I dread talking about comparing these two because I drastically lack one of the qualities. Can you guess which one?
We are now diving in how you make decisions and in the MBTI test, it’s based on logical (thinking) or harmony (feeling).
When you make decisions, especially in the workplace, you have two ways to deal with it. You can either think logically and solve the problem by convincing people that your idea is the right one, or you can think harmoniously by collaborating with your team.
This is especially prevalent in times of stress, where the right decision can matter.
The thinker (T) thinks rationally and logically. They are stereotypically categorized as machines that take people (or anything) out of the equation and will analyze the situation and tell people they’re right.
The feeler (F) thinks with people in mind and that the goal is to showcase values rather than logic. They are stereotypically people-pleasers but overall, their goal is a no-conflict situation.
In all organizations, you have people who think, and people who feel and depending on the culture, this can be a disaster or a powerful tool to move the engine in the right direction.
As always, MBTI is to be taken lightly and should only be used to understand how people think at the most basic level. People are complex, and this specific topic is really complex.
Note: This topic is extremely hard for me to write because am definitively a Thinker and my fatal flaw is similar to that of a thinker: emotionless, ruthless, rational. Though I’ve been better over the years, it is still a huge habit I am trying to change. A lot of people around me now are very empathetic people and I hope one day it rubs off on me.
You Need to Recognize Both
If we were to put Thinking on one side of the spectrum and Feeling on the other, the extremes are scary, but maybe you recognize how this plays out.
Someone who is 100% on the thinking side has no type of emotional intelligence. Like a robot, show no emotion and will complain if other people disagree with their ideas because they are not thinking “rational”. With a blunt, unlikeable attitude, they are considered a prude.
Someone who is 100% on the feeling side might be a pushover, scared of hurting people’s feelings, will always stay quite because they think that their opinion will harm the group. With no ability to be confrontational, stress builds.
I’m sure you know someone like either of these.
A good, productive and likable leader needs both, but also needs the ability to show their team how people think.
If you have trouble with both sides of the spectrum, the smart thing to do is to educate both sides that it is important to have both aspects. The idea is to implant at either end of the spectrum a rationality of why both are needed.
A thinker can get their ideas across if they collaborate and break down their thoughts in a calm manner while a feeler needs to recognize that thinkers are there for the team and can really motivate and collaborate with them to move the ship forward.
Both are needed to effectively create an efficient system to push the mountain.
How to Deal With Difficult Problems
The issue where the Thinkers and the Feelers clash is through difficult, high stakes, problems. The problems that make you wake up in a cold sweat at the middle of the night. Not because the problem is hard, but because everyone has a solution.
Especially those in leadership positions, at high stakes, the Thinker will overpower the Feeler’s responses not because they are the most logical, but because the Feeler is worried his actions will be the wrong decision.
The biggest issue comes to a standstill and when the final decision is made, it is up to the CEO to make the decision.
But is the CEO a rational thinker or someone who wants to promote harmony through an organization? Hard to tell, especially for one person to bare. This is probably why being a CEO is the most stressful, because you have to deal with so many different options, in which some might be right, some might be wrong.
In my time working, I’ve always taken the approach of the extreme rationalist and that has been dangerous. When faced with the difficult decision, for me, logic wins. For others, not so much. What I have found works is to be able to communicate and break down why I think this way and to many people, just showing you care about your solution is enough to get them on your side. Since I don’t feel, I can’t give advice on the other side.
Both sides benefit when communicating properly. You have to get granular, and have a great sense of awareness, but overall, people will work with you if you’re on the same page. Good luck.
Cognitive Functions
Like Sensing vs Intuition, Thinking vs Feeling also has an interesting type of dynamic when paired with being Extroverted vs Introverted.
Though hard to explain in words, the cognitive functions then mash together to create a priority list of how you function, which looks like this:
And you’re probably thinking: “what the heck?”
There are plenty of articles on the internet that talk about the complexities of cognitive functions so if you know your horoscope *ahem* type, then just search up something like “ENTP Cognitive Function” and you’ll have hours of content to consume.
Unlike Sensing vs Intuition, Thinking vs Feeling is very hard to really define a career type since all of these cognative functions are extremely valuable in any type of organization.
So let’s break down each one:
Extraverted Thinking
When you think of rational leaders, you might think of someone who’s Extraverted Thinking (Te). That’s because what they do is take data from the outside world and make a decision based on the facts. Most project managers have some form of Te because their job is to take all of these facts, progress, and data, and direct where to go, when. Te’s are notorious for being organized and set decently strict or ambitious goals for everyone to go to. If you have someone who makes systems and tells people to go forward with it, this is your person.
Career choices for high Te: Project Managers, quality control managers, logistics
Introverted Thinking
Inventors are known to have very strong introverted thinking (Ti) because Ti is known for developing systems and turning that into reality. They take a piece of knowledge, and see if it fits the system. If it does, then it’s integrated. If it doesn’t, they might put in the back burner until later. Some examples of this include eating a smores camping one day, and them making a protein bar out of it. You take the data from the smores experience and craft it into your protein bar. Ti gives more depth in terms of their ideas compared to all of the other types, so the challenge is how you plan to explain it to others.
Career choices for high Ti: Computer Scientist, product developers, quality assurance, administrators
Extraverted Feeling
The difference between a person with Extraverted Feelings (Fe) and Extraverted Thinking (Te) is what they do with a piece of data. Te will use it to make a logical decision, Fe will evaluate it to see if it has an impact. The Fe mindset is all about helping other people, like a selfless protagonist. Their need to help people drive many of their decisions whether that’s just one person, or perhaps the human race. The Fe person stands for something and it resonates throughout their whole being. Who do you know who stands for something?
Career choices for high Fe: Mission-driven people, advocates, sustainability experts, caregivers, funny people
Introverted Feeling
The power of an Introverted Feeler (Fi) is the ability to empathize with people by understanding the pain of other people. This is a highly useful skill as it can really glue a team together. A great example to this is to compare the Ti person with the Fi person. The Ti person can take data and plug it into their system and make it work, the Fi takes values or emotions and plug it into their system to generate a response to help someone. If you need a shoulder to cry on, or someone to understand you, the Fi person is the best person to talk to. Many sources say that Fi is the hardest to understand, but perhaps you know someone who resonates with these qualities.
Career choices for high Fi: Therapist, Storytellers (musicians/authors but perhaps marketers), Managers who care about people (not just say they do)
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:
