Ambiverts: the fine middle ground
Introversion and extroversion are often viewed as black-and-white concepts. You either party like a madman or lock your room for unlimited me-time.
In reality, introversion and extroversion can be viewed more like a scale, with people falling in varying degrees. A study suggests more than two-thirds of people lie somewhere in between. They’re the introvert-extrovert hybrids called ambiverts.
“It is like they’re bilingual,” Daniel Pink, an author and host of Crowd Control, a TV series on human behavior, told The Wall Street Journal. “They have a wider range of skills and can connect with a wider range of people in the same way someone who speaks English and Spanish can.”
As it turns out, ambiverts are the best salespeople. In a 2013 study, 340 call center representatives took a personality test their sales revenues were monitored for three months. The representatives who make the most sales turn out to be the ambiverts, according to their personality tests.
Ambiverts are in a good balance and are better in understanding other people’s emotions. This makes them better in relationships says Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
The drawback of having both characteristics is sometimes feeling confused on which to follow. This can leave ambiverts feeling stuck at times, Grant says.
He also offers this piece of advice: “Read each situation more carefully,” he said in a Wall Street Journal interview, “and ask yourself, ‘What do I need to do right now to be most happy or successful?’”
Category: Features, Wellness and Complementary Therapies
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