The Superpower of Being an Introverted Boss — Empathic Leadership
What? Wait… Aren’t introverted people shy and uncommunicative? How can an introverted boss be successful? Traditional leadership thought is extroverts are better leaders because they excel at social connections, are better at understanding other’s motivations and emotions, are better speakers, and strong advocates for their ideas.
However, introverted leaders have real power and strengths that should be recognized. Some of the richest people in the world are introverts like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Mark Zuckerberg. One of the United States’ greatest leader, Abraham Lincoln, was an introvert.
The power of the introverted leader is their strategic thinking, and their ability to provide deep and balanced decisions. Introverts tend to be better listeners and are typically thoughtful and consider other’s opinions and beliefs.
This strategic, thoughtful leadership is an important cornerstone for empathic leadership. Empathic leadership is the ability to understand and relate to an individual’s emotional state, motivations, and needs while reserving judgment and remaining neutral. Empathy doesn’t mean agreeing or even liking the other person. It is not being weak. Empathy requires skill and ability to remain balanced while recognizing another person’s point of view. Empathy helps to see the big picture and removes ego and judgments when communicating.
Over the past few years, CEOs are increasingly embracing the need for empathy in the workplace. “82% of CEOs believe a company’s financial performance is tied to empathy.” [1] Empathic leadership increases productivity, motivation, employee wellbeing, and decreases attrition. Empathy helps improve collaboration and decision making.
Empathy is critical for the most effective leadership, so decisions are based on a broader perspective, and allows the leader to understand the needs of others even without agreeing with those viewpoints. An empathic leader understands how the decisions will impact others.
An empathic leader can explain decisions to people with diverse perspectives because they have looked at the problem through the lens of the different viewpoints.
Empathic leadership dovetails completely with the strengths of an introverted leader. Introverted leaders are typically:
1. Deep thinkers, strategists, and problem solvers. They think and analyze before acting and are not impulsive.
2. Skilled listeners to learn different perspectives and include those perspectives into their decision making.
3. Creative with an active imagination to help solve problems in new and interesting ways. Their deep thought and willingness to take other’s perspectives into consideration provides the environment for creative and innovative ideas.
4. Self-reflective and focused on continuing to learn and adjust.
Introverted leaders are amazing and should not feel pressure to put on the costume of extroversion day after day. It is exhausting and counterproductive. They need to celebrate their skills and strengths. Some of the “traditional” leadership techniques will not be as effective for an introverted leader. Techniques like continuous social interactions and engagement, public speaking, and large team meetings. Introverts, just like extroverts, need to know themselves, their strengths and weaknesses so they can develop strategies to be an effective leader.
Some strategies for an introverted leader to make sure they do not burn out and continue to have energy for the strategic and empathic decisions include:
1) Blocking calendar time each day to have time to have time to look at the broader picture and to process the issues to develop decisions based on the input.
2) Being very selective on the commitments to networking, evenings, and speaking events so as not to burn out.
3) Make time for one-on-one or small team discussions instead of large meetings to allow for feedback and listening in a smaller setting.
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Tina Kuhn is the author of the “The E Suite: Empathic Leadership for the Next Generation of Leaders” and “The Manager’s Communication Tool Kit: Tools and Techniques for Managing Difficult Personalities.” Please follow her at @TinaKuhn.
[1]https://www.businessolver.com/resources/state-of-workplace-empathy
