Deflecting the Spotlight: Introvert Leadership
“Everyone shines, given the right lighting.” - Susan Cain
One-third to one-half of the population are introverts yet we create work cultures that unknowingly shut them out of our processes.
If you're surprised by the number of introverts, it's because extroverts seem to have at least twice the public presence as the rest of us. In leadership, that pushes aside creative, risk-taking solutions that differentiates great companies in the marketplace.
While extroverts recharge their energy reservoirs through social interaction and sharing ideas, introverts need solitude and the opportunity to build one-on-one trust. Rather than drawing energy from others, they retreat into themselves to stay focused and block out distractions.
Introversion is often defined as being shy but it is merely a different way to respond to stimuli in the environment.
When organizations fail to create a culture that caters to introverted and extroverted behavior, a large swath of talent is ignored to the group's detriment.
Research
Quiet, low-stimuli environments allow introverts to be more creative and stay focused while high-stimuli environments benefit extroverts. We save money in the short-term by using open floor plans but lose those savings by unknowingly devaluing the contribution of introverts who don't work as well in that kind of space.
Extroverts are more valued in work settings as evidenced by the rate at which introverts are passed over for promotions.
Extroverts are much more likely to self-advocate and leave visual impressions on key decision-makers in the organization.
Introverts are more likely to allow those who work for them to take risks and explore solutions outside their comfort zones. Despite their outward energy, extroverts are more comfortable pushing harder on existing ways of doing things ("that's the way we've always done it").
Businesses incorrectly believe that extroverts are more creative and that their charisma lends itself to better outcomes. Warren Buffett and Bill Gates are introverts but they have had huge impacts on today's society through their charisma and creativity.
In studies of extroverted and introverted leadership, extroverted leaders performed well if those who they were leading were passive but were less successful with more outspoken team members.
Introverted leaders were better at introducing change, including new vision and improved strategies, to an organization.
As a result, they threaten extroverted leaders because they can draw the attention away from them.
Similarly, extroverted leaders frown upon the contributions and new ideas brought forward by others. However, introverted leaders are more open to considering input from direct reports.
Overall, the consensus seems to be that organizations are more successful with a balance of introverted and extroverted team members.
This is known as dominance complementarity.
Mindful Solutions
Over the past twenty years, I personally have moved from the extroversion side and become more introverted. I credit learning how to live with chronic pain for this metamorphosis.
Note my use of the word "credit".
We often think of being introverted as a liability, especially in leaders.
However, I've found that introversion is a strong characteristic of a mindful leader.
Lose the labels. The first step we all need to take is to eliminate the black-and-white categorization of "introvert" and "extrovert". Nowhere is this more evident than in so-called "personality inventories" and other Jungian psychological preference instruments.
Like most personality characteristics, labels merely serve to pigeonhole people into stereotypes, locking them into unchangeable personas.
If we must, "introvert" and "extrovert" can serve as two ends of a continuum with an infinite number of shades in between.
That's important because we know from research that the practice of mindful leadership skills can neurologically change how we approach interactions with others.
Good leaders take into consideration where others fall on that continuum when communicating with them. Great leaders additionally understand that movement on the introvert/extrovert continuum can change. They learn how to recognize those changes and adapt accordingly.
Balance out the work done in teams. In Susan Cain's brilliant TED talk, "stop the madness for calls of constant group work" is one of her calls to action. If we can stay mindful that those who shade toward introversion bring solutions to the table as a result of solitary reflection, we can accommodate that preference more frequently.
Tony McCaffrey came up with idea generating process based on the lack of research to prove that brainstorming works.
Even though it's been around for over 60 years, brainstorming doesn't generate any more solutions than coming up with ideas on your own and bringing them back to the group to develop them further.
As a result, McCaffrey devised something called "brainswarming" and you can learn more about it here. Because this model recognizes the need for introverts to prepare for meetings on their own in order to enter into the group dynamic with more confidence, brainswarming incorporates processes that benefit everyone across the continuum.
The results of McCaffrey's research further prove the effectiveness of this tactic: While brainstorming averaged 100 ideas in 60 minutes, brainswarming produced an average of 115 ideas in fifteen minutes!
Meeting the meeting needs. Research by Francesca Gino and her colleagues studied business profitability and the effect of extroverted leadership. According to Gino, "we found that extroverted leadership was linked to significantly higher profits when employees were passive but significantly lower profits when employees were proactive."
Gino's results clearly demonstrate that,
an organization's bottom line results are tied to the degree with which the more introverted leaders are given the space and psychological safety to elicit creative ideas from others.
Ignoring, for now, that we conduct far too many meetings, we typically find that those meetings are dominated by the more outspoken and gregarious participants. There is clearly a need to tap into the strengths of those near the other end of the continuum.
Jeff Bezos offers us a best practice used at Amazon. Bezos had noticed that the materials that were sent out to meeting attendees in advance usually went unread. He had hoped that, by sending them out prior to the meeting, the time spent in the meeting would be more productive. Many of us can empathize with the embarrassed looks of those who cry "I didn't have time" when asked if they had a chance to go over the pre-meeting materials.
Rather than push harder for compliance, meetings at Amazon now start without any interaction until everyone reads a multiple-page memo that outlines the meeting's agenda. By doing so together, the team found that they became more focused on what needed to be addressed.
As a side note, PowerPoint presentations are banned in meetings at Amazon to encourage robust discussion and thoughtful problem-solving rather than a reliance on lazy bullet-point lists, a tactic that helps draw in those who might otherwise stay silent and simply take notes.
Results
Introverts need to have exposure to extrovert tendencies or else they will remain isolated and protective of their ideas. Conversely, extroverts need to self-regulate their behavior so that it doesn't exclude those whose presence is less overt than their own.
Both groups need to avoid utilizing the "introvert" and "extrovert" labels and, instead, stretch themselves to find places closer to the middle of the continuum while recognizing others' places on the that line. By doing so, everyone's unique contributions can potentially be incorporated into the problem-solving process which, as we've seen, has a direct impact on bottom-line outcomes.
Through mindful awareness of interactions with others and how they approach their work, a more emotionally-intelligent team is built that stays engaged and productive.
Mindful Follow-Up Questions
- Is your organizations's workspace designed to benefit extroverts (i.e., open plans, low walls, constant noise) and what can be done to find a balance that is comfortable to everyone on the continuum?
- Does your organization unknowingly bias its culture through its meeting structure and change management processes?
- Are employees rewarded overtly for impulsive behavior that excludes those who are more prone to more quiet and more disciplined leadership?
- What kind of professional development training is available that helps to identify the characteristics of introverted vs. extroverted leaders?
- What changes can you start working on that can support those on the more introverted side of the scale (e.g., providing more solitude, eliciting out-of-comfort-zone creativity and risk-taking)?