Are You an Inny or an Outy?

“Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment.”

~ Laozi

According to Swiss Psychologist Carl Gustav Jung, as relational beings, it pays to know whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert. This is fairly easy to figure out. Just answer these six questions:

Do you feel energized or do you recoil when you imagine meeting up with a big group of friends, including some strangers?

Do you prefer to leave early ANY party…even your own wedding reception?

When tired, do you renew yourself with solitude, or by getting together with the guys/gals for some fun?

Do you find yourself thinking aloud, or waiting until you “get it right” before speaking up?

When in animated discussions with more than one person, do you feel excluded or included?

Why should you care about your psychological temperament?

Your clients will fall in to one of these two broad categories, (more often than not), and knowing whether you are an extrovert or introvert will help you work more skillfully with others.

For example, if you and your client are both extroverts, you’ll be able to communicate fairly easily and directly by working to hear each other and by taking turns, deliberately. You’ll be able to interrupt the other without offense and will be able to correct missteps and misunderstandings without taking corrective comments as criticism.

If you are an extrovert and your client is an introvert, you’ll have to do a lot of extra work managing your own boundaries and focusing on hearing nuances of your client. You’ll be more successful if you ask open-ended questions that let them to speak up for what they want and need. Remember, if you’re doing all the talking, you’re failing the introverted client because, until she really knows you, she’ll feel rude interrupting you to let you know what she really means.

If you’re both introverts, I strongly recommend doing as much work in person as you can manage—at least initially—because trust is built up through physical and emotional reliability, congruent body language, eye-contact, and sincere listening that is shown in real time. If the client is a deep introvert, they’ll only want to work over the phone (from their cave).

If you, as an entrepreneur, are an introvert, this can make becoming a visible expert a true challenge. You may struggle to have your clients know the breadth of services that you might offer them. And, if they are going to appreciate you and refer their friends to you, they need to know the extent of your services, talents and capabilities. 

Clients often know only what you do for them and that's all they want to know. So overcoming introversion will be important; if you haven't been marketing to them regularly and educating them on your complete range of services, they probably have no idea of what else you do. For example, they may not know that you are capable of publishing on the web in addition to print, or writing web copy as well as sales letters.

If you want to get more work from existing clients (which is a good thing when everyone else is thinking recession), the first step is to let them know what other services you can provide them.

Although, I’ve drawn broad strokes regarding personal leanings and psychological temperaments, I believe that having even the most basic insights about these differences can assist you in connecting with others, whether they are clients, friends or family.

For a free Jungian temperament sorter, see my homepage: www.MyLifeDesignUnlimited.com and click on the “Free Jungian Typology Test” at the bottom of the page.