Behold the Counselor

Counselors are an enigmatic portion of our race: Rare and difficult to understand. Slightly more than 3% of our world consists of counselors and, due to their heavily concealed personalities, if you know one, you may not even recognize it.

How to Recognize a Counselor

Counselors are hard to pick out. Even they may not realize what they really are. They live rich and emotional lives, but constantly broadcast a brave face and hide their feelings away. One of the signs of a counselor is that you will constantly be learning new things about them. This isn't necessarily because they are constantly changing, but because there's almost always some part of there personality that you've never asked about.

In groups, counselors pay a great deal of attention to group cohesion. They will friend people individually, but can be awkward in groups, even of friends. They will use these friendships to help people get along better as they work their magic from the background. Rarely will they take lead, but when they do, they lead very emotionally and vest in the people under them. Much of their focus as leaders will be making sure that everyone is getting along.

If you make friends with a counselor, they will quickly prove that they are someone who can be confided in and depended on. It will be difficult, however, to convince them to confide in or depend on you. They are too focused on helping others around them to consider that others may want to help them. Often, they will shoulder the burden of themselves as well as everyone they love. They won't give any sign of the weight they're under. They will simply continue to smile and help.

What to do with a Counselor

Counselors represent a great emotional value. As a friend their focus is on you. They want you to be happy. They want you to be successful. They want to help you with your problems. With so much focus on the well being of others, they are also easily taken advantage of, even accidentally. Be careful how much you rely on a counselor. They will rarely ask for anything in return, but if taken advantage of, they will eventually realize it. The pain they feel from that will cause them to withdrawal. This withdrawal can possibly be so deep they become practically inaccessible.

In group settings, counselors are a valuable tool to cure damages in emotional structure. If made aware of emotional deficits in the group, they will almost automatically start to resolve them, if resolution is possible. Many times, they won't even realize the impact of what they've done. Also, counselors are very adept at picking up on the intentions of others. If they spend time developing this natural skill, they can make predictions about people that seem almost psychic. Even without full realization, counselors are very good barometers of personalities.

Counselors make complicated partners as being open does not come easily to them. They will be happy to listen to all of your problems. When it's their turn, however: Silence. Often it may seem nothing is wrong at all. You may have to learn to “trick” your partner into tell you how they feel until they can open up. Other times, it may seem that something is wrong when nothing is. Having time alone is very important to the counselor. They will need time to recharge as almost every interaction they have with people will be draining. Understanding this will be a very important part of maintaining a relationship with a counselor.

Over time, the counselor will warm up to you and communication will be easier. Unfortunately, this can also be easily undone. Counselors maintain a protective shell that takes a long time to break down. If you hurt a counselor that has opened up to you, you can undo months or years or trust. A counselor can be one of the most complicated people you know, but they can also be one of the most interesting and entertaining.


References

Portrait of the Counselor
INFJ

Behold the Mastermind

Of all the types of people in our world, the mastermind is one of the most unique and most rare. If you know 100 people, maybe one of them is a mastermind. Less than 3% of the world's population consists of masterminds and their introverted nature makes them especially hard to find.

How to Recognize a Mastermind

Being introverted, a mastermind is usually drained by prolonged periods of exposure to large crowds of people. They keep a few close friends and care not for more. For a mastermind, the quality of their interactions holds much higher value than the quantity of interactions.

When thinking, the mastermind will always focus on the big picture. Even when forced to dive into the details, he or she will think about how each detail ties into the greater whole. Forward thinking, the mastermind will have plans that span weeks, months, or even years into the future. On top of that, they will have contingencies and fail-safes to back up nearly every action they take.

Masterminds think more than they feel. They have set criteria for how they act, how they think, and even how they choose their friends. This can make the mastermind seem cold and uncaring as they often overlook how their actions can impact the feeling of others. On the other side of the same coin, they are seldom hurt when others act against them in favor of logic as long as the mastermind gets a chance to understand the logic behind the decision.

Finally, masterminds have rules for almost everything, often many more than they need. This is a mechanism that permits them to control situations by making them more predictable. It does, however, make their lives more limiting as they tend to avoid situations they feel they can't control reliably.

What to do with a Mastermind

Masterminds hold a unique capability to lead, but often have no desire to do so. Typically, if a group lacks a leader or has one who is completely inept, any masterminds in the group will step up to the plate and take over. Once this is done, their authority is unshakable. He or she will create new systems that increase efficiency and, if possible, automate many parts of group management. If this is what you want, convince the mastermind to take leadership and you can reap the benefits of the systems he or she creates. If you wish to lead over the mastermind, prove that you are active and capable. The mastermind will be happy to follow.

The analytical parts of the mastermind make them especially useful as problem solvers. If you need to solve a problem, give it to a mastermind. Problems are like candy to them, they can't help but solve them. Be prepared, however, as the solution a mastermind comes up with is bound to be complicated if complication increases efficiency or the chances of success. If the solution is rejected without appropriate evidence to back up the logic behind the rejection, the mastermind will provide a hard defense. These situations can often damage the mastermind's loyalty to you.

In relationships, masterminds can be difficult. Typically, they carry around a rule set for what they desire in a partner and they will often reject those who doesn't meet the majority of their requirements. Once in a relationship, he or she will create a system for how they will act in the relationship and, possibly, how they expect their partner to act. This can really limit their ability to be romantic. To make matters worse, while not incapable of legitimate love, masterminds have difficulty feeling many of the less intense emotions. To compensate for this, they will learn to fake several or all of them. To a semi-educated observer, it will often seem that a mastermind is lying when they are very much trying to be sincere. On the contrary, the ability to fake emotions makes them very effective liars if they are of malicious intent. Trust and honesty are very important components in a relationship with a mastermind, even more so than with people of other personalities.


References

Portrait of the Mastermind
INTJ