Insight

Is our VUCA world made for introvert leaders?

17 September 2024

Does success in our VUCA – Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous – world require a different leadership style than what have become accustomed too? A search for the required VUCA skills gives us: shared vision building, agility, self-awareness, collaboration and influencing, and adaptability to learn quickly. Typical introvert skills.

Hybrid working has seen contact between senior leaders and their staff increase via teams / zoom calls into our homes. Emerging leaders are adapting with deeper listening, greater empathy and relatedness, and expecting more of the same from senior leaders. Introverts score well again.

A narrow view

Well before our VUCA world arrived, our senior leadership position descriptions have told us leaders need to: promote strong vision and purpose, build trusted relationships, bring diverse teams together, develop self and team, actively listen, seek feedback, build robust decision processes, and have detailed execution. Political leaders promise better listening and more community engagement. Introvert skills keep showing up.

If we have been seeking introvert style leaders all along then why do we continue to view our leaders through a narrow ‘extrovert’ viewfinder? We see the gregarious, polished and energetic leader who excels on the social side of leadership. However success in our VUCA world will need a more panoramic view of leadership skills.

We are all both

enowned psychotherapist, Carl Jung researched the introvert and extrovert personalities. As often happens, the extremes were used to simplistically label everyone into either shy introverts or outgoing extroverts. To paraphrase Jung – pure introverts or extroverts would be institutionalised hence thankfully we mostly sit in the broad middle known as ‘ambiverts’.

Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, Angela Merkel, Oprah Winfrey, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Barack Obama are all introvert leaning leaders. Still many believe they need to conform to an extrovert style to progress. Susan Cain, a lead researcher on introverts states in Quiet; The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, how western culture equates extroversion with success and minimizes introverts’ skills that can support high quality leadership. Let’s review these qualities and some development actions.

How introverts can make strong leaders

Opposites make a balanced team

In 2011 Wharton’s Adam Grant, tested the ‘Dominance Complementarity Theory’ which exists when people behave oppositely to their team partners in dominance and submission. Grant found that introverts can do well leading a group of extroverts while extroverts often don’t like the proactivity of other extroverts.

I’ve seen this opposites approach work when a respected introvert leads a sales team, who are mostly extroverts, vs simply promoting the team’s best salesperson. This approach offers a strong collaborator and enabler who develops the team while avoiding a suboptimal promotion.

Development action. Balance teams with complementary skills. Introverts building their leadership skills should seek out opportunities to lead and work with extroverts and vice versa.

Dealing with complexity

We know we are meant to listen, reflect and then maybe speak. We know introverts spend more time listening than talking. This leads to better data and better questions leading to higher quality decision making.

Better listening also shows more respect thereby building trust which effective leaders need. In a world of self promoters “the power of listening can be explained by the fact that good listening is rare,” says psychologist Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic.

Development actions – practice active listening, pausing to reflect on a conversation, confirming back to clarify what was actually said. This respectful approach can fast-track trust building.

Diverse viewpoints

Meetings are made for extroverts who draw energy from the group while introverts are busy gathering diverse inputs so may not perform in the moment. However, when introverts reflect post meeting they can follow-up with balanced insights.

Introverts are often good note takers allowing more intentional reflecting vs off the cuff reactions. They take time for bigger picture thinking and considering varied views from deeper listening.

Development actions – plan your meetings to anticipate likely conversation directions. Be prepared ask open questions vs worrying about offering immediate views. Do homework afterwards then offer a considered viewpoint.

Demonstrate self-awareness

We know extroverts are typically highly talkative and energetic, which is fine socially however these skills don’t necessarily support building trusted relationships, robust decisions making or complex strategic thinking.

The key difference between extroverts and introverts, Susan Cain finds, is energy sourcing. Extroverts get theirs from social environments while introverts gain theirs from quieter times. As ambiverts, we need diverse environments along with good self-awareness to help us recharge.

Introverts’ self-awareness can keep them from dominating conversations as they are listening for differing views. We can come away from these conversations saying ’’wow that person was great to talk to’ as we did much of the talking.

Development actions – build stronger relationships via working on self-awareness and deeper listening.

A panoramic view

Introverts are well placed to earn followership. Being strong listeners of diverse views they can build trust quickly. In terms of reading the room their self-awareness allows them to better understand their effect on others.

The best leaders seek feedback making them more coachable which effective leaders must be as leaders are built not born! Extroverts will be well advised to work closely with more introverts, challenge their assumptions of what great leadership looks like and advocate for more introvert leaders. With a panoramic view we can develop a wider leadership cohort ensuring greater chance of success in our VUCA world.

Some reflection starters. What type of leader do we want to be known as? What leaders do we want to follow? Does some sectors do this better than others?