Unleashing Introverts – Penetrating that Outer Protective Shell

What it’s All About

"Introversion is really about having a preference for lower stimulation environments. So it's just a preference for quiet, for less noise, for less action. Whereas extroverts really crave more stimulation in order to feel at their best.” Susan Cain, author of “Quite, Please.”

As a bona fide extrovert (routinely scoring 30 out of 30 on Myers-Briggs assessments), I’ve experienced introverts everywhere I worked. However, until participating in a Myers-Briggs session in the early 1990s, I had no clue about my behaviors and interactions with introverts. Most importantly, nor did I understand how much I was stifling them. That session created a degree of awareness that helped to change my practices from that point forward.

Mind you, as an all-in “E” I can get revved up to the point of scaring any introvert out of the room. But, that one workshop taught me to look out for the introverted participants in meetings and to make sure they have the space they need to be heard, to think, and to stay engaged.

Here is the first of two real-life vignettes about how an extrovert actually can open the door for introverts to be themselves.

And, to make all of us better.

He’s So Aloof and Condescending …

As a new leader in the organization, I set out to learn about my direct reports and key personnel. At our executive staff meetings, we routinely discussed our directors and senior managers to ensure we kept the leadership pipeline full of capable successors.

As we discussed my directors, the red light went on. “Colt (pseudonym) is so condescending and aloof. He dismisses other ideas as if they are not worth his time and thought. He’s afraid of change!” My reaction was as close to management shock as anything. “Wow! I’ve not experienced that at all. Please give me some time to check this out and fix it.”

Aloof. Condescending. Dismissive. Change-averse. None of these portrayals were anywhere in the list of 100 adjectives dancing in my head to describe Colt. I had him as insanely smart, a deep-thinking systems guy, team-oriented, and, of course, very introverted. Shy, even.

The Environment

Colt was a very experienced engineer in a supply chain role. He knew more about the end-to-end processes and the tools that we used to do our work than anyone. I’d come to rely on his judgment early on. And, it had paid dividends to me as a new leader.

We worked in a fast-paced technology environment and were challenged by the speed and complexity of delivering our products to the market. Hoards of data were bantered around in our meetings. We needed decisions. What about this? Can we do that? What is the root cause?

As expected, the meetings were dominated by the few loud-mouths, er, extroverts, like me. Colt was always involved, but unless he was presenting, it was a challenge for him to get engaged. As a key technology leader, he was often pressed with “What do you think, Colt?”

Introverts require time to think, to put questions into their world, their perspective. It is rare to get a shoot-from-the-hip answer from most of them. Colt was no different. When pressed to respond immediately to a challenging question about something new, he was not always ready to jump in. He might even shrug it off and not answer.

His outer shell protected him from responding when he did not feel comfortable. That’s what we had to address.

Let’s Fix This!

The conversation with Colt about a month later gave me the chance to throw out the perspective the others had. I had my hypothesis and needed to test it with him. It was time to go on the offensive.

“Colt, the leadership team feels you are very aloof and condescending. They feel you are a deterrent to our transformational activities. Stuck in the past. (pause) What’s your reaction?” A longer pause ensued …

His response was no surprise to me – it was a total shock to him. He had no idea about those views and was apologetic for coming across that way. Time for my hypothesis.

I told Colt that I totally disagreed with the perspective and felt that he was … INTROVERTED! We discussed that and how his interactions with others might cause them to see otherwise. We developed our plan. Colt would work to recognize when he was being pressed for an answer for agreement to a change. Once he did that, he’d acknowledge the request and ask for time – an hour, a day, whatever – to respond. For my part, I’d share my assessment with the executives and solicit their support to enable success.

Unleashed

The plan succeeded. My peers understood the diagnosis and as we discussed it further, understood Colt’s behavioral trend and they committed to support the effort to bring out his best.

Two noticeable characteristics emerged over time. First, Colt was his usual self in meetings but seemed so much more at ease. It was as if a burden had been released from him. His demeanor was evolving with the awareness that he was coming off the wrong way. Second, when he was uncomfortable to answer immediately, he’d acknowledge the question and commit to respond in a specific time. He was neither defensive nor awkward when he did this.

By the time we did our next leadership review later that year, the perception had changed totally and Colt was viewed as a very strong functional leader across our organization. He always was!

Within two years, he had established so much credibility with his systems and analytics skills, that my boss would confer with him routinely on key issues around technology, supply, tools, and more.

Colt and I discussed the progress he was making only once. He got it. So did everyone around him.

The simple act of understanding Colt’s introversion was the key to unleashing him in the business world often dominated by extroverts. And, changing the perception of those who did not understand it originally.

Michael Massetti is an Executive Partner with Gartner who really does enjoy being a supply chain professional! Seriously. All opinions are my own.

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