DO INTROVERT PEOPLE MAKE GOOD LEADERS?

Etymologically, the term ‘Introvert’ is a combination of two latin words: Intro meaning ‘to the inside’ and vertere meaning ‘to turn’ which is stated to have been coined by the Swiss Psychiatrist named Carl Jung somewhere in 1920s. Hence, the term in literal sense means a person who turns inward or to his inner self to find his strength, to grow, to enjoy as contrary to a person who is an ‘Extrovert’ and turns to socializing/engaging with masses for his growth and expression. Another term that is used to connote a person having both the said qualities is ‘Ambivert’.

           In the context of leadership, a most common question that could arise is which of the said personality types makes the best leader? The answer as per me would be: None of them or rather All of them because leadership is more about empathizing with the team members, providing freedom to the team members to commit mistakes albeit with a sense of responsibility and accountability, standing with the team members in their thick and thin. When it comes to ground reality, nearly all great leaders this world has ever seen showed signs of introversion whenever it came to ‘Work in Progress’ stage of their projects, be it MS Dhoni [who is considered an introvert] or be it Barack Obama [who is considered an extrovert]. So can we conclude that introvert persons make the best leaders? Perhaps not because an introvert person can be perceived as an extremely extrovert by the people close to him and similarly a person who seems to be extremely extrovert to the world at large may in reality be deriving his actual strength in solace by way of writing, reading, work out etc. In other words each and every human being possesses both the traits and it is upto his/her past experience or calculations owing to which one trait overshadows the other in a particular situation. Hence, it is highly unfair to declare either of these types as exercising any dominance over the eligibility of a person to become a leader.

Rather, what a leadership position demands is communication and neither chattering in the name of extroversion nor complete absence of communication in the name of introversion. When I use the word ‘Communication’ it is not to be construed in terms of number/length of words a person speaks, rather it is the quality of even unspoken words that have been conveyed by the concerned person through his acts to his teammates that assume importance whether conveyed by an introvert or by an extrovert. In fact it is the series of these acts together that shall determine the types of leaders that the leader’s teammates will make when they go forward.

 In other words, the debate revolving around introversion or extroversion forming the basis of competence of a leader finds its origin in the misconception of source of expression viz. Introversion/Extroversion/Ambiversion having any bearing over the tendency of becoming a leader. The abovesaid discussion gets re-affirmed by the words of James C Humes who served as a speechwriter for five presidents of United States of America when he said that ‘The Art of Communication is the language of Leadership’.