Introverts and Extoverts

Yesterday the ITSS Management Team shared our individual results on version of the Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory, provided free online by HumanMetrics.  One very interesting outcome is that all but one of us showed up as extroverts.  Does this mean that extroversion is important for success in leadership?  I don't think so.  Introverts have many advantages in life.  An interesting book on this topic is The Introvert Advantage:  How to Thrive in an Extrovert World by Marti Olsen Laney.  Perhaps you can tell by the title of the book that this author believes extroversion is more widely valued in our work world.  Assuming that is true, introverts may need to work a bit harder to capitalize on the strengths that come with introversion.

On the personality inventory, I came up as an extrovert, but only barely.  I find that I need alone time to relax and recharge.  The introvert in our group has some extrovert tendencies, too.  Like many human characteristics, there is likely to be a bell curve lurking, with most of us in the middle, having some blend of extrovert and introvert.  Relatively few are off the scale on either end. 

I happened to meet a man this week who is a high extrovert.  He was on campus interviewing for a job, and he talked about how the interview experience charged him up.  I know if I had been on a rigorous interview schedule all day, I'd want to go home at the end of the day and collapse.  But not this man.  He predicted he would not even be able to sleep that night, since he was so excited by the whole experience.

I believe that both introverts and extroverts bring valuable qualities to leadership.  Moreover, we may need to temper our qualities in order to be good leaders for all sorts of people.  At the very least, leaders should be aware of the spectrum of characteristics along the introvert-extrovert scale.  We may have to try a little harder to engage high introverts, and we may have to protect ourselves from being overwhelmed by high extroverts.  Overall, we need to value all of the skills that people bring to the table.