Had a discussion with several coworkers the other day around “introverted leadership”. Some expressed surprised that I see myself as being introverted.
Thinking more about the discussion, I wonder just how folks view the idea of “introvert” vs. “extrovert”.
For example, is the “I vs. E” a dimension that might be independent of other personality characteristics (like assertiveness, information processing, etc.) with some tendencies that some characteristics of these other dimensions might be more correlated with “introverts” and others with “extraverts”?
Or are the terms “Introvert” and “Extrovert” just labels for a set of specific characteristics? For example, someone who is very assertive will likely be labeled extroverted and someone who is shy is likely to be labeled introverted.
What say all y’all? How do you see “Introverted vs. Extraverted”?
Introvert / extrovert depends on where you fall on the extraversion dimension of the big 5: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. Those come out of doing PCA of personality questionnaires, and are thus independent.
I consider myself an “outgoing introvert”, in that I can and do talk with other people and enjoy it (outgoing), but I get my energy when I have time to myself (introvert).
I am certainly on the reserved and thoughtful end of the spectrum, and I hate large social gatherings. The thing that bugs me is how much extraversion is associated with leadership in the corporate world. Somehow running your mouth every chance you get gets way more credit than actually getting shit done (through leading others) on a consistent basis.
I think “leadership” might also need to be revisited in many contexts as I see someone with great influence on the “decision maker” has some degree of leadership along side the actual “leader” with the responsibility for that decision.
One conclusion I drew from my recent interaction is that I’m a very assertive introvert . . . which I think sometimes gets me into trouble with some who aren’t sure how to process what I’m saying because of this apparent conflict of characteristics.
FTR, my assertiveness has increased over the years . . . I was not very assertive coming out of HS
In my personal life I choose to be pretty introverted. At work I see being introverted/shy as a weakness so I choose to be extroverted and enjoy all the “wow you’re unlike other actuaries I’ve worked with”, but it’s definitely draining.
That used to make sense to me but the biggest extrovert I know - my partner - says they’re drained after talking to so many people. The difference is that they seek out interactions with many people anyway and their tolerance and desire to stay in that environment lasts much longer.
Oh, and they definitely don’t look at people’s shoes when talking to them.
My theory is that introversion is a trait that would have been selected for in environments that were less civilized, and you were more likely to be hurt by others than helped by others. Interacting with people could mean you get to mutually benefit from information you could trade, or services you could trade. Or it could mean you were more likely to be the victim of theft, assault, or various other nastiness, small to large. And if you were able to survive on your own resources rather than by cooperating with others, it would mean you needed less extraversion to survive.
My assertiveness is a function of confidence on a topic relative to the others in the discussion. I am not going to assert something that is complete bullshit, or something that is common knowledge with the group - this is a waste of everyone’s time.
So what is leadership? What is the goal or outcome? Ultimately, the goal each day is to end up in a better spot than the day before. Grinding things out through small changes that build momentum to achieve great things. It’s agile leadership, which looks to be a fairly new concept, but seems to describe this well. This isn’t sexy, it’s not a big bang, but it works, and none of it requires a great deal of extraversion. Real over feel. Persistence leads to inspiration. The tortoise and the hare, in business outcomes. I could probably write a book about this at this point (that sounds like a joke, but I might need to give this some real thought).
