Why introverts make better leaders

Why introverts make better leaders

As an extrovert who's been involved in leadership positions for most of my life, I've never really understood the power of the introverted leader. Until recently.

With six small pen strokes, leadership guru Sheryll Fisher provides more insight into introverts than most extroverts have learnt in a lifetime. Her drawing consists of two circles, representing aliens. One alien, the extrovert, has two antennae close together at the top of its head. The other has its two antennae wide apart.

Sheryll explains that extroverts have their “social receptors” set to receive only small amounts of information. They will often seek out noisy, crowded, environments and lots of interaction in order to be stimulated, because they only receive a small amount of information about what is going on. Introverts, on the other hand, have their receptors set to take in so much more during every interaction, so find large crowds and overstimulating environments exhausting. Research by German psychologist Hans Eysenck has even shown that introverts find the sour taste of lemon juice more stimulating than extroverts. “They’re taking in everything and the brain just starts to overload and then cortisol kicks in and they get the fright or flight response and their brain just starts shutting down,” Sheryll says. “In general, introversion is just the preference for environments that are not overstimulating.”

Sheryll is the Managing Director of Outback Initiatives, an award-winning leadership training company based in Margaret River, WA, that is setting up leadership courses purely for introverts so that they can understand their own strengths, and some of the myths about introversion.

“Introverts tend to form very good deep relationships with people, and they can be very, very good leaders,” she says. “Very, very extroverted leaders are very good at talking and filling the space with their own thoughts and feelings, whereas an introvert is more likely to collaborate. Listening is a massive advantage in leadership.” Introverts are more likely to pick up on tiny social cues and, if given the time and the encouragement to do so, introverts are also more likely to give a more thoughtful and considered response to a problem.

Research by Adam Grant, professor of management and psychology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and the author of Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World, published this year, shows that although extroverts make better leaders in disengaged, passive groups, introverts make markedly better leaders in engaged, proactive groups because they harness the group’s ideas and energy, rather than just imposing their own. His research shows introverted leaders are also less likely to elicit negative emotions in the team.

Internationally, much of the recent shift in thinking on the benefits of introverted leadership has stemmed from Susan Cain, graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School, co-founder of Quiet Revolution, and the author of Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking, which has sold more than 2 million copies. Her TED talk on the power of introverts has been viewed more than 14 million times, and was rated by introvert Bill Gates as one of his favourite talks ever.

Susan notes that 50% of the US workforce describe themselves as introverts, yet 96% of US leaders and managers self-identify as extroverts. She says it isn’t surprising, therefore, that 64% of workers believe their organisation does not fully harness the talents of introverted employees.

Her latest book, Quiet Power, was published earlier this year. In it, Susan quotes highly successful introverted leaders from Ghandi to Warren Buffet and even Beyoncé as she deals with myths about introverts, exposes their secret strengths and offers encouragement to teenage introverts on how to make their presence felt and become better leaders at school, college or work. “Preparing your thoughts ahead of time can … help give you a push to be one of the first people to speak up, which is probably not your normal style,” she writes.  

Sheryll says it’s important to make the distinction between introversion and ‘shyness’, or an unwillingness to talk. “Shyness is just a fear of social humiliation, and both introverts and extroverts can be that,” she says. “Introverts can be the life of the party at their own little dinner party, because they know the people and they trust the people they’ve chosen to be with. But in terms of team-building in the work environment, they’re less likely to go out drinking with a big group. They’re not confident in that environment – they’d rather be in the corner one on one having a deep conversation with someone… Introverts are definitely misunderstood because they don’t perform to crowds.”

As an introvert, Sheryll says she is aware of that dynamic in her own organisation, because her colleague Colin Hendrie is an extreme extrovert. “He’s a very charismatic leader and after a program that we’ve run he’s happy to go off and have a drink and be the life and soul of the party, whereas I need to go away and get my energy back,” she says. “That really can affect my ‘likeability’ within the team. I wrestle with it, but I’m not going to be something I’m not.”

Sheryll is planning to run two leadership courses specifically for introverts next year in Canberra and Margaret River, but in the meantime she is just glad that the stigma of being an introvert is slowly being eroded. “Sometimes in the past, on our other leadership courses when I tell people they’re an introvert, they think I’ve told them they’re a serial killer,” she says. “But now people are slowly recognising that to identify as an introvert in the first place is not a bad thing.”

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Note: I occasionally work as a leadership facilitator with Outback Initiatives, and thoroughly recommend their outdoor experiential learning programs to discover more about yourself, your leadership style and ways to be more effective.