’s easy or you do the same thing every day. Work gets thrown to you, but you do it and all of a sudden, 50 years pass, and you don’t know what happened.

If you’re full of “Intuition”, you might be just bogged down in your own head, trying to figure out how the world works but not actually taking the steps to do something about it. You probably don’t like your job because it doesn’t satisfy you intellectually, but you’re overwhelmed with the thought of change.

I’m sure you know many people who think like this. It’s more common than you think.

There is, however, a secret formula which balances out both S and N. Most influencers I follow are pretty N heavy so they talk and think a lot. However, most if not all, take time to do two things:

Know themselves

Create systems that work for them

Both N and S users can do this to become better people.

For knowing themselves, I’m keeping this short because solutions to this differ and it’s really complex. It can be as simple as meditating with no distractions for hours, or ruining your life and crawling your way back up. I did the latter. Do your research, and read some books.

For systems that work for you, this takes some exploring but there is a ton of content that will help you find the right system. Two influencers in particular who get stuff done and are transparent about their systems are Tim Ferriss and James Altucher. Both are, like millionaires I think, both have blogs and podcasts.

Tim is very systems oriented and will ask hundreds of people what their morning routine is.

James just does what makes him happy and does it every single day (for example, he’s written 1000 words every day for like, a decade. If it doesn’t make him happy, he drops it.

I follow James’ approach because I’m wired that way. This is the method I use to build My Food Job Rocks.

In both cases, developing systems create tasks that both functions are not used to. For Sensing, it’s achieving a far-reaching goal through the practical steps they know already while for Intuitive types, this is about building foundations to reach their lofty ambitions.

ESTP and INTJ two spectrums that are more likely to develop these types of skills. The ESTP is dubbed the entrepreneur who uses hustling systems to reach a goal of say, being a millionaire while the INTJ will have a very lofty goal (write a book and be a best seller) and will be able to break down these systems to create the building blocks to success.

Everyone has different ways to achieve their goals. This is just a handful of examples that might work for you.

Cognitive Functions

Cognitive functions are an interesting piece where we dive even deeper into the Meyer’s Briggs. These might give more clarity on how you think. Basically, based off of your type, you think a certain way. Intuition and Sensory are affected by your Introversion and Extraversion and are prioritized in how you think. However, it works in an axis, for example, if you’re Extraverted Intuition, you will suck at Introverted Sensing. If you’re great at Extraverted Sensing, you are not great at Introverted Intuition.

Again, not supposed to be a stereotype producer, but rather perhaps another way to know yourself. We all exist on a  spectrum, but maybe these functions resonate with you.

Wikipedia does an alright job explaining it, so I’ll give more practical examples.

Extraverted Sensing

Pros: Ability to see things from their surroundings at face value and directly understand what people want.

Cons: No time to process a deeper meaning. So work becomes of face-value.

Examples: Marketers, Fashion Designers and Entertainers

Introverted Sensing

Pros: Ability to recall past experiences or methods very fast and apply them.

Cons: Dislike changes in the system or new types of work.

Examples: Technicians, Administrative Assistants, Caregivers

Extraverted Intuition

Pros: Ability to connect the dots or find deeper meaning to surroundings. Has a lot of ideas

Cons: No systems to actually act on these types of ideas. Prone to Procrastinate.

Examples: Scientists, Visionaries (aka guys who have big ideas and a lot of money), Tinkerers,

Introverted Intuition

Pros: Ideas are very well thought out. Like a network of interwaving thoughts focused on one idea or system.

Cons: Hard to get out of one’s head, or communicate with people who don’t have the same amount of knowledge which makes it so the idea can’t be executed.

Examples: Scientists, Architects, Engineers, Abstract artists

These examples are generally stereotyped but might hold true if you hate your job, and you want to change. The best thing to do is know what makes you happy first and then build around that and a good way is to start by how you process information.

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This article is part of the Myers Briggs in the Workplace Series. If you’d like to learn more about the different functions, see the links below:

Introversion vs Extroversion

Intuition vs Sensing

Thinking versus Feeling

Judging versus Perceiving