Planner Personality Style - Personality Lingo (2024)

Those with the Planner (SJ-Gold) personality style are steadfast, reliable, and conscientious.

Responsible by nature, Planners aim to create a life that is safe and secure. Not content to waste time, they tend to be responsibly active filling their schedules with “must dos” and “gotta-get dones”.

Planners usually have a well defined picture of what things need to be like in order for them to be happy and plan accordingly with steadfast determination.

You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.

-Abraham Lincoln

Not afraid to work hard for what they want, Planners may spend a great deal of their time in goal attainment. They have a realistic sense of what needs to happen – and when it should happen, in order to complete tasks and accomplish objectives. They take on many responsibilities for their families, organizations and communities.

Their penchant for planning, drives them make check lists for tasks and create back-up plans in case. things don’t go as anticipated.

… in order to make dreams into a reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.

-Jesse Owens

Stability

As traditional, rule-abiding citizens, Planners are hard-working and dedicated to their families. They have a strong sense of what is right and wrong. They prefer to have set rules and a chain of command to follow.

Planner Internal Compass

Planners like to establish a routine they can rely on. This gives them a sense of security in knowing they have something tried and true so they can have a strong foundation to stand on in case unexpected challenges arise. They are more likely to save for a rainy day than spend on a whim.

Planners thrive on regularity, efficient use of time, and predictability. They derive great pleasure knowing that they can be counted on to follow through. They believe in “work before play” and “doing the right thing”.

Planner Frustrations

Planners can get frustrated if others surprise them with unexpected requests and try to put more on their plate than they know is reasonably possible – knowing that some task will need to be eliminated to add a new one.

They have a tendency to get annoyed when others interrupt their schedule or change topics several times during conversation. They can be insistent that a matter gets completed before moving on to another.

The reward of a thing well done is to have it done.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Before Planners make a decision, they pause to determine, “What is my responsibility…what should I be doing?” Furthermore, they ask themselves, “What should others be doing…what is their responsibility?” When Planners say they will do something they will follow through. They will do what they say they will do, when they say they will do it…the way it is supposed to be done!

Once Planners make a commitment, they like to stick with it and do everything in their power to keep it.

The terms used to describe the Planner style are plentiful (as you can see by the graphic at the top of this page). We at Personality Lingo strive to bridge the gap in understanding of terms so personality enthusiasts and those they teach can recognize the various differences and commonalities between systems. To get you started, the following is some nomenclature associated with the Planner Style.

The term, Melancholic, originating from Galen and brought to Waldorf schools by Rudolf Steiner roughly correlates with the Planner style. Old school Keirsey/Bates fans use Epimethean to describe this style, while the present Keirsey devotees refer to Planners as Guardians or SJs. The most frequently used term by color enthusiasts, such as admirers of Don Lowry’s True Colors model is Gold. Personality Dimensions, Color Lingo, and Real Colors also use Gold to describe this personality style. Similarly the color Gold is used to represent the Planner personality style in the Spectrum Temperament and Insight Learning models. The MBTI personality inventory subdivides the Planner style into four personality types: ISTJ, ESTJ, ISFJ, and ESFJ.

For additional comparisons, please see our Personality Systems Compared page.