What I learned whilst taming my inclination to be an introvert

Ten ways introverts can lean on their strengths to make better leaders 💥

There has been a recurring theme in all my appraisals so far:

This is my first year after being promoted to a Director and the pressure of having to navigate a complex role with this ‘confidence stigma’ motivated me to take some actions. I read a lot about confidence and leadership before I realised that it is not confidence I am lacking in after all… It is just my personality type! I am an introvert!

I now feel I have carved out a nice space for myself as an introvert. It has been a long process, with lots of trial and error, but like most things, the more you practise, the better you get at it. In this post I am going to share ten career-changing lessons about quiet leadership that I learned, in the hope that someone might benefit from them.

But first, a little intro on introversion…

You are a walking contradiction: On the one hand you are an introvert; you prefer having alone time to help you focus and think deeply. On the other hand, you have a leadership role, you are required to wear multiple hats to handle many projects, manage up, down and across the organisation, and yet you are expected to be accessible at all times.

What does it take to be a good leader? Leaders are universally perceived as strong, confident, charismatic, independent thinkers — ‘movers’ and ‘shakers’. These qualities are associated with people who are more extroverted, since extroverts exude confidence in large groups, they are highly competent at bringing people together and are naturally potent and assertive.

Can you see where I am going with this?

This conventional wisdom is not necessarily true and the two terms, leadership and extroversion, are not actually synonymous. If you are an…

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