ESTJ- Case study, Deborah, Prophetess and Judge.

ESTJ- Case study, Deborah, Prophetess and Judge.

ESTJs are given the code name, “the Executive”. And for good reason. Their practical, decisive, and outspoken nature makes them so easy to look and/or act the part of an Executive in any situation. They are naturally born leaders that know how to get things done since they work with the rules of the book. Modern-day ESTJs that we might know include Judge Judy, Frank Sinatra, Sherlock Holmes, and Sonia Sotomayor. Examples of ESTJs in shows that you might have watched include Miranda Bailey (Grey’s Anatomy), Home lander (The Boys), Robb Stark, and Cersei Lannister (Game of Thrones).

Deborah was one such character and her strength and wisdom made it so that she was chosen by God as a Judge at a time when the men of Israel were so afraid to take up leadership roles and responsibilities.

Below is a breakdown of the ESTJ traits.

E-Extroverted.
S-Sensing.
T-Thinking
J-Judging.

1.] EXTROVERTED.

ESTJs are greatly in tune with people as they are natural extroverts. They gain their energy from people and surround themselves with teams that get things done. They are empathetic to people and know how to give them a sense of their energy just as much as they can take in the energy from a room full of people. Combine this with their keen sense of observation and we have social powerhouses that know how to drive resources and social capital to the achievement of a goal.

2.] SENSING.

ESTJs have very keen observational skills because of their extroverted sensing ability. They can easily read a room or a situation and give quick, decided solutions on how to go about them. They make for great empathetic leaders as they sense the mental state of someone even without them telling them. They make for very great lie detectors as well.

3.] THINKING.

ESTJs are very pragmatic by nature. They base their decisions mostly on rational thought as opposed to using their feelings. They are targeted and result oriented. Achieving all that they set their minds to against all odds thanks to this natural capacity to do so. This makes them brave in the presence of adversity as they know that they can handle anything that comes their way.

4.] JUDGING.

ESTJs are very good at reading patterns and solving real-life riddles. They are great at understanding what makes a job and how to get it done. They break down big problems into little pieces and like pieces in a chess board, know how to play around the game of the problem to find the solution and consequent “checkmate.

POSITIVE ESTJ TRAITS.

1.] Frank.

ESTJs work with rules, and they understand that for the game to be played, the rules have to be understood. There is but one fundamental rule in the game of life and that is honesty. Even if people will not particularly like it, ESTJs understand that it is the only way to live as it is only through truth that solutions to societal problems can be sorted. They are open and blunt about what they believe in, a trait that Deborah, the Judge of Israel possessed in spades. It was through truth from God that she led the Barak, an Associate of Deborah, and his army against the Army of Jabin and Sisera. It was through the truth that she solved the grievances between the Israelites when she judged them under the tree. It was because of being truthful in the first place that God allowed Deborah to speak on His behalf as He could see and appreciate the straightforward nature of Deborah that was of use to Him.

2.] Fair.

Deborah was the first female Judge of Israel and the only female leader in the old testament because of this trait. Her fairness made her word firm. She judged cases between the Israelites with the basis of truth as it was the source of all fairness. She was a good submissive wife to Lapidoth, an extension of her fair nature. She upheld the prevailing laws of the land, making it easier for her judgments to be taken as the final word because she lived under the rule and expected everyone else to do so.

3.] Well-organized.

ESTJs are very good at ticking things off their to-do list. Anything worth doing and doing right needs to be documented in some way for them. They get the satisfaction of sorts by just crossing them off their list once something is already done. Deborah was a songstress, a poet, a minstrel, and a Judge. All these things she did have an element of documentation that was involved. It was never directly stipulated but it is implied. Of course, documentation is just a tool. What is important about ESTJs in general is their ability to break down big problems into little bits that can be solved over time. Because they understand people, delegating duties to the right people to get things done is as natural as breathing to them. That is the real gist of how they get things done. That is how she knew that Barak was the right man for the job of defeating the Sisera army. He unlike most Israelite men at the time had the bravery and charisma required for the job. And it was well done.

4.] Decisive.

ESTJs are very practical. As such they see the problems in the here and now, make judgments on them, then provide solutions to the problems according to the information that they have received at that moment. It’s not just in the deciding that the ESTJs have natural talent, but also in the execution. A problem will always remain a problem unless the solution is well executed. ESTJs know this well. That is why they excel so easily because they execute just as hard as they decide. She decided to be the mother of Israel when it was noted that men feared the position of Judge at the time. She decided to go to battle with Barak, even when she didn’t want to because she knew her presence there would motivate the warriors to victory. She decided on the judgments under the tree and decided to work outside as opposed to inside a building since at that time, it was inappropriate for a woman to stay alone in an enclosed space with a man who is not her husband. She decided to sacrifice herself to the service of God and in all she did, she stuck to it like glue.

5.] Hard working.

ESTJs like solving problems of the here and now. They also like getting things done in the here and now. That means that they have to have things on their list that require solving. And those things keep them busy. They are great at handling a lot on their plate and are never defined by just one project. Everything is a part of something, and they can move steadily handling several projects all of them culminating in the solving of one big project. Deborah was the same way. Despite fulfilling her wifely duties to Lapidoth, she was a Judge of Israel, a poet, a minstrel, a Prophetess, a warrior, and a singer for the Lord. All these things were for the glorification of God. Her greatest project.

6.] Brave.

ESTJs are ambitious and driven. Never being afraid of risks that have the potential for great returns. If they strongly believe in what they are doing, they will work towards what they want tirelessly, even if they don’t receive immediate return because they know that it will bare fruit at some point. They are future-oriented and at most times work in faith and wait. Deborah’s bravery can be noted in a lot of things but her greatest act of this was when she accepted to go with Barak to war for the sake of Israel, risking her life in the process. Her strong faith in God and her bravery in battle made it so that the army was motivated enough to go for the win.

NEGATIVE ESTJ TRAITS.

1.] Cold and Distant.

ESTJs are aloof on most occasions especially when they are analyzing situations. They have to be impartial as it is the only way to come to the right judgment in a case. As a judge, Deborah had to be cold as she spoke. It was a learned trait that came in handy especially since she was in fact a leader of men. For men to take any woman seriously the woman has to have certain manly qualities. Being aloof is one of them. Deborah had to be so to command control and dissuade advances from men that found her attractive due to the natural air of control she possessed. It was for the same reason that she encouraged her judgments to be made under the tree and not inside a building, to discourage inappropriate advances.

2.] Black-or-White thinking.

There is no other way to see the world with most ESTJs except for seeing them as white or black. Grey areas are black according to them (unless they are stuck in addictions that they keep making excuses for). As a judge of the chosen nation of God, Deborah had to be true to her natural instinctive vision of what she considered right or wrong. In her eyes, anything of God was right, anything not of God was wrong. And that was that. In today’s world, such a way of seeing things can be considered closed-minded thinking, but there was a time when this way of seeing the world was the only way to see it. We live in the end times where everything is grey but when God was ever present with us, this was the only way to see everything.

3.] Social Climbers.

Success is always in their mind. There has to be some kind of trajectory in the course of action that they have decided to take. This was after careful calculation of what they needed to get done so as to get things through til the end. The end usually being a success. Deborah was lucky to be called to the epitome of leadership at a time when there was no larger stool to step on after that. But most ESTJs aren’t so lucky and they have to work their way up. In so doing, their obvious ambition might rub people the wrong way as they will come off as social climbers to those that they will try to associate with.

4.] Disinterested in the Abstract.

ESTJs work with the here and now. They see real-life problems that require real-life solutions. It just goes to show how useless abstract conversation will be for them. They will appreciate certain theories so long as they have a foot on the ground, but things that are not in any way connected to the concrete facts of life, will not tickle their fancy.

5.] Emotional Instability under Stress.

Anyone who has ever been close to any ESTJ has experienced certain outbursts of emotion during moments of stress. ESTJs are used to being stable and concrete just like their minds all through day-to-day situations but emotions take the best of them when they are overwhelmed since they don’t even refer to them in day-to-day activities. It is the exposure of their inner shadow so to speak, one that has always been neglected but will peer through when given the chance. Stress is that chance. There is nowhere in the Bible where this was depicted about Deborah. But then again, the Bible only has what is important, something like this isn’t considered so but it is good to know since we live with ESTJs every day.