/, Recruitment, Work Tips/Dealing with Team Members

Dealing with Team Members

There are typically two different types of team members – the extroverts and the introverts. If you are leading a team this post will show you the best way to lead both extroverts and introverts.

So how do we define which members of your team are extroverts or introverts?

Extroverts

These are socially confident “people people”; they are happiest when they have others around them.

Extroverts are energetic, funny and love to be the centre of attention. They are prepared to do almost anything to keep the spotlight on them. They find it is easy to begin contact with new people – they are the life and soul of the party.

Variety is needed by extroverts, without it they become bored quickly. Especially when carrying out repetitive individual tasks their attention span tends to be shorter than introverts. They continually want to be open and express their thoughts on what they are doing.They tend to have a large variety of friends, and will put a lot of energy into their friendships.

team members

Introverts

These are quiet and restrained people; they still love other peoples company but certainly do not crave the centre of attention the way an extrovert does. They tend to keep their social encounters with others in more measured doses which they like to control – so people coming round unannounced is stressful, even if they aren’t interrupting anything.

They generally don’t like attention from a crowd, this is unless of course it is a familiar crowd. They are the ones who although may go out, will be quietly listening and laughing with all eyes on one or many extroverts in their circle.

Focused mainly on their own internal world, introverts can be at times oblivious to what is going on around them. This is due to the fact that they have a great skill of shutting the world out, and being happy in chosen isolation. At times they may find it tiring to pay attention to other people for a length of time, yet they can concentrate on particular things that interest them for ages.

Introverts generally have a small circle of close and trusted friends that they would do anything for, even if they don’t always see them. They keep their thoughts to themselves, until they have thought them through. They are also very uncomfortable being made to speak about something they are not sure about.

How to lead them

Extraverts and introverts need to be led in different ways.

Extraverts need to be left to dive in right away! Encourage their passion to do the task in hand. Most extraverts like to speak in order to think, so let them do so – and make sure you listen to the many ideas that they have.

You’ll find extraverts tend to like to multi-task, so encourage them to work that way. Make sure that you respect their independent way of doing things.

Introverts need to think in order to speak, they want to be sure of what they are thinking before they say it aloud – so give them time to make decisions.

Just like with extraverts, make sure that you respect the way in which they work and appreciate that they may have a need to work more independently. Always listen to them carefully and help them learn at their own pace.

Most of all… let both the extraverts and introverts in the team you are leading shine in their own individual way, and by doing it the way that works best for them.

 

2022-08-19T09:11:30+00:00 Careers, Recruitment, Work Tips|