The Introverted Leader

There’s almost no situation in a corporate, business environment that being an introvert, as people would generally say, is favorable.

From the get-go, every self-help book, video, or article would tell you that above all else, you need to be able to exert a specific type of charm to win people over. We grew up thinking that, for the most part, being alone, shy, and quiet in work and social environments would label you as an outlier. On a larger scale, there are certain skills so exclusively prized by organizations and companies that introversion would feel like a sign of weakness and disadvantage. Because for a field that thrives on a lot of conversations, eye contact, charisma, public speaking, and teamwork, an introvert is probably not the persona that would first come to mind when asked to think about a successful leader.

But upon research, you would immediately learn that in contrast to the misconceptions that we were taught to believe, introversion is not about shyness or quietness, but about the way that a person recharges their energy to be able to focus, think, and stay sane. Physiologically, an article from introvert author and lawyer Susan Cain explains that it involves the levels at which people respond to the dopamine reward network. Essentially, introverts, who only get overstimulated by it, feel more rewarded by the pleasures found in solitude such as reading, watching, and reflecting.

In practice, though, medical websites Healthline and Very Well Mind suggest that signs of leaning towards introversion may include: getting drained over social interactions and having small groups of friends; tending to appear distracted and zoned out; enjoying solitude; and being independent.

Hearing these words doesn’t exactly exude the kind of warmth that you would expect from describing a leader, but the truth is, there’s a lot more depth to it.

The Introverted Leader

It shouldn’t really be a surprise to know that, like any industry, a business is a multifaceted function that does not solely depend on the tasks that are commonly associated with being extroverted. In fact, these associations may not even be for extroverts at all.

Karl Moore, a leadership strategist and professor from McGill University, found from the 400 CEOs he interviewed that a third of senior executives and a majority of first-line managers identify as introverts. If you want more familiar names, successful introverted leaders in history include Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss), Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, and Mahatma Gandhi. As Cain said in her TEDTalk, what’s so compelling about most introverted leaders is that despite the difficulty for them to stand up in front of crowds and tell the world what they made, they did it because they felt that it was right. And look how they’ve changed life.

The introverted leader gets drained over social interactions, but that doesn’t mean that they hate it.

In fact, they are more accustomed to making connections that are more substantial. They’re not big on small talks because they don’t want to waste anyone’s time. Productivity, to them, is more likely to happen over one-on-one or small group discussions.

In a Harvard Business Review article he wrote himself, Campbell CEO Douglas Conant listed how he was able to save the company as an introvert, one of which was how he got to connect more with his people by being honest and declarative with each other. He credited civility and prioritized connections with the right people in the workplace. By the end of his tenure, he personally wrote thank-you notes for every single one of them, conjuring 30,000 in total.

Consequently, when got into a car accident, employees from all over the world sent him notes in the hospital.

The introverted leader tends to appear distracted and zoned out, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not listening.

It’s easy to know that extroverts are listening because of their active body language—something that you won’t often see with introverts who look like they’re not in the room with you. That’s because they’re thinking, processing, and actually letting you finish what you have to say.

Another example from the same article that Doug wrote himself is when he would tell his employees, “If you see me looking aloof, please understand that I’m shy, and I need you to call me out,” during meetings to let them know that he’s right there.

The introverted leader enjoys solitude, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t be around people.

In the ways that solitude allows them to focus the most and direct creativity, they believe that you should have your own time and space to work on your ideas, too. They want you to feel empowered, and do what you need to do to make the best performance and decision possible with the end goal in mind.

The introverted leader is independent, but that doesn’t mean that they only care about themselves.

Frankly, it’s possible that they care more about anything else rather than themselves. With their inward reward preference of productivity and quality over any ambition, they are more concerned with the growth of what they do, and the people that they do it with.

Grounding this to real life, ultimately, encountering all the biases that classify people to the either ends of the spectrum should not stop us from continuing to better ourselves and acquire the skills that we need to be adept in the field that we choose to be passionate about. As the instinct of our society, the extroverted majority of the population would find these skills as a staple to their walk of life. But for about 25 to 40% of us left, from one introvert to another, it will take practice to control a ridiculously fast heartbeat before a spontaneous Zoom call.