The short story:
It is so common for people to assume that having Judging as a preference has something to do with being judgmental that it is mentioned in the manual.
On page 27 of the third edition of “A Guide to the Development and Use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator” it says,
People new to the MBTI erroneously assume that Judging types are necessarily judgmental.
Judging is one of two ways that people prefer to interact with the world. People who prefer Judging like a planned and organized approach to life and prefer to have things decided.
That’s it.
Judging is about an orientation to the world that prefers to have closure…having things decided. That’s what this term means. There are some implications and you can read more about some of the characteristics here. Being judgmental is not one of the characteristics in the list of typical behaviours for this “attitude” or orientation.
Two of my BEST friends told me in unison last weekend with heads nodding (but in the most loving way, of course) that I am judgmental and I am an ENFP… a very clear Perceiver. (BTW everyone needs good friends to keep them on the right path, and I admit that there is room for improvement)… But I won’t tackle being judgmental by judging myself harshly. That is a recipe for creating an even bigger ball of judgmental wax.
Last year ACCEPTANCE was my theme for the year. I even painted it. Being judgmental is a waste of time IMHO…whether it is directed outwardly toward others or inwardly toward yourself. Rather than judging myself for it I am working on accepting it and consequently letting the grip of being judgmental ease.
The longer version
Read on if you would like a little theory with your short story
Judging and Perceiving are the final preference pair of the four pairs of preferences that make up the MBTI type code. This pair refer to a person’s orientation to the world. Some people habitually prefer to use judgment. These people move very quickly through their preferred function for taking in information (Sensing or Intuition) to come to closure by making a decision. They prefer to make decisions based on either Judging function of Thinking or Feeling.
Those with a preference for Perceiving tend to be oriented toward taking in information either by Sensing or Intuition and they defer making a decision (aka Judging). People with a preference for Perceiving do not want to miss anything that may be important.
In the workplace there can be considerable tension between these two ways of dealing with the world without adding the burden of being judgmental. Perhaps managing expectations and developing healthy strategies to get the job done might be a better way to spend time.