Dr. Gleb Tsipursky – The Office Whisperer
Nirit Cohen – WorkFutures
Angela Howard – Culture Expert
Drew Jones – Design & Innovation
Jonathan Price – CRE & Flex Expert
Psychologists first coined the term ambivert in the 1920s to describe individuals who blend the quiet thoughtfulness of introverts with the assertive energy of extroverts.
Ambiverts fall somewhere in the middle of introversion and extroversion, and research shows that they consistently outperform their more one-sided peers at work, thanks to their adaptability, emotional intelligence, and communication skills.
For decades, the concept was largely overlooked until psychologist Adam Grant reignited interest with his groundbreaking 2013 study on sales performance.
Grant studied 340 call center operators and discovered that ambiverts contributed an average of $208 per hour in revenue, 24% more than introverts and a significant 32% more than their extrovert counterparts.
Ambiverts excel at work by striking a balance between speaking up and listening, often bridging the gap between opposing personality types to facilitate more effective collaboration among colleagues. Could this ability make them the secret ingredient to stronger, more adaptable teams in the future of work?
Ambiverts: Quiet Powerhouses for a Changing Workplace
Ambiverts blend the best of both worlds — equally comfortable working solo or in a team, and speaking up or stepping back when the moment calls for it. Hybrid work is thus ideal for ambiverts. Time in the office offers stimulation and connection; time at home offers the space to recharge.
Their strength lies in adaptability: they read the room, adjust their approach, and know exactly when to listen and when to lead. Observant, outcome-driven, and quietly strategic, ambiverts often serve as the glue that holds diverse teams together.
This balance is second nature to Margaret Ricci, FRSA, CEO of Cultural Strategies, LLC: “I work at the cross-section of Teaming and Culture. But more importantly, I’m an ambivert myself,” she explained to Allwork.Space. “I have identified myself as this for around 7-8 years. But for most people, when I use the term, they don’t understand it because they’ve never heard of the cross-pollination of types.”
Ricci recalls being labeled an introvert for much of her career, until a colleague’s comment in 2014 made her reconsider. He questioned the label after watching her confidently engage with visiting delegates from Japan.
That moment sparked a deeper self-understanding: she was not introverted — she was ambiverted.
As a licensed MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) facilitator and founder of the consultancy Cultural Strategies, LLC, Ricci draws on deep personal and professional experience helping teams collaborate more effectively. From her vantage point, ambiverts are often misunderstood in workplace dynamics.
In meetings, she observes, they are frequently misread: “They may revert back into very quiet ways so as not to draw undue attention to themselves…yet, their thoughts are exactly what is needed for the most powerful brainstorming.”
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Without these quieter but crucial contributions, Ricci warns, teams risk falling into groupthink and overlooking the kind of creative depth ambiverts are uniquely positioned to offer.
She further explains that while ambiverts can and do lead effectively — thanks to strong situational awareness and adaptability — their public ease can be misleading.
Ricci believes that although they may appear socially confident, even performing regularly before large crowds, they often need time alone to restore their energy. It is this balance, she believes, that makes ambiverts especially well-suited to dynamic work environments: capable of driving ideas forward, while also knowing when to step back and reflect.
Why Ambiverts Outperform in Leadership, Collaboration & Adaptability
Karl Moore, associate professor of management at McGill University, has conducted extensive research on ambiverts, including interviews with 350 C-suite executives. He estimates that 40% of top leaders are extroverts, 40% are introverts, and only 20% are true ambiverts.
However, he notes that the demands of the pandemic, particularly the need for flexibility, actually pushed leaders with different personality types to adopt more ambiverted behaviours. This highlights a key advantage of ambiverts: their ability to adapt to situations with greater ease than their colleagues at either end of the personality spectrum.
In dynamic workplace environments, this trait is extremely beneficial.
Ambiverts combine emotional intelligence, empathy, and a balanced communication style, making them effective both as collaborators and leaders. Grant’s research supports this, showing that ambiverts communicate with a rare balance: assertive without being pushy, empathetic without being passive.
This enables them to read the room, adjust their tone, and connect meaningfully across a range of personalities.
Their ability to avoid extremes (neither dominating nor retiring) makes ambiverts particularly valuable in team settings. Often acting as natural connectors, they help colleagues with differing styles find common ground and manage complex group dynamics. This measured approach is especially useful in high-stakes conversations, where clear thinking and composed leadership are essential.
As workplaces place increasing emphasis on emotional intelligence, the relevance of ambiverts continues to grow.
Their capacity to strike the right tone, assess risk calmly, and communicate with clarity gives them an edge in today’s people-focused leadership work landscape. In many ways, ambiverts embody what modern leaders aspire to: situational awareness, empathy, and the discipline to listen before they lead.
Designing Workplaces That Work for Every Personality
Understanding how different personality types function can help boost performance and engagement levels among all employees.
Ambiverts perform at their best when they can switch between collaborative projects and independent work. Employers can accommodate this need for balance with the following strategies:
- Offer hybrid schedules to balance in-person and remote work.
- Allow individuals to choose their work setting based on task and focus needs.
- Create different zones to accommodate group interaction and solo concentration.
- Offer both group brainstorming and one-to-one meetings to accommodate a range of communication preferences.
- Avoid one-size-fits-all recognition. Many ambiverts prefer private gestures of appreciation over public praise.
To unlock the full potential of their workforce, employers must create environments that accommodate a range of personality differences. Margaret Ricci, FRSA and CEO of Cultural Strategies, LLC, emphasizes that recognizing how these differences surface in everyday interactions is essential, not only for fostering inclusion but also for avoiding common workplace misunderstandings.
One way to better understand these differences is through a team-building exercise Ricci recommends called “The Best of Me.” This tool invites individuals to share how they work best, what they need to thrive, and how they prefer to contribute. It also helps teams develop a shared language around personal preferences, promotes mutual respect, and improves collaboration.
However, it’s not enough to merely be aware of and understand different personality types; employers must also demonstrate active commitment to supporting them. To move from awareness to action, there are several practical strategies employers can implement right away:
5 simple (but effective) ways employers can support different personality types:
- Build teams with diverse personalities to boost cognitive diversity.
- Use resources like team building exercises or surveys to strengthen team cohesion.
- Encourage input from quieter team members: “[Name], what’s your take on this? We value your perspective.”
- Acknowledge contributions in a way that respects individual preferences.
- Support awareness & understanding of diverse types through ethical and transparent use of personality tests, such as MBTI.
Point 4 may seem obvious, but it demands a solid understanding of individual recognition preferences before employers can get it right. Ambiverts do not fit neatly into either introvert or extrovert categories, yet they often share key traits with one or the other.
For example, Ricci observes that many ambiverts prefer recognition similar to introverts: “They usually don’t want loud praise or public rewards.”
Ambiverts illustrate the value of balancing seemingly opposite traits, such as empathy and confidence or autonomy and teamwork, making them well-suited to a wide range of roles and work environments.
However, in a recent Allwork.Space podcast, career development expert, and best-selling author Vicky Oliver noted that even ambiverts can struggle with self-sabotaging behaviors, such as hesitation or overthinking.
Oliver recommends self-mentoring and cognitive reframing as tools that help individuals across the personality spectrum overcome negative self-talk and thrive at work.
Ultimately, when employers embrace flexible, thoughtful, and inclusive practices, they create environments where everyone can thrive and perform at their best. The greatest strength of any workplace is not a single personality type but the ability to value and harness the full spectrum of human differences.
