An introvert’s worst nightmare

Thursday, March 22nd, 2018

For people high in introversion, life is good when they can sit back and let others take front and center.

There are times, however, when they’re called upon to be the ones in the spotlight.

Perhaps they ran for an office in a volunteer group and, much to their surprise, actually won the election.

Now they can no longer be the power behind the throne; they actually are forced to sit on that throne.

Having succeeded in what perhaps they most wanted to be able to do, which is to have an impact on their organization, they must now figure out how they’re going to occupy the position of prominence that their role requires.

They shiver at the thought of being forced to run a meeting with no choice but to give rousing speeches, oversee the order in which people speak, ask people to volunteer for committees, take on new tasks, and even- worst case scenario- ask for monetary donations.

Queensland University (Australia)’s Andrew Spark and colleagues (2018) investigated the role of “forecasted affect,” or predictions of future feelings, in the emotional lives of people seeking to occupy leadership roles.

They reason that for people high in introversion, it’s the thought of having to put themselves out there, rather than the act of taking charge, that most fills them with dread.

In the words of the authors, “introverts tend to believe (or ‘forecast’) that acting extraverted will be more unpleasant than it actually is” (p. 84).

Needless to say, this can keep them from attempting to achieve positions of leadership, but it can also make their lives miserable when they find themselves with no choice but to occupy those positions.

There’s a reason that people high in introversion could fear being placed in positions of leadership. People high in extraversion, the opposite of introversion, are most likely to be candidates for leadership positions, or what the Australian authors call “emergent leadership.”

Leadership is, as the authors argue, an essentially “extraverted” task, and even if not all extraverts make great leaders, to be able to get out in front of others and take responsibility for the group’s success means that you have to be willing to be bold and energetic.

Extraverts may have many leadership strengths, but so do introverts.

Introverted leaders are more likely to empower those they lead, are less likely to try to dominate those who work for them, and allow for greater communication among team members.

As the authors note, introverted people can be great leaders, but their tendency to focus their attention inward rather than outward can stymie them and keep them from taking advantage of the actual strengths they would show in leadership positions.

Unfortunately, such attitudes can set up a vicious cycle in which those high in introversion avoid taking on leadership positions, never learning just how effective they could actually be in those roles. Continue reading