how can introverts and extroverts best work together?

Welcome to The Introverted Path!

Happy Thursday! Hope everyone has had a great week so far. I’m off to Philadelphia on Friday to visit one of my best friends then I’m heading to Baltimore next week for work. Excited to do a bit of traveling 🛩️ 

In my links section of last week’s newsletter, I included an episode of Adam Grant’s podcast with Chip and Joanna Gaines. I found it super interesting and wanted to expand on it for this week’s newsletter.

In today’s email:

• How introverts and extroverts can best work together

• Tips from Chip and Joanna Gaines (Fixer Upper, Magnolia Network)

• Links to other content I enjoyed this week

Let’s dive in 🤙 

Who are Chip and Joanna Gaines and why should we learn from them?

Chip and Joanna Gaines first gained fame with their HGTV show, Fixer Upper. Chip comes from a real estate background and Joanna comes from a design background. As part of Fixer Upper, they help you buy a home and then work with you to renovate it.

The draw comes from watching them turn older, run down homes 🏚️ into a beautiful new version of themselves 🏡 

This show was wildly popular, and building on that success they have launched their own network, called Magnolia Network.

But anyone who has watched their shows can immediately see the differences in their personalities.

Chip is about as extroverted as they come. He loves the spotlight, has a quirky sense of humor, and finds energy from interacting with people.

Joanna is much more introverted - she is behind the scenes working on the designs of how to make these homes look beautiful. She comes across as the analytical, data driven side of the partnership.

And together they balance each other out…and it works phenomenally. So much so that their reported net worth is now around $50 million 👀 

What are the keys to their success?

Chip and Joanna have worked together for 21 years now. They have an interesting dynamic where not only do they work together, they have also been married for 20 of those years.

Despite their differences in personalities, they have managed to turn their business into a massive success.

So what do they say are the keys to building a positive working relationship?

Understanding communication styles and learning each other’s quirks

The first thing they highlight is understanding the way each of them prefer to communicate. Chip is very direct and open in his communication style. Joanna prefers time to process things before communicating.

Joanna spoke about how Chip wants to unload his thoughts first thing in the morning. But Joanna needs time to get going and process how she is feeling before jumping into conversations.

Which leads to the next item they highlighted…

They find the “magic middle” and try to stay there

As I mentioned, Chip is on the far end of the extrovert spectrum and Joanna is on the opposite side as an introvert.

Because of this, they naturally balance each other out. When working on business related things, Chip can assume the front role or “face” of the business. He is happy to interact with others.

Joanna helps to keep them grounded in their decision making process. While Chip tries to run towards things at 100 mph, Joanna keeps him in check.

And by doing this, they are able to stay in the “magic middle”.

Ideas versus execution

Chip is the ideas guy. He is constantly coming up with all of these big plans for what should be done. But he has trouble executing and following those through.

Joanna excels in putting together business plans and executing. But she lacks that natural instinct to move fast and try different things.

By understanding this, they are able to complement each other very well.

Chip thinks big picture about their business and comes up with a bunch of ideas. Joanna helps to keep him in check while helping to execute.

And together, they have successfully built a multi-million dollar business.

My thoughts 💭 

Introverts and extroverts can complement each other very well when working together. The strengths and weaknesses of both can be balanced out to get the best of both worlds.

You can imagine the extrovert focusing on sales, marketing, and growth while the introvert focuses on technology, operations, and financials.

I’m generalizing, but you can see how this sounds good in theory.

The same can be said for larger organizations. If you have teams balanced out between introverts and extroverts, that allows everyone to work in the zones they perform best in.

Extroverts can help to draw out information from an introvert. And introverts can listen to an extrovert’s idea and ask detailed questions to dig deeper.

The important thing is to have teams comprised of many different personalities.

Links that I enjoyed this week 💥 

• If you’re a Seinfeld fan, you need to watch this 🤣 (link)

• How soccer superstar Lionel Messi deals with pre-game anxiety (link)

• Visual of the U.S. $20T economy by state (link)

That’s it for today - hope you enjoyed this weeks newsletter!

Best,

BG