At Their Best 
People with ESFJ preferences like to organize people and situations and then work with others to complete tasks accurately and on time. They are conscientious and loyal, following through even in small matters, and they want others to be the same. They value security and stability.

Sociable and outgoing, ESFJs enjoy celebrations and traditions and bring a very personal caring to the workplace and home. They want to be appreciated for themselves and for what they give to others.

ESFJs can be considered the Practical Contributors. They use Extraverted Feeling (Fe) as their core approach to work and living. This outward, collaborative, results-oriented approach tends to accomplish results using the best talents of the people involved. 

Practical Contributors thrive in situations where they can harness the energy of a group of people toward a mutually beneficial goal. They often take on and enjoy supervisory roles. If you are a Practical Contributor, you are likely at your best when you are working with others cooperatively to accomplish direct results. To avoid moving down the wrong path or making inaccurate decisions, Practical Contributors tend to pay attention to the facts and realities of a situation. This secondary approach ensures their plan of action is helpful and useful. By using an approach that is both personal and realistic, Practical Contributors can provide efficient products or services to assist or serve people.

Characteristics of ESFJs
ESFJs use their Feeling primarily externally and radiate warmth and energy. They are encouraged by approval and hurt by indifference or unkindness. Conflict-filled or tense situations make them uncomfortable, and they work to ensure these don’t occur. ESFJs are likely to be:
  • Warm, sympathetic, and helpful 
  • Personable, cooperative, and tactful 

ESFJs focus on the present and base decisions on experience and facts. Though they enjoy variety, they adapt well to routine and don’t like work that demands mastery of abstract ideas or impersonal analysis. They enjoy their possessions and take good care of them. ESFJs are likely to be:
  • Practical, realistic, and down-to-earth
  • Decisive, thorough, and consistent 

ESFJs are sensitive to the needs of each individual in their environment and good at providing practical caring. Much of their pleasure and satisfaction comes from the comfort and pleasure of others. 

ESFJs are typically practical HARMONIZERS, workers with people; sociable, orderly, opinioned; conscientious, realistic and well tuned to the here and now. Having Extraverted Feeling as their strongest mental process, they are at their best when responsible for winning people’s cooperation with personal caring and practical help.

They typically value:
  • An active, sociable life, with many relationships
  • A concrete, present-day view of life
  • Making daily routines into gracious living
  • Staying closely tuned to people they care about so as to avoid interpersonal troubles
  • Talking out problems cooperatively, caringly
  • Approaching problems through rules, authority, standard procedures
  • Caring, compassion, and tactfulness
  • Helping organizations serve their members well
  • Responsiveness to others and to tradition
  • Being prepared, reliability in tangible, daily work
  • Loyalty and faithfulness
  • Practical skillfulness grounded in experience
  • Structured learning in a humane setting
  • Appreciation

How Others May See Them 
ESFJs are energized by interaction with others and genuinely interested in others’ lives and concerns. They feel most comfortable in structured situations and enjoy creating order, structure, and schedules. They prefer to do things the traditional and accepted way.

For the sake of harmony, ESFJs will agree with others when they can. However, they also have strong values, which they express clearly and confidently when they think it is appropriate. ESFJs value family and social ties. They enjoy belonging and are good at celebrations and traditions.

Others usually see ESFJs as:
  • Sociable, outgoing, enthusiastic, and energetic
  • Organized and orderly 
  • Committed to preserving traditions

Potential Areas for Growth 
Sometimes life circumstances have not supported ESFJs in the development and expression of their Sensing and Feeling preferences. 

  • If they have not developed their Sensing, ESFJs may not take in much information before making decisions and jump to conclusions before fully understanding a situation. They may then impose those decisions on everyone around them.
  • If they have not developed their Feeling, they may be tentative and uncertain, accepting the judgments of others too quickly.

If ESFJs do not find a place where they can use their gifts and be appreciated for their contributions, they usually feel frustrated and may:
  • Doubt themselves and focus their attention entirely on satisfying the needs of others 
  • Worry and feel guilty 
  • Become controlling in their push for harmony – “we will all get along”
  • Become overly sensitive, imagining slights where non are intended 

It is natural for ESFJs to give less attention to their non-preferred Thinking and Intuitive parts. If they neglect these too much, however, they may:
  • Find it difficult to acknowledge and deal with the truth of problems with people or things they care about 
  • Support those in charge or the standard procedures too uncritically 
  • Fail to see wider possibilities or alternative ways of doing things

Under Great Stress
Under great stress, ESFJs may find themselves uncharacteristically critical of others and themselves. Their negative thoughts and opinions then trouble them greatly.

Sources
Introduction to Type, Sixth Edition developed by Isabel Briggs Myers

MMTIC®Murphy-Meisgeier Type Indicator for Children developed by Charles Martin, Elizabeth Murphy, and Betsy Styron

Donna Dunning’s terrific blog