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“Brain Buzz” in the 21st Century
Do you sometimes feel as if you have invisible gnats buzzing around inside and outside of your head? Are you so overwhelmed by possibilities that you start to work on one task, then set it down and switch your attention to another, and then another? Welcome to the...
Confidence Leads To Courage
Confidence leads to courage. I used to believe that. Master a skill, figure out exactly what to say, and you will act. Trouble is, those skills take a long time to find and master. In the meantime, you are frozen in time. An incident at a conference a few years...
Five Time Expansion Tips for Introverts
Introverts often feel harried, trying to rush towards that time when they can kick back and relax, freed from all social – and other – obligations. This is especially true when the introvert works in a busy organization where much of what happens is not under the...
Is introversion a diversity topic?
According to figures collected by Myers-Briggs over a ten-year period, introverts are roughly 51% of the population. Interestingly enough, they constitute about 15% of leaders at the lowest levels, such as supervisors, and about 2% at the top (CEOs). Does this...
Greetings to my Tribe
It’s been a long time since I’ve corresponded with you, during which I have been immersed in writing a new book. You see, I spent the last twenty years or so devising ways to help introverts develop skills to become visible and valued in a world that typically...
Hidden Leaders in your Organization: Good or Bad?
While CEOs everywhere are reporting that their biggest headache is finding leaders to implement strategy, there are quiet, hidden leaders working away in their organizations, influencing those around them, supporting – or sabotaging – change initiatives....
Teambuilding for Introverts?
After a talk I gave at a conference, a manager approached me to ask, “How do you do teambuilding with introverts?” Since, in the eyes of many people, “team building for introverts” is an oxymoron, I was curious as to what she had in mind, and suggested we meet later...
Disconnect or Alignment in the C-Suite?
When most members of the C-Suite are laser-focused on their unique responsibilities and priorities the possibilities for a disconnect between different functions are numerous, and the CEO, who oversees all of the functions, is often on a different page altogether....
It Is Possible For Introverts To Be Persuasive
Is “Persuasive Introvert” an oxymoron? Or are we doomed to be low-key shadows on the periphery? Actually, the writer who contacted me on LinkedIn asked, “Is it common for introverts to lack talent in persuasion?” The question arose because, after a presentation for a...
Five Skills of Highly Successful Introvert Leaders
I have long called introverts the “quietly brilliant” and I was not surprised but I was concerned when I found that Ones & Dilchert’s 2009 study showed that only 2% of CEOs were introverts. Does that mean that introverts should never aspire to leadership? Is there...
The Quiet Majority: Women, Introversion, and the Double Whammy Effect
Just as women had to learn who they really were, what their rights were, and how to go about getting them, introverts do, too. Astonishingly enough, just as women are a slight majority, introverts too constitute as much as 51% of the U.S. population. Yet we are...
Having Your Culture Fit Cake and Eating It Too: The Great Culture Fit Paradox
How do we resolve the clash between the need for “culture fit” and “diversity pays?” Companies search hopefully for new hires that fit their culture; an employee who doesn’t fit the organizational culture is more difficult to retain and produces strain on teams,...
Can you be an Introvert and a CEO who drives growth?
Well, yes, actually you can. In my research for my upcoming book, The Introvert CEO, I found just that. For example, one quietly brilliant CEO, instead of picturing himself as a knight on a charger riding to the rescue of an ailing company, described himself as a good...
Bold Fish, Timid Fish, Smart Fish, Dumb Fish: Introversion, Extroversion and Risk-taking
When Lee Dugatkin, Professor of Biology at the University of Louisville, placed guppies in a tank from which they could view predators in another tank, some of the fish swam up to the barricade to observe the predators; he named these “Bold” fish. Others – the...
An Open Letter to Extrovert Leaders: How understanding 50% of the population will improve your productivity and innovation
Hello, Extrovert Leaders! How are you? I’d love to meet you in person, but I seldom have the chance. You see, I give talks on how organizations are overlooking and under-utilizing the people who are generally called introverts, whom I call “quietly brilliant.”...
Is Introversion Main Stream at Last?
The topic of introversion has now entered the mainstream. How can I tell? This topic, which I have championed for so many years (full disclosure: I am an introvert), has now appeared in one of my favorite comic strips, and I honestly don’t know whether to laugh...
Networking Is A Life Skill
I hear it over and over again: “I can’t network. I’m an introvert.” “I don’t know what to say.” “I don’t want to brag.” A lot of people don’t like networking, but the bulk of them seem to be introverts. I'm an introvert, too, and I’m also an entrepreneur, having to...
Social Confidence and “Extrovert Skills”
“I used my extrovert skills.” “I had to learn some extrovert skills.” “Oh, well, I don’t have extrovert skills.” I hear these phrases all the time – and they drive me crazy. When did the ability to be socially graceful or to display good manners become the sole...
Business Coaching and Introverts
When you hire a business coach and develop a program or product, the first marketing instructions you get will probably be something like this: “Contact your friends, send them a warm letter, offer them your services or product, and ask them if they know people who...
Holding on to your identity during a transition?
Maybe you shouldn’t be. Transitions – in life or in career – are tough. One of the hardest parts is the seeming attack on your identity when you no longer fill a given role, a role you may have played for years, even decades. People who have had to change...
The “Sliding Scale” of Introversion-Extroversion
After my talks, people often come up to me and say, “I used to be an introvert – but I got over it,” or, “I’m not sure; sometimes I think I’m one thing and sometimes the other. Can you be both?” Actually, you can be both, changing from one situation to another,...