When it comes to workplace productivity and success, there’s a growing conversation around the personality traits of introversion and extroversion. While both types of individuals can make valuable contributions to a team, their approaches can vary widely: Extroverts are typically viewed as outgoing and assertive, while Introverts are often perceived as reserved and introspective. You also have ambiverts, who sit somewhere in the middle of the two.
Research suggests the difference-maker in these personalities is the way our brains process stimuli. That’s also why introverts and extroverts gain their energy from different sources: While extroverts are energized by high-stimulus settings like going to a party, introverts’ energy comes from lower-stimulus environments like reading a book. There’s no one true 100 percent extrovert or introvert — we all exist somewhere on the spectrum that runs between them.
Understanding introversion
Experts estimate that up to half of the people in the U.S. are introverts. From a leadership perspective, that’s potentially half of your team. When you’re responsible for bringing the group together to work toward common goals, you’ve got to make sure you acknowledge and engage every individual, regardless of where they fall in the continuum.
But the way many business leaders operate today leans heavily toward extroverted behaviors — in fact, introverted behaviors are viewed through a negative lens. Introverts tend to think to speak, while extroverts speak to think. The challenge is that we expect and reward the speak-first style in many business environments but dismiss and exclude the think-first style.
So often, we give workplace feedback on how to approach a situation that is more in line with an extroverted style than an introvert. Examples like ‘You need to speak up more in meetings’ or ‘You need to be louder’ are more of a preference from the leader rather than an actual necessity for reaching an end goal. There is no singular stylistic approach to produce desired outcomes. Different approaches can yield similar results. The focus should be on the results delivered, not the manner in which they were achieved.
Many leaders use brainstorming sessions to include and source ideas from a broad audience, but few have thought about how brainstorming might lead to exclusion and suppression of ideas. Oftentimes, you’re just going to get the loudest person or the group-thinking input — typically led by an extrovert. You’re not getting the full breadth of diversity of thought as the approach is limiting toward an introverted style.
In other situations, such as an impromptu meeting or interview, we look for an extroverted communication style that we’ve come to expect from these business situations. When we don’t see it, we place judgment: They didn’t speak up in the meeting, so they must not have anything worthwhile to say.
This type of thinking creates environments that are extrovert-biased and forces some employees out of their natural preference of being an introvert.
Engaging appropriately
To create an environment of inclusion and belonging, it’s important to understand the differences between introverts and extroverts and engage both appropriately so everyone can bring their authentic selves to work. Achieving the best group results starts with prioritizing individuals, and that means leaders must be flexible in their approach. Some simple ways to tweak your environment include:
- Understand individual styles. Introverts tend to think through things and respond differently than extroverts, so it’s important to recognize the distinction. We often expect eye contact in the business world because for many people, it signals engagement and paying attention. Still, many introverts need to focus elsewhere to think through what they’ve just heard, so that’s an unfair assumption. Similarly, many people are uncomfortable with quiet pauses in conversation; they feel if they don’t get an immediate answer to a question, the other person is not listening. Introverts need that time to process their thoughts and respond, so knowing that about that person can help alleviate the potential uneasiness.
- Adjust the way you gather ideas. Often, introverts don’t speak up immediately (or loudly) in meetings because of the need to process the information they’ve just heard. To help ensure you include their input, provide the discussion topics in advance of the meeting so they have time to think about their responses rather than immediately writing them down or blurting them out. Or take a few minutes at the beginning of the meeting to allow all attendees to write down their thoughts individually to engage the entire team. It’s a small tweak, but it helps ensure you get all the ideas from everyone in the room.
- Be thoughtful about feedback. The words you use when providing feedback matter. They can reinforce negative stereotypes that undermine introverts’ ability to be authentic at work and diminish their advancement potential. Being conscious of both the intention behind feedback and the wording can ensure introverts receive actionable guidance that will set them up for success.
- Make introverts visible. Many times, in a business setting, extracurricular roles are what make employees stand out. If your office is forming committees or participating in outside initiatives, find ways to enable introverts to lead or show up in other roles and responsibilities. Too often, the introvert is not seen as a contender for those roles due to preconceived notions of what leadership or program ownership involves. But that leaves you with only one version of outcomes. An introvert may not be the external-facing mouthpiece of your public campaign, but they might be a great choice to organize it.
Inclusion, engagement, and productivity
When your employees feel comfortable and secure bringing their authentic selves to work, you get the best out of them. When they don’t, you get a masked version of their potential. Being intentional about fostering introverted employees enables those individuals to be themselves and leads to an environment where the unique contributions of both introverts and extroverts are balanced, acknowledged and embraced. When this dynamic shows up in your culture, it often manifests in the form of increased engagement and productivity.
At 84.51° and Kroger Co., our employee resource group, ITOPiA, empowers and supports introverts through education, career development and more. Many ITOPiA members have noted that for the first time, they feel accepted and supported in a workplace. We want to maximize every introvert’s potential and create environments where they feel empowered to be themselves. When they can operate in a way that’s comfortable to them, it brings out their best thinking. And the more diversity of thought you have, the better the outcomes.
