What's an ENFJ? Me, for one. One characteristic of ENFJs, and NF types in general, is that we are always searching. This urge can help us to make a positive impact on the world, and it can also make us crazy and ineffectual. A yearning to make life better can...

I don't like it when people smoke around me. I don't like breathing cigarette smoke, I don't like getting it on my clothes, hair and skin, and perhaps more than anything else I don't like the inherent civic rudeness of public smoking - the idea that someone can contaminate...

When I was a kid in the early 70s I had an unusually good grasp of the Great Depression, at least compared with the average 8-year old. Part of this knowledge came from my parents, who were children during the Depression, but most of it came from the books I...

For the past 18 months, I've been obsessing about Barack Obama's Myers-Briggs type. He's not easily reducible to any pat description. President Obama (have I mentioned how much I love saying, "President Obama?") is no cliché. But I'll try to deduce his type anyway.

According to the theory behind...

Fingers crossed, we're going to win on November 4th. It's possible that Barack Obama will start his term in office with majorities in the House and Senate, and perhaps even a filibuster-proof majority. The likelihood of this is underscored by the shrill, panicky articles about the threat of a Democratic...

Usually, Republicans hate affirmative action. A core Republican message is that they are the sole protectors of embattled white men against the forces of entitled minorities and aggressive women unfairly going after their turf. This message is picked up and amplified by Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs, and the like.

Have you ever seen a Bollywood musical? I have viewed a few over the years. Though I tried mightily, I could not really get into them. There are songs, there are dances, there are wet sari scenes. Sadly, though, I have never managed to feel the POW! that hundreds...

After seven years in office our current president is still somewhat of a cipher. What exactly goes on in his head? What does he believe in his heart of hearts? And what's his Myers-Briggs type?

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is the world's most widely used personality sorter. It's a basic...

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are so different-so say their supporters, and so say political commentators. The nature of their differences depends on whom you ask. Does America want a candidate who is visionary and inclusive, rather than polarizing and compromised? Or does America want a candidate who is experienced...

Hillary Clinton is an introvert. I'm quite sure about this. My best guess is that, in Myers-Briggs terms, she is an INTJ (details below). This explains a lot about how the world regards her and why the press seems to find her so problematic.

Let me start backwards. In yesterday's...

A couple of months ago I sat behind Ivanka Trump on a flight from Newark to Hong Kong.

At the time, I didn't realize that the tallish blonde person in front of me was the daughter of The Donald. She seemed nice enough, pretty smart, a little chatty on...

When I was checking into the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore a few weeks ago, I asked the front-desk person, "Is it possible to get a room with one king-size bed rather than two double beds?" I get kind of creeped out sleeping by myself in rooms with two beds.

Are you familiar with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator? It's a personality assessment instrument that's based on the theories of Karl Jung, and it has pretty much permeated the professional world. This is the instrument that measures you on the parameters of introvert/extravert, intuitive/sensing, feeling/thinking and perceiving/judging.

I personally love...

When people come to me to figure out what to do with the rest of their lives, they typically arrive with one of two mindsets. Either they have lots of ideas, and don't know how to figure out which one they should pursue; or they don't have any ideas at...

Here's what I learned from reading the obituary of Madeline L'Engle, the author of A Wrinkle in Time, who recently passed away at age 88: she didn't write this massively bestselling book until after she was 40. In fact, in her thirties her writing career was going so badly that...

When I was in business school, my friend Polly and I decided to name ourselves the two peppiest people at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

We did this not because of our inherent Pollyanna natures or our uncritical admiration for all thing b-school; quite the opposite. We made...

One of my clients works for a big, fancy firm. It's the kind of firm that people who went to Harvard go to if they want even more Harvard in their life.

This particular client has dreams besides being one of a thousand employees of a highly branded business, but...

People know me as an extraverted person. I get energized by being around people and doing things in the world. When I think of my favorite foreign trips, I inevitably imagine myself walking in large exotic public spaces surrounded by throngs of people. Once in college I talked for eight...

I am not really a music person. I can sing and play the piano, but as far as listening to music, I have pretty much been out of the loop since childhood. I'm content to listen to the same three Norah Jones CDs about 2,000 times each. I like Il...

This morning, when I was talking with a friend about life stuff, I remembered an exercise from a self-help book I once read.

Try going through your day imagining that everyone you run into is more enlightened than you. This means: the post office clerk, your boss, your dog,...