PEOPLE
“Introverts are better at managing proactive employees because they’re more likely to let them run with their ideas, to implement new and creative ideas” Susan Cain, author of Quiet
56
Perhaps the most interesting piece of research Cain highlights in Quiet relates to a study conducted by management professor Adam Grant at Wharton University of Pennsylvania. The findings, contrary to expectation, showed that introverts are the best people to lead extroverts and vice versa. Cain explains why this would be. “Introverts are better at managing proactive employees because they’re more likely to let them run with their ideas, to implement new and creative ideas,” she says. While with their natural enthusiasm and drive, extroverts may often seem ideal to lead a project forward, this very nature can sometimes cause them to unconsciously pass over others’ contributions and not make the most of the talent they’re working with. However, if you have a group of introverts, a manager who can be stimulating and confident can make all the difference. “On the other hand, when employees need rousing, when they need inspiration, extroverts tend to be the better leaders,” says Cain. There are all manner of other techniques used to measure and categorise personality, many of which build directly on Jung’s ideas. But few of them have gained as much ground in the workplace as the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. Myers Briggs evaluates an individual in terms of their place upon four spectrums: introversion–extroversion, sensing–intuition, thinking–feeling and perceiving–judging. By assessing which poles of the spectrum are more dominant in a person, this provides a theoretical model of how they respond to and process the world around them, summarised in a four letter ‘type’ that details their most dominant characteristics – for example ESTP. Think Training & Development is one of the country’s most prominent providers of Myers Briggs workplace training and its managing director, Gavin Aubrey, is clear on how it can help us to better understand one another.
“Before I did Myers Briggs I got on really well with about a third of people,” he recalls. “A third I had to work harder with. And then a third I just thought were completely odd.” Aubrey explains how he, like the most of us, assumed that people thought about and saw the world the way he did. When people acted in ways he didn’t understand, it was a more natural leap in logic to assume they were a deviation from the norm. It wasn’t until he began to engage in Myers Briggs that he realised that these people weren’t ‘abnormal’; they just processed things differently. “It’s strange that it took me so long to work out
that actually people think differently,” he says. How does understanding this help someone work better with a team? Aubrey gives an example, explaining that he falls very firmly on the thinking side of the thinkingfeeling spectrum. “I have no feelings,” he jokes. “I’m cold and dark inside.” Obviously, this isn’t true but it highlights how valuable it can be to have individuals around for whom emotional empathy is more natural. “Sometimes I can forget the values and the appreciation within the group,” he explains. “Quite often I use more emotionally astute people within the
www.elitebusinessmagazine.co.uk October 2012
A Personal Touch(L).indd 2
30/09/2012 15:53