The mental attitudes of being 'inward looking' and 'outward looking' in one's personal character affects the way one is able to play his or her role effectively in a team situation.

Consider the following situations at a workplace:
* There's an employee who prefers to work and contribute a lot behind the scenes rather than coming into the limelight.
* In team meeting situations, there's a discussion on the project related topic and you find an employee who is widely regarded as a proven performer and usually comes up with excellent solutions when working alone, just sits calmly in the meetings with a great deal of reluctance to speak.
* As a manager handling a large team, you notice that a majority of the employees blow their own horn and take credit for the good work that has been done by them but there is this employee who just presents the facts without exaggerating his role.
* In a teleconference with offshore team, while talking to an employee for the first time, you find him or her stumbling and at a loss of words to explain things.
* You have this quiet employee in your team who is usually considered good for nothing as he or she does not prefer to talk like others. And then, when this employee speaks up on the topic of his expertise, he or she leaves everyone amazed by the depth of knowledge he or she possesses.

There are many such situations that happen in the work place. Of course there can be lots of other personality aspects leading to these situations, but more often this is related to 'introversion'. In the work place situations as the ones mentioned above, most of the times the behavior exhibited by the 'introvert' employees is treated as unusual by other employees. The primary reason for such a misconception is that, according to a study, the 'extroverts' on this planet outnumber the 'introverts' by three to one. Just taking a look around the workplace or even into the personal lives makes one appreciate this fact. 'Extroverts', being in majority, relate well to one another rather than to the 'introverts'.