High school students take classes that prepare them for public speaking, specifically job interviews. We’ve realized the importance of preparing kids for these nail-biting events, because in this competitive job market, plenty is at stake. And bombing an interview because of nerves is a nightmare-come-true. But should a nervous applicant be a red flag to an employer? Kazim Ladimeji has three reasons why it shouldn’t:
- Extroverts don’t necessarily contribute more, and introverts don’t necessarily contribute less. Studies have found that over a ten-week period, extroverts actually lose status and contribute less to a business than expected. By contrast, introverts were found to gain status and contribute more than expected.
- When it comes to group settings, extroverts are expected to boost a team, whereas introverts are expected to bring a team down. Yet, another study showed that the inverse is true, adding another point to the list of reasons that introverts are beneficial.
- And shouldn’t extroverts be the best salespeople? No, according to yet another study that identified the performances of extroverts, introverts, and ambiverts (in between the two) when it came to sales. It was found that ambiverts actually performed the best of the three, and extroverts the worst.
So an introvert’s nerves during a job interview don’t have to be a deal breaker. The fast speech and shaking hands may just be covering up a wealthy interior of potential work. In addition, the calm and confident exterior may not correlate to the best employee. This doesn’t mean that you should only hire introverts: it just means you should find ways to let both grow and shine in your business.
Published by Conselium Executive Search, the global leader in compliance search.
