Extroversion and Introversion in the Workplace: What You Take Away.
When we’re looking at language learning and English language learners, one huge influence is the subsequent opportunity in English business and professional endeavors.
Learning English can unlock international communication as the lingua franca of international communication.
You’ve got a German-speaking, Mandarin-speaking and Spanish-speaking business people sitting in a room together. Chances are English will be the de facto language that everyone uses.
The question then is:
Does my Personality Impact My English Language Learning?
Are there personality traits or pre-determined characteristics about myself as an English language learner that impacts how I learn English, my growth rate, and my communicative success?
It was alluded to in my previous post, but the concept of Willingness to Communicate is a huge consideration.
The theory about willingness to communicate upholds that language learners who are willing to communicate, in other words open to communicating, are going to seek opportunities to do so, and therefore are set up to succeed and advance in their target language.
If I am willing to seek out opportunities, I will have increased exposure, I will feel more self-confident in engaging with that language, and that in turn will propel my growth at a faster rate as well.
Whereas if I am not seeking out opportunities, I will have reduced English language exposure, I will not feel as self-confident because I am engaging in the language less and I may feel less confident in seeking out opportunities to use my beginner skills.
You can quickly recognize the sort of self-fulfilling death spiral or positive loop that can quickly form.
Naturally, it begs the question…
Extroversion Or Introversion: Which Is Better?
One’s extroversion or introversion - one’s propensity to verbalize quickly or openly and tendency to seek out or avoid stimulating activities. That could impact one’s willingness to communicate and subsequent trajectory for language learning.
The prototypical extrovert is talkative, gregarious, prefers taking charge, expresses positive emotions and enjoys stimulating activities.
The prototypical introvert is quiet, emotionally reserved, less energetic and can be harder to get know.
These characteristic traits identify predictable behaviors or actions. Not that one is solely operating with these strict behaviours, but that the tend to do one more often.
Think of the friend who typically will decline invitations to go out because they prefer to stay at home versus the person who can walk into a room full of strangers and leave with 5 new best friends.
Well, it turns out there can be positive benefits to being an extrovert in the workplace.
A 2019 study by Wilmot, Wanberg, Kammeyer-Mueller, and Ones looked into the extroversion advantages at work, summarizing results from 97 published meta-analyses reporting relations of extroversion to 165 distinct work relevant variables.
In the work environment, extroversion is marked by persuasion, especially in job contexts with rewards at stake (employment interviews, negotiation performance). People who speak their mind or are comfortable in a stimulating environment and who can walk out with the attention of that room, stand to benefit.
Extroversion also has sizable relations to interpersonal variables reflecting leadership. The trait predicts leadership emergence, enthusiasm, and assertiveness which lends itself to person-oriented behaviors - again, good things for leadership roles.
It represents greater skill in interacting with and leading others.
Now, I don’t want to be doom and gloom for the world of introverts though. Introversion has its own benefits and Susan Cain (2013) published an entire book on the benefits in “Quiet : the power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking”
Interestingly, according to Dennis, Barlow, and Dennis (2022) introversion appears to be thriving in text-based computer-mediated communication in the workplace. COVID-19 has shifted interactions online, which has enabled the involvement of all team members more equally rather than being overwhelmed by more dominant extraverts.
My takeaway is that knowing and accepting what personality type you gravitate towards, lets you recognize your tendencies and their potential signals to others. If you are more introverted, knowing and consciously taking a stronger stance or being more vocal during face-to-face meetings may be necessary if you aspire to be a leader, command the attention of others, and demonstrate your ability to negotiate an interaction.
If you know you have a tendency to hold your tongue, be reflective of your thoughts and feelings but that in turn may paralyze you from acting in the moment to practice your communication, understanding the repercussions on your language learning confidence, your willingness to communicate, and the potential to stunt your language learning progress, it might highlight the need to intentionally overrule your tendencies and get comfortable in these uncomfortable situations.
REFERENCES:
Alexander S. Dennis, Jordan B. Barlow & Alan R. Dennis (2022) The Power of Introverts: Personality and Intelligence in Virtual Teams, Journal of Management Information Systems, 39:1, 102-129, DOI: 10.1080/07421222.2021.2023408
Cain, S. (2013). Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking. Broadway Paperbacks.
Miller, Shelby. (2021). Introversion as a Personality Trait and its Impact on Willingness to Communicate (Wtc) . YouTube. Retrieved March 26, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jscG61PB-ZE.
Wilmot, M. P., Wanberg, C. R., Kammeyer-Mueller, J. D., & Ones, D. S. (2019). Extraversion advantages at work: A quantitative review and synthesis of the meta-analytic evidence American Psychological Association. doi:10.1037/apl0000415
