Leadership Qualities – Lose the introverts? No!

As a society, when we talk about introverts and extroverts positioning for leadership roles, the dialogue almost always runs in the direction of what introverts can do to “overcome” their personalities and appear more like extroverts to others.

According to the Wall Street Journal, about 65% of senior managers surveyed by the TheLadders.com in 2006 felt that introversion was a trait that prevented people from reaching higher management levels. Presumably, as Susan Cain points out in the New York Times this week, it’s because we as a society value “action to contemplation” and “risk-taking to heed-taking.” In fact, we value the leadership qualities and traits of extroverts so highly that we encourage “perfectly healthy shy people to see themselves as [mentally] ill” and, I would contend, purposely blind ourselves to the value of introverts in industries where extroverts traditionally thrive.

In the world of venture capital and investments, for example, it’s rare to find an introvert. Considering the fast-paced, highly aggressive, networking-focused nature of the industry, this is unsurprising.  But is that really best for your company?

Studies conducted at U-Penn have shown that when you have teams of proactive people, an introverted manager can lead them to earn higher profits than an extroverted leader. Adam Grant, who led the study, suggests that this is because an extroverted leader is more likely to want the spotlight to stay on them – which then leads to clashes with proactive employees who are less likely to share ideas and make suggestions to a manager that ignores them. In a start up environment,  where dedication is key, this can be a death knell if it causes your employees to disengage. Introverted leaders also, according to Cain, listen better and work harder than extroverted leaders to implement ideas, an important trait in a startup environment where improvements keep your company running and good suggestions (“raise when you’ll get a favorable valuation!”) can sound a lot like bad ones (“raise money you don’t need!”).

In the end, introverted and extroverted managers both bring something to the table. However, as a society, we tend to only recognize and value the extroverts. Extroversion, however, might not be what your startup needs.