Harnessing the Power of Introverts for Creativity & Leadership

In today's fiercely competitive world, you would think that being an introvert would put you in the last spot in the queue for winning the race for success and leave you with something lesser than your extroverted counterpart in terms of a good package and position in the company. But there's a twist in the tale. Introverted leaders performed significantly better than extroverted leaders, especially when leading teams of proactive, extroverted people! These are the findings of a research study by Adam Grant, Francesca Gino, and David Hoffman published in the Harvard Business Review.

What does history evidence?

Not just research, history too has shown that introverts do as well as anyone. Some of the world's top inventors, leaders, writers and artists are introverts. Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah Winfrey, Lady Diana, A.R. Rahman, Sachin Tendulkar and several others like these self proclaimed introverts possess a quiet power and prefer solitude to focus on their work, art and craft. As Albert Einstein said, `The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.'

What can be done to harness the massive potential of the introvert?

 

Many eminent personalities have defied introvert stereotypes and succeeded in life. President Obama is known for being reserved, but he harnessed his introverted characteristic of thoughtful communication to be one of the most influential and revered leaders. Organisations today too understand the `power packed' introvert better and are tapping into their superpowers to make their organisations more robust inside out. You just need to hold ground, resist succumbing to socially accepted ways of working, and above all, channel the power of the inimitable introverted skills you proudly own to become the best version of yourself.

 

'In a gentle way, you can shake the world.' - Mahatma Gandhi

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