THE INTROVERTED LEADER

THE INTROVERTED LEADER

Earlier this week, I had a 1-to-1 discussion with one of my staff. During our discussion, my staff made an observation. He said "Ben, there seems to be 2 sides of you. The first side is that of the charismatic leader. You would go on stage, engage the crowd, make them laugh and make them sit upright to listen to what you say. This same side applies when you are addressing the organization as a whole or when you are chairing meetings internally or externally. However, there's this other side, where, when you are left alone, you seem very quiet and to an extent very private."

This wasn't the first time that someone has made this observation of myself. The truth is, I am a polarized introvert. I use the term polarized because in most of the personality tests that I take, my introversion scores shoot through the roof. I seldom share this side of myself to others because... well, no one ever believes me. Whenever I tell someone that I'm an introvert, people give me a shocked look. They would say... But Ben, I have seen you speaking for hours in front of hundreds of people when you're on stage. Or... But you're leading an international company with so many staff reporting to you... how could you be an introvert.

It seems that many people seem to associate introversion as being a weakness or at least a quality that stops you from achieving certain career goals. But for today, I'd like to correct that misperception.

In fact, I would argue that introverts make really good leaders.

But before I start my rambling, I just thought to share my own take of introversion. Introversion is not to be mistaken with shyness and being socially awkward. To me, the view I take of introversion is this. If given a choice, my own preference is to be left with a book on a warm sunday afternoon. Don't get me wrong, it's not because I am adverse to people or that I am anti-social. The people around me knows how passionate I am over people. That is actually the reason I still do training and speaking. It's not that I clamour for the attention, but rather, it's because I am hoping that in a small way I can help others. And my staff would probably also attest to that. They know how much I care for them even though it's hard for me to always say that. I would like to think that I make up for it in my actions. Another side to introversion is how energy is spent. For me.. whenever I go on stage or have protracted networking session, it drains the energy out of me. After these sessions, I would need a lot of time by myself to refuel. Again, it's not because I find it a chore or pain to do so. An analogy I give is this... I love running. But after I run, I need some recuperating time. To introverts, that quiet time we spend by ourselves is our way of recharging.

Anyway, back to why I think introverts make good leaders. The first thing is because I feel that we are more aware and sensitive of our surroundings. An introvert is able to sense energy and pick up that one or two persons that are left out. Thus, we are frequently able to play a facilitative role to help push teams to an end goal.

What actually spark this posting of mine was reading an article by Jennifer Kahnweiler. In this article she spoke of 4 things that good introverted leaders do. Reading her research, I couldn't help but nod my head. Anyway, this was what her research found:

1. Introverts prepare.

Reflecting on my own behaviour, I realize I spend a lot of time preparing for meetings. this is because I am not eloquent enough to 'smoke' my way through meetings. I need to know who I am meeting, the agenda, what both parties want from the meeting, etc. I know a lot of people who have the gift of the gab and can sweet talk their way out of situations. But this doesn't always work. Thus, I would rather be better prepared.

2. Introverts are present.

Being sensitive to others, I realize that introverts can make really good listeners. We would typically stop whatever we are doing and refrain from multi-tasking and give our full focus to the person. This makes the person feel valued and appreciative :)

3. Introverts push themselves.

I know of many introverted leaders who believe in leading by doing. Thus they constantly push themselves by leading through their behaviour and actions. This makes their followers buy into their leadership, and clients having a profound respect for them too.

4. Introverts practice.

I need heaps of practice. Before I go on stage or before I address my team, I need heaps and heaps of practice. My rule of thumb is this... If I am going to speak for 1 hour... I need 8 hours of preparation. This includes researching, deciding on the tonality, planning out the flow (and even jokes) and commit everything to memory. The end result is often good because I would run through multiple scenarios in my head and I seldom get caught off guard.

In short, I am sharing this article to encourage other introverts out there to see your introversion not as a weakness, but a unique quality that represents you. Following the 4 points above, I hope that this would encourage you that with the proper grit and hard work, we can all be awesome leaders that people will aspire to follow :)