Extroverts and leadership

Amid the buzz of a Nakuru-based tech company, John Njoroge, a software engineer, never hesitates to voice his ideas during team meetings. His vibrant personality and gregarious nature dominate team interactions, making him the unofficial spokesperson for his colleagues.

But cracks start to appear in the team’s once shiny façade. Projects start missing deadlines and the formerly cohesive team seems divided.

Colleagues start to complain behind closed doors about Njoroge’s overpowering personality. Employees find his approach leaves little room for others to contribute, hampering the collective brainstorming crucial to the innovative field of software development.

As the team grapples with missed opportunities, they wonder if the loudest voice necessarily makes the best leader.

Multiple research studies shared in Business Talk in the Business Daily over the years highlight the pro-extrovert bias that companies show and the downsides of extroverted colleagues and leaders.

A new study by researchers Tyree Mitchell, James Lemoine, and Diana Lee recently delved into the complicated relationship between extraversion and leadership emergence.

According to their study, the traditional belief linking extraversion to effective leadership warrants serious reconsideration. They argue that communication skills stand apart from extraversion and may play a pivotal role in who emerges as a leader within a team setting.

The research also highlights how a team’s overall level of extraversion can shape leadership dynamics.

The scholars conducted two studies in assessment centre contexts and found that extraversion’s impact on leadership varies significantly depending on the team’s overall personality makeup.

It suggests that a team with a high level of extraversion may cultivate different leadership prototypes, shifting the importance of extraversion and communication skills in leadership emergence to dependent on a team’s own internal dynamics.

As employees, these findings serve as an eye-opener. No longer can one assume that the most outgoing person will excel in a leadership role in contrast to previous research.

Workers should also focus on honing their communication skills, which can prove invaluable in both individual and team settings. Communication skills plus extroversion behaviour can harness better leadership potential, team performance target completion, and promotion potential.

Managers should revisit their criteria for potential leaders within their teams. Relying directly or indirectly solely on extraversion as an indicator can prove shortsighted and may even damage team cohesion.

Just because a staff member eagerly offers up the first solution in team meetings or volunteers happily for tasks does not mean they actually perform better.

Instead, managers should consider a balanced approach that includes evaluating communication skills and understanding the personality dynamics of the entire team and juxtaposes the dynamics against the leader’s extraversion-introversion.

Companies aiming for success in today’s competitive market cannot afford to rely on outdated notions of leadership. A new paradigm, based on robust empirical research, must guide leadership development programmes.

Companies need to integrate modules that focus not just on personality traits but also on core skills such as effective communication among other managerial skills and traits. Organisations ideally should incorporate active listening skills into wider communication skills training.

Active listening incorporates skills most often lacking in extroverts as opposed to introverts.

In conclusion, the nature of leadership in the corporate world undergoes constant evolution. The new research adds a vital layer of nuance to our understanding of who emerges as a leader and why. Extraversion may not wield as much influence as previously thought, while communication skills and team dynamics deserve greater focus.

Adapting to the new paradigm of the study and new research that gets released throughout each year will determine which companies excel and which lag behind in the race for corporate success.

Have a management or leadership issue, question, or challenge? Reach out to Dr Scott through @ScottProfessor on Twitter or on email at [email protected].