The Rise of Introverts.

During a recent podcast interview I gave to Rishad Tobaccowala, I shared the following provocation:

Introverts and empaths will rise as the next creative leaders.

I’m sure of this for a number of reasons:

1. Half the population describes themselves as introverts yet in many industries 80%+ of leaders are extroverts. In advertising, I would guess that figure is upwards of 90%. We have a lack of dispositional diversity.
2. The psychological safety of cultures of belonging unearth groundbreaking creativity. And empaths are best suited to create these conditions.
3. Selling in work is best done by creative teams who listen to client feedback, and are comfortable with silences and longer processing times. This flies in the face of most assumptions about creative presentations being salesy, loud and hubristic. Those who can read the room — or the Zoom — are able to get in front of idea-killing and save good concepts by noticing body language and lukewarm reception.
4. As creative work finds its home away from overstimulating office environments, more introverted creatives will thrive. Quieter types claim to be more comfortable talking on Zoom than in crowded all-hands meetings. Finally the quieter folks will get heard, seen and valued.

Rishad brought up another point I hadn’t considered: that, in a world where the left-brain tasks will increasingly be done by machines, there will be a greater demand for empathy, emotion and humanity to work in tandem with the machines.

Yet shortly after our interview aired, I stumbled upon a tweet that reminded me how some introverts face a double bind.

The comments were illuminating, and heartbreaking:

“What’s crazy is being an introvert, being excluded or iced out in the workplace and then when you accept it, you’re told to socialize more with your co-workers.”

“Black people don’t get to be shy; they’ll say we have an attitude.”

“Black extroverts are called loud and unprofessional. Black introverts are called distant and intimidating.”

I’m so glad I came across this thread. Part of rethinking introversion means interrogating our own bias towards our quieter team members on top of racial bias. Essentially, what assumptions am I making on top of other assumptions the world makes about what leadership looks like?

Introverts aren’t checked out, they’re processing.

Not talking doesn’t mean not thinking.

They’re not aloof, they’re protecting their energy reserves.

They’re not anti-social, they recharge in solitude.

And then the most important question of all:

Who gets to be quiet or shy and who doesn’t? How can we ensure that decisions about promotions, raises and bonuses don’t favor extroverts or only introverts from certain groups and not others?

Please talk about this. Especially with those who talk the least.

Until next time, remember that culture is the new creativity.

NOTE: This is a repost from "Creative Entrepreneur in Residence" -- a Substack newsletter I write that you can subscribe to here .