What INFPs Are Good At

INFPs have many great qualities, but we are often a little unsure of what we are good at and how it’s valuable to others. I discuss three things in this blog post that INFPs are good at and how they can be directly and indirectly useful at a job or on a career path.

Recently, I came across the question of what INFPs are good at, and I thought it would be a great topic to explore.

There are a couple of questions behind the question here, however. So, if you’re asking the question “what am I good at?” the question behind that is, “what do I do that’s valuable?” “What skills do I have that are valuable to others?” And of course, the question behind that is, “how can I make money from it?”I think this is a career/money question that’s being asked in terms of personality type.

INFPs have lots of positive qualities, and you’ll see those written about and discussed in a lot of different spaces, and some of them are easy to name. For instance, INFPs are kind, and we’re creative, and we’re very empathic, have a lot of compassion, and are easy going (at least on the surface).

We know we have these positive qualities, but it’s time to take a little closer look at a few things that INFPs do that are really valuable.

Listening

The very first of these things is listening. This is, far and away, probably our very top skill. And what’s nice about this is we really enjoy it because listening really appeals to our curiosity. So when we’re out in the world and we’re in front of other people, we go into our intuition because we direct our intuition in an extraverted way.

When INFPs are in front of another person, it’s very easy for us to sit there and listen to them because we’re enjoying it. Of course, you’ve probably also gotten stuck with someone you’re listening to, but that’s more of a case of needing to practice your boundaries. But, listening in general is a fairly enjoyable activity for us.

Of course, people love to be listened to. I probably don’t have to tell you that. Most people in the world love to be listened to, and probably a majority of those people feel that they’re not listened to enough. This is absolutely something that INFPs are very good at that is very valuable to others.

In terms of careers, you could be in a career, or want to be in a career, where listening is a very direct skill that you’re going to use, such as being a counselor or therapist.

But it can also be an indirect skill that you use. You could be in any type of a field. You could be in any type of an office or environment, and your listening skills are going to make you a valuable asset to whatever team you are on. People may not even realize how much value they assign to you, but they do know that you’re a great person to talk to when they need someone to listen or that they just feel good around you.

Reading People

The second skill that INFPs are great it is being able to read people. This goes back to our extraverted intuition. We are able to pick up really well on what’s going on with other people. It’s a skill that lends itself to being more of an observer, which we certainly are as introverts. We tend to sit back a little bit and watch other people, watch the action, see what’s going on. When you’re good at reading people, what you have is information about what it is that they want and need.

So, let’s go back to the example of working in an office, and you pick up on something your supervisor really likes for you to do. They may never have directly said it, and it might be very personal to them. It might not even be a job requirement, but you have an idea of what it is they like. Doing this thing will make your supervisor really happy, which, of course, then makes your life a lot easier.

Being able to read people gives you a lot of information that’s not directly on the surface that you can use to direct your actions. And of course, this could get manipulative, right? Now, INFPs, being quite ethical and having a strong sense of what’s right, we’re going to have a tendency to use our power for good rather than evil.

But I’m talking about it in a very neutral sense. You’re just able to perceive things about people, and then you can really use that to direct your own actions.

Another example of this could be if you are a creator of some sort, you may be able to pick up on ideas for your creations by observing a group of people, maybe online. Being able to read people means you can pick out things that the group needs or wants, and then you can create something for them.

Creative Problem Solving

The last thing that INFPs are good it is problem solving, and particularly unconventional problem solving. We are good at coming up with stuff on the fly and with generating possibilities.

We can approach a problem and really see it in a way that others don’t that gives us insight into how to tackle it. We can come up with some things that will work, but no one would have thought they would have worked. We can do this fairly quickly. We have a nimbleness when it comes to being creative and coming up with ideas.

I think a lot of times, we certainly think of INFPs as being creative, but we tend to think of that more in an artistic sense, more in terms of expressing ourselves. And that’s certainly true. But it can really be put to good use in creative problem solving.

INFPs don’t need to be real planned out necessarily either. Let’s go back to the imaginary office. Maybe some issue arose suddenly and no one’s quite sure what to do. Well, you might be able to tackle it in a way that would have been very difficult for someone else who needs to plan first in order to come up with something.

So, there you have it. Three things that INFPs are good at. Any of them could be used in any job or career. So if you’re at a job that doesn’t suit you personally, in terms of the content of what you’re doing, you can still add an authentic contribution to your team or to your workplace based on your unique skills. That’s something to keep in mind.

The bottom line is that INFPs are definitely good at stuff that is valuable, and we can apply those things to help other people.

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Amanda Linehan is the author of Productivity For INFPs. She is an independent author, coach, and INFP, who has published six full-length books and has been read in 113 countries. Amanda was a speaker at the INF Summit in February 2020. Learn more about her Productivity For INFPs Online Course on the course page.