Beware of leading with stereotypes
The preference for introversion or extraversion begins to appear in childhood and shapes the way we interact, learn, and work all our lives. In broad terms, those with a preference for extraversion tend to draw energy from being around people, making things happen, and talking through issues while getting input from others. Those with an introversion preference are drawn to their inner world of thoughts and ideas, preferring to think through what they’re going to do before taking action. They’re most comfortable working alone or with one or two other people.
It might seem obvious who on your team is an introvert and who isn’t, but Woods advises leaders to use caution when looking at staff through this lens. “We often look at these things informally, but the informal use of the terms introvert and extravert has no science behind it,” she says. Woods says it’s easy to misinterpret someone’s behaviors as being extraverted or introverted. “An employee may have a preference for introversion, but their job requires them to use extraversion behaviors all day long. Their manager sees that behavior and may come to the erroneous conclusion that this person is an extravert, which may lead the manager to have misinformed expectations of that employee,” warns Woods. This kind of stereotyping around introversion and extraversion doesn’t end there.
- Stereotype: People are either introverted or extraverted. People aren’t always one or the other: The preference is on a spectrum, with a significant percentage of individuals near the middle, says Woods. All of us, no matter our clarity of preference on the extraversion/introversion scale, have the capability of behaving in either extraverted or introverted ways.
- Stereotype: Extraverts are more successful. Woods says neither introversion nor extraversion makes one better or more effective at work. “There’s no one best way to approach all situations,” she says. “And certainly, from a leadership perspective, there is no preference that makes one a better leader than the other.”
- Stereotype: You can treat all introverts or all extraverts the same way. It’s not true that every person with an extraversion preference is noticeably outgoing. And, those who prefer introversion are not necessarily shy (shyness is unrelated to an introversion preference). Relying too much on the labels “introvert” or “extravert” is an oversimplification of human behavior. There are other personality traits to consider, such as being open to change or more cautious, or the level of a person’s impulse control.
- Stereotype: Extraverts have hated working from home, and introverts loved it. Working from home has not been a universal experience—remember, 29% of workers haven’t worked from home at all. Those who flourished at home did so for many reasons apart from whether they could be considered an introvert or an extravert.
The stereotypes point out the dangers for leaders: “As a leader, if I decided that one of my teammates is an extravert, I might assume he’ll never take the time to think through things,” Woods says. “It automatically limits my thinking—limits my interactions with him, my expectations of him. It limits what I notice, because we tend to notice what we assume.”
Woods says leaders need to ask themselves more questions than “Is this person an introvert or an extravert?” Instead, try: “What’s getting in my way of seeing a teammate as more than what I assume she is? Why am I coming to that conclusion?”
“It might lead me to ask the other person, ‘What’s important to you?’ or talk more deeply with them about the behaviors I’m noticing,” she explains.