Normal people make for most effective leaders, study finds

You might think that swaggering, gregarious types — you know, your average extroverted hotshots — make the most effective leaders. You’d be wrong. So … wait, does that mean shy wallflowers are actually bastions of stoic leadership? Nope. A new study from the University of Pennsylvania found that the most effective leaders are what you and I would call normal people, or what academics call “ambiverts,” the people on the middle of the extrovert-introvert scale (Steve Jobs was one).

The study tracked sales reps’ earnings and found that ambiverts made an average of $155 in hourly revenues, topping extroverts’ $125 an hour and introverts’ $120. [Source]