Acknowledge Your Quiet Employees

Data says that one third or half of the population are introverts! During our professional and personal lives, we are either victims of this nature or come across people with introverted behavior throughout the day and hence it is important to look deeper in this behavior. 

Obvious observations that extroverts connect easily with their colleagues or superiors and their voice is heard. Their actions shine as efforts and efforts are rewarded. This is great and their success is an integral part of organizational success! But today, I want to talk about another set of people who are quiet, deep thinkers, loves detailing, and enjoys celebrating bigger outcome and not self-praise! 

Let’s start with a story! Sherlock Holmes has sighted a beautiful example of importance of quietness in one of the popular of 56 short stories ‘The Adventure of Silver Blaze’. The story is about a famous winner horse goes missing on the eve of the race with no clue left behind by the smart thief! The detective identifies a very important point that the dog was silent at the incident. And hence the dog knew the visitor well! And the secret reveals in the story… The point here is that the dog who did not bark was the clue! 

Moral of the story for our blog today: Never underestimate someone who’s silent! 

Today, we want to discuss behavior of amazing silent heroes and why it is important to acknowledge them for the growth of the organization. Before we go there, let’s look at some facts! From scientists to creative thinkers, from politicians to businessmen – the list of introverted people is encouraging! Albert Einstein, Sir Isaac Newton, Mahatma Gandhi, Bill Gates, Barak Obama, Elon Musk, Larry Page and many more big names to count! Here’s the Inc.com newsletter on ‘23 of the Most Amazingly Successful Introverts in History’!

While extroverts dominate in areas like sales and marketing; there are other key areas like research, analysis, technology, finance, administration, delivery, human resources, education, various specialized skills, art, law where introverts have made significant differences by their contribution. 

Let’s look at the key differentiators these quiet heroes bring with them which an organization with growth mindset cannot ignore! 

Work for Organization’s End Goal Rather Than Blowing One’s Own Trumpet

These quiet jewels enjoy problem solving more than their individual credit. They work with the same focus of achieving the target s/he is signed up for and not overshadowing it by personal ambition and praise! Majority of them believe in ‘We’ than ‘I’ philosophy. It is so amazing to have such group of people who can build another parallel cluster of same objectives and passion that the Founders and C-Level leaderships has and relentlessly keep working deep and hard to achieve that!

First, They Are Listeners, Then Observers and Thinkers, And Then Judgement Takers

They are quiet and thoughts process faster than words for them. They don’t raise their voice very quickly or don’t jump to conclusions that fast. But they are neither shy nor lack confidence.  Just like an essential quality of a great leader; quiet people are great listeners and observers! This quality significantly increases their ability of deep thinking. They think through before they speak. They think through before they take the judgement. Because they don’t conclude fast and think deep; they welcome the right change. Such involvement unfolds important unseen futuristic dimensions, challenges and opportunities! This help teams and organizations to fail fast and restart with higher energy rather than failing later and losing motivation. Because of deep thinking element; they have bigger, deeper and clearer picture of their assignments and so they are more focused and less distracted. They are thorough in solutions and away from hassle. So, it is important to give them the pause they need and let them speak then!

Learning and Upskilling Attitude 

People who tend to go deeper for finding the best solution of problems they are working on are quite often observed passionate, positive and quick responders to learning new skills and keeping themselves upgraded to new concepts and technologies. They are open for new ideas and also bring new concepts and thoughts with them. They also make very effective use of resources available around them globally and at company level. An organization having and promoting this set of people is able to deliver highest satisfactory customer solutions with extensive value-adds and also take their wisdom forward to other employees by effective training mechanisms. 

Make Strong Long-Lasting Bonds 

Quiet people certainly take more time in socializing with individuals or group of people. But this pause is not void. Stronger understanding, mutual connection, bonds of love and respect keep silently building during this time. And so undoubtedly, they make respectful, deeper and long lasting one to one connection with clients and coworkers. 

Lead with Example

By now I’m sure that we are at a common understanding that quiet workforce is a special workforce! They are listeners, positive and critical thinkers, sharp observers, feedback receivers and self-motivators. They like meaningful discussions and are open for creative criticism. They ask right questions and strive for the most reliable answer. They are able to spot like-minded people and build focused teams. They are both calm and passionate. They work for a bigger cause rather than personal recognition. They respect every individual and they stay up to their self-respect. They stay away from gossips. Slow and less; but they are surrounded by strong and rich bonds of relationships. This leads towards proven conclusion that such people lead with example! Even unknown to their own selves; they can influence at every level – At junior level, they encourage others at the same level to perform their best. At team-lead level they shape their subordinates and do upscaling. At managerial and leadership level, they set examples of persistence and focused leaderships for organizations and knowingly or unknowingly be mentors and motivators of times!   

Hence, it is important for an organization having the vision to become great also has the vision to recognize such people and make them realize that they are being valued. If such employees are treated wisely and nicely for a mission; no doubt their contribution to the success of your organization will be outstanding!