A good friend of mine is an identical twin. She is the most outgoing, loud, life of the party that you will ever see. I still fondly remember a crazy night when she was narrating the “fireman’s calendar” with the back story on each of the models with such witty humour and frivolity that everyone was holding their sides in stiches – this girl can captivate a room. It was a shock to me to hear that she was an introvert. I was confused. “You - an introvert?”, I guffawed. “Yeah!”, she said, “I always assumed I was an extrovert too, but upon some reflection, I realised I had just learnt perceived extroverted behaviour from my twin when I was growing up. When she was funny and interacted animatedly with others, she got positive attention, so I realised that this is the way I should behave.” This revelation got me to really think about the way that we view introverts in our society and workplaces.
Perhaps, the most common unconscious bias that we have in the recruitment process is that an extroverted person will be better for a job requiring a lot of communication with others, i.e. sales or leadership. Whilst it has been shown that extroverts perform better in sales roles this is not to say that introverts cannot have the skills to perform a sales role and outperform a specific introverted salesperson. This is also true of leadership, studies have shown that introverts are more effective leaders of proactive teams and these leaders focus on the growth and support of their teams. Some well-regarded leaders who were introverts are Barack Obama, Mahatma Gandhi, and Michael Jordan. Who wouldn’t like some of their leadership in their organisation?
We should also be conscious that those who are higher on the extroversion scale will commonly perform better and be more comfortable in an interview and in meetings, etc. Therefore, it is easy to overlook the introvert as the best person for the job or the promotion. It is a common mistake though to put an introverted specialist into a leadership role without support. They may need training specifically aimed at the skills they could enhance in undertaking the new role and becoming the best leader they can be.
According to Susan Cain, bestselling author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking, creating environments that encourage introverts to understand and draw on their natural strengths, organizations will increase productivity, innovation, and impact. By helping introverts to communicate, connect, and lead in an authentic manner, we are also teaching managers to better engage with, and lead, their introverted employees.
According to Adam Grant’s research, 96% of leaders and managers report being extroverted, and in a poll, 65% of senior executives said it was a liability for leaders to be introverted, and only 6% saw introversion as an advantage. This shows that it is a commonly held perception that extroverts must be better leaders! It’s time to take a closer look at the role of introverts in organisations and learn how to allow them to reach their full potential for the benefit of the entire business. As we shift what we are looking for in leadership from directive to supportive leaders who are focused on the development and well-being of their team, it may just be that introverts are better suited to the role, the better leaders of the future.
If you are feeling like you have more to offer than you are getting the opportunity to do, I would love to talk to you about my Career Coaching package designed to improve fulfillment in your career. Aligning our values with our skills and stiving for what we are capable of not just staying in the box we have inadvertently been placed is essential to getting the most out of your career.