Introverts and Extroverts Required for Developing Professionalism

It might be worthwhile to take a brief pause here and discuss traits which impact interpersonal communication. These concepts help understand the behaviour of an individual and how it could impact their communication style. The reason it is important to be aware of these terms at this point is that they are often misunderstood and might cause the learner to apply them unproductively in their interpersonal communication.

Carl Jung, a famous psychologist, coined two terms, which explained how people behave with each other in a context where they have to work together. These terms are called ‘extroversion’ and 'introversion'. Let's hear from Rakesh as he talks more about these two terms and clears the misconceptions regarding them:

Now wasn't that an interesting take on behaviour and its connection to communication?

Let’s summarise the key learnings from this segment:

Those people who derive their energy from the people around them are called extroverts, while those who derive their energy from themselves are called introverts. These terms are more commonly understood as described in the table given below (Williams, 2016).

A common misinterpretation of the table by students and young professionals is that they think they are introverts if they don’t like, or feel nervous, interacting with people in an office or extroverts if they think they are comfortable with speaking in front of an audience. It could be true, but the connection can not be proven scientifically. There are people who could be extroverts and still feel uncomfortable speaking in front of an audience. And there could be introverts who could be comfortable doing it. And there are also people who could demonstrate both the behaviours. These people are called ambiverts. The inability to communicate in front of a group of people in a social and professional context may or may not be related to extroversion or introversion.

In the next segment, you'll learn how you can have comfortable conversations.

Additional Resources:

• Susan Cain explains wonderfully in her TED Talk, the inability to communicate in front of a group of people in a social and professional context may or may not be related to extraversion or introversion. She suggests that this concept is important to understand from a productivity perspective instead of a communication perspective.
• How Bill Gates, Larry Page, and Mark Zuckerberg All Thrive as Introverts | Inc.com 
• Introversion vs. Shyness: The Discussion Continues | Psychology Today