Article by Larry Kim
The Ambivert Advantage
- What is it that makes ambiverts more successful in sales, with traits that surely translate into success and influence in other areas as well?
- In one word: balance. Ambiverts have introvert and extrovert traits, but in balance. See if you recognize any of these ambivert traits:
- Ambiverts are more flexible. They don’t really prefer one way of functioning over the other. Mateo Sol described ambiverts as “… the neutral, middle-ground hippies … equally comfortable in situations where the introvert feels most at home and the extrovert is having a good time.”
- They’re more emotionally stable. Extroverts are not easily influenced by outside factors, while introverts are hypersensitive. Ambiverts offer a good balance between the two and are referred to as the stability “normal” by famed psychologist Hans Eysenck, who coined the term “ambivert” in 1947.
- Ambiverts are intuitive. This is a quality that serves them well in life and in business. As journalist Daniel K. Pink wrote, “ambiverts know when to speak up and when to shut up, when to inspect and when to respond, when to push and when to hold back.”
- They’re more influential. In Grant’s sales experiment, ambiverts earned average hourly revenues of 24% higher than extroverts. People at either extreme end of the introvert-extrovert scale had the worst sales, while those smack in the middle had the highest.
Click here to read the full article