A recent survey by Charity Finance magazine found that the charity sector attracts a particular type of person. David Ainsworth looks in more detail at what this might mean.

Last month I wrote a piece for Charity Finance magazine, this website’s sister title, on the personality types which are most prevalent in the charity sector. It revealed quite strongly that the charity sector attracts a particular type of individual.

The survey used the Myers-Briggs personality type indicator, which measures your personality on four indices, giving 16 distinct personality types.

The four axes measure (to put it very crudely):

• Whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert
• Whether you’re sensing (more comfortable with detail) or intuitive (more focused on the big picture)
• Whether you’re thinking (focused more on information and facts), or feeling (focused more on people and relationships)
• Whether you’re judging (you like to make plans) or perceiving (you go with the flow)

I’m not sure it’s a good idea to get into all the detail. The test gets quite nuanced when you delve down into it – many people are on the border between several types, and individuals can have primary and secondary types, depending on their situation.

It’s also not a perfect tool, and I feel it’s right to recognise that there are a lot of doubts about it. But it certainly seems to be a good framework for identifying relationships.

But the headline findings are quite revealing.

The single most interesting thing the survey as a whole revealed was the huge prevalence of one personality type in the charity sector. Between a third and a quarter of charity workers (at least, the senior charity workers who did our survey) fell into the same group.

The charity sector has a personality type, in short – the protagonist.

On the Myers-Briggs indices, the protagonist is an ENFJ (extrovert, intuitive, feeling and judging). Protagonists are rare in the rest of the UK – they make up only 2 per cent of the general population – but in charities, they’re common as muck. Probably you’re sitting within six feet of one. (If you work in a fundraising department, it’s almost nailed on. Even in a finance department, where they’re rarer, I reckon it’s 50-50.)

Anyway, what does this mean?

Firstly, that charities are full of caring, likeable people. The protagonist personality type is outgoing, interested in the big picture, more interested in people than principles, and full of plans. Their outgoing and empathetic natures make them natural altruists and their charisma and loyalty to others makes them effective leaders – Barack Obama is said to be a protagonist personality type. Protagonists value being liked and they are good at it, too.

Protagonists are team players, and are very likely to seek compromise and harmony, but sometimes they are focused on this to the detriment of good decision making.

The protagonist is also an idealist. This is a problem, because they find it easy to let idealism cloud their judgement – they focus on what ought to happen, rather than what is likely to.

But it also throws up a couple of really interesting weaknesses.

The protagonist personality type is very focused on the team, the group and the tribe. So a team full of protagonists has to be careful, because they have a tendency towards groupthink – when a group of people together make a decision none of the individuals would have chosen, and which people outside the group find illogical. The ENFJ personality type, with its strong desire for harmony and clear decision-making, is a true believer – more likely than most to agree to a barmy idea for the sake of harmony, and likely to really make it part of themselves.

The protagonist is also capable of becoming quite closed-minded if they feel that someone is not on the team. A protagonist will naturally want to bring everyone into the tent, but if that cannot be achieved, a common option is to just ignore completely those who disagree, and stop listening to their contribution.

I don’t pretend to be an expert in this business of personality analysis – I just wrote an article about it – but I did see the signs of this behaviour in some of the crises that have faced the sector – a tendency to follow a path that those outside can see is not the right one, and to ignore outside criticism, even from those who want to help.

Having said all that, it’s obvious that the protagonist personality type is one where the strengths really outweigh the weaknesses. The ENFJ is a dude – infectiously enthusiastic, charming, a natural leader, and an instinctive altruist. It’s a group we could do with a few more of.

• To find out more or take a short test, see here