Bloggers are a crucial force in spreading new ideas. I have learned so much from the army of bloggers who have embraced The Introverted Leader 2nd edition. They have resonated with different themes and share their unique points of view, making for rich conversations both on and off the page.
Let me share four recent examples from these four creative bloggers and colleagues.
1.Bruce Rosenstein’s Living in More Than One World post demonstrates his interest in the topic of introverted leadership. Bruce approaches the topic from his rich experience as a former librarian, leadership expert, journalist and currently as an editor and professor. Bruce is a Peter Drucker scholar, among his other talents, and has written two great books on this management guru, who is referenced in the book’s chapter on Managing Up.
He pulls together references about my collaborative work with Susan Cain, a video I made at the American Library Association and other books I wrote to provide a retrospective of my work over the last decade. Bruce wrote, “Now, her new second edition adds a considerable amount of fresh, updated material and it reflects the fact that we not only understand more about how and why introverts have solid leadership qualities, but also that introversion has become a hot topic inside and outside the workplace.” Bruce’s skills show through in this piece and he has done his research thoroughly and with care.
2. Skip Prichard is an author and leadership expert whose new bestselling book, The Book of Mistakes is an impactful read with practical advice. He generously highlights other author ideas in his popular blog. In a post, The Quiet Strength of Introverted Leaders, he asked questions about meetings that had me digging deep for answers.
One of Skip’s provocative questions concerned a woman who is always interrupted in meetings. What would I advise her? One tip I shared was, “Keep in mind that extroverts typically don’t mind being interrupted because that is often their speech pattern. Extroverts are also usually unaware that they are dominating the conversation until they are stopped.
3.Christopher Orozco is an enthusiastic SHRM#18 blogger who calls himself a “proud daddy, nerdy guy, and on a mission to help redefine HR and empower people to become leaders through service to others.” In this post he goes on to say, “Full disclosure; I am an introvert. This has been one of the challenges I’ve personally worked on throughout my own ongoing journey towards effective leadership….”
Christopher asked me how my experience teaching leadership development classes helped me gain an appreciation for introverts. A GREAT question that, again, made me pause. Here is part of my response. “The turning point came for me when a quiet engineer was taking one of my leadership classes. He said that he looked around in the company and didn’t see people who acted like he did (introverted) so he was giving up on the idea of being a manager.” You can read the rest here.
4. Henna Inam, Forbes contributor, and Executive Coach asked for ideas to help her introverted clients. In her post, The Good News For Introverted Leaders, she begins with some of the common client concerns she hears like:
“He needs to speak up more, you know, make his presence felt in the room!”
“I have no idea what’s she’s thinking when I present to her. She needs to be more vocal!”
“I’m trying to get her promoted, but most of my peers don’t know her. She needs to be more social!”
I suggested that Henna tell her clients, ” Own who you are and leverage the strengths you naturally bring to your workplace. Stop trying to become an extrovert.” That is, by the way, a key theme in all of my books.
I am very grateful that these bloggers have helped me to look at the topic of introverted leadership through different perspectives and challenge me to provide the best responses that I can.
I hope they will help do the same for you.
