Introvert vs. Extrovert

Welcome: 00:00

Welcome to this Mt Nebo Leadership Podcast Leaders Lift Shorts Episode - Introvert vs. Extrovert.

I'm your host Greg Cunningham and I look forward to being a part of your leadership journey.

Topic Intro

Today I wanted to follow up on Episode 2 where I talked about personality styles in great detail. In that episode I used a few examples that talked about being an introvert vs. being an extrovert. I thought I would spend just a few minutes today expanding on what that means and share some stories from my own experience.

What it Means to Be An Introvert or Extrovert

Before we get into some stories, let's first define what it means to be an introvert vs. an extrovert. The most common view of both of these terms is that introverts like to be alone and extroverts are more outgoing and prefer to be around others.  That's kind of true but there is a much better way to look at this.

I like to think of being an introvert more as what types of activities drain your batteries more quickly than others and what types of activities help you recharge those batteries. An introvert would have their batteries drained more quickly by being around a bunch of people, say in a large call center while an extrovert is generally more energized in that same environment. An introvert might be more interested in research where there is much less people interaction while an extrovert might find that draining.

I want to be clear that this does not mean that introverts don't like people but extroverts do. That's not the same as how your energy may be affected by others.

My Stories

Let me give you a couple of personal examples to further illustrate what I mean. I've been in a leadership role managing for the vast majority of my career. Some of it was in a call center environment where there was zero silence and I was always surrounded by people. My wonderful wife is absolutely an extrovert and gets her energy by being around others. We have joked for quite some time that if I was in charge of the social activities for our church unit we would have one dinner at Christmas that would be fully catered. She on the other hand would plan an activity a month.

When I first started my career I was much more extreme as an introvert (vs. the more balanced results I see now). My first management assignment was in a high growth call center. My wife was taking care of our kids and doing daycare out of our home.

When I came home after work, all I wanted was some quiet downtime so that I could recharge my batteries. All my wife wanted was conversation and interaction with someone that was taller than her knees. Anyone see the problem here?

At the time I didn't understand why we had this conflict but it consistently caused stress. It took us a while to work through things and figure out a routine. It wasn't until much later that I was able to tie this back to personality styles. If I had known then what I know now, we could have sat down and talked through how to make sure both of us had opportunities to recharge.

Pandemic Impact

Now, I know this may make this episode run over the 5 minute mark but I want to talk about the impact the pandemic had on introverts and extroverts. I think most people would assume that the introverts would be just fine with the social distancing guidelines. I saw all of the memes. But the reality is that both introverts and extroverts had challenges. The extroverts were challenged because being around groups of people socially or professionally went away almost over night. No amount of zoom really could really replace that.

Introverts were challenged because all of a sudden they had a much more difficult time escaping for some of the solo time they needed. That's because all of a sudden they were home and so was everyone else. My home had so many kids and grandkids at the peak that I ended up moving my office to our camp trailer. That was the only place where I could work in solitude.

What I think about now is how I might have tried to do things a bit differently if I had stopped at the beginning of the pandemic and remembered which were the I's and which were the E's in my house. I think I missed a really good opportunity to deliberately take advantage of this knowledge.

But I think this also shows you how you could take this information about yourself and your family and apply it to help ease the pain of those stressful times or to just improve your relationships.

Wrap Up

I hope this gives you just a bit better idea of what it means to be an introvert vs. an extrovert. Each aspect of you personality style can be analyzed in this same way. I've also given two examples of how this was or could have been applied outside the workplace. The principles are essentially the same, you just have to apply the concepts slightly differently.

The other thing I hope you get out of this, and that I wish I had learned much earlier, is to lean into and embrace your core personality. I don't mean use your traits as an excuse to be a poor leader or to do things that are just wrong. I mean that you should really get to know yourself and leverage those things that you are going to do naturally and do really well. As for the potential pitfalls, be aware of them just as I was aware that I was going to not be on top of my game if I did not find some time to recharge my batteries.

We absolutely needs leaders with all of the different styles so don't think your style won't get you to your fullest potential. In fact, the only way to meet your fullest potential in all aspects of life will be to align with your style.

I'll also point out that you may not agree with every aspect of your style. That's ok too. Take that into account as you work to align your life and goals. What I can tell you is that when you are aligned, that is when you will see some impressive things happen.

If you want to keep learning about personality styles and haven't already, listen to Episode 2 specifically about overall personality styles. I'll also be releasing a bonus episode where I go into more detail about my own style and how I have tried to embrace that style. The full bonus episode will be available to premium subscribers on patreon.

And if you are interested in learning more about your own style, go to www.mtneboconsulting.com and click on coaching services. There you can get more details on my personality package. For a limited time I'm discounting my primary package down to $99 so it's a great time to take advantage of it.

Post Roll

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Thank you again for tuning in. Now go out there and keep lifting.