Leadership Solutions

Have you ever said something like this to describe a boss or colleague: "What a micro-manager!" "He shoots from the hip" "She's so disorganized!" "Why can't she just speak up more so that people hear her wonderful ideas?"

These are examples of how personalities play out at work. Your personality is a part of your leadership style and effectiveness. In the past two decades the science of personality measurement in the workplace has developed rapidly. Research reported by the American Psychological Association and the Society for Consulting Psychology confirms that personality is the most important factor in explaining the individual differences between leaders. Consider Cory, he has been told many times that others said things like, "Not sure if he listens to us," "Not engaged in the process." When Cory received his feedback on a personality assessment he had no visible reaction-he was the proverbial deer in the headlights. When the coac h asked him what he was thinking, it took Cory a while to stammer and think his way through his reaction. Suffice it to say he was crushed. He recited word for word awhat went on in every business meeting he had attended over the last few weeks; he gave insightful analysis to the dynamics of his team. He could not fathom that people thought he was not listening in meetings. What's going on? Clearly Cory is an introvert. Extraverts want to talk everything out and in the workplace extraverts are winning the leadership positions. In the general population introverts and extraverts are evenly split with 49% of the population extraverts and 51% introverts. But in the management ranks of Fortune 1000 executives, even those leaders that rate themselves as introverts at home operate as extraverts in the workplace with 71.6% scoring as extraverts. Often introverts are mistaken for shy or socially awkward; one of the most cvommon misconceptions is that they are not able to give presentations or speak in public (think Johnny Carson a famous introvert). The good news is that you can shift your behavior if you want to. Leaders need to be able to show that they are actively engaged in work processes. So if you ar an introvert or you manage one, here are some coaching tips that might help with this issue:

*Send agendas in advance so that introverts have time to prepare and think about topics to be discussed
*Make sure you ask more thoughtful (internally processing) people for comments during the meetings
*Allow for input after the meeting
*If you tend to be quieter in meetings, make sure people know you are engaged by individually connecting with key team members before or after the session to comment on the content of the meeting
*Thank leaders at the end of meetings and add something like; "I have some further thought on this. Could I send you an email when I have a chance to synthesize my ideas?"
*Learn how to interrupt more talkative peopel so you get your voice heard.
For more helpful ideas on introversion and work read "The Introvert Advantage" written by Marti Olsen Laney, it's full of great ideas, also consider a coach.