Reply to The Introvert’s Disadvantage

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It’s not unfair.  Extroversion is a kind of emotional intelligence that manifests itself in lots of valuable ways.  Kids that have it have an advantage, just like kids that are good at sports, or good at math, or good writers.  [/quote]

I'm a teacher and I disagree. [b]The best leaders listen to others. Sometimes extroverts are just interested in hearing their own voice. That includes many former principals. [/b]My current principal is an introvert but is socially adept. He's single with no kids so he does have the advantage of being able to go home to quiet.[/quote]

+1 I have a very happy team at work, full of introverts with a wonderful department head who is also an introvert and great at listening to us. We're all researchers, a job that tends to attract introverts.

FWIW, I share the annoyance with colleges' seeming emphasis on "leadership!" which seems to really mean winning popularity contests and coming up with ways to make yourself look important. A college full of that kind of leadership sounds exhausting and not conducive to collaborative work.

But I read somewhere that when colleges say "leadership" what they really mean is making an impact and you don't have to be the loudest voice in the room to make a real impact. My kids did fine in college admissions sharing quieter types of leadership aka impact. DS wrote a beautiful short essay for a supplement about service where he talked about how he always worked the beverage station at a community service program our family volunteered at for years. And that he liked the job because it was the one place that was not about moving people through as quickly as possible. He saw the same guests every month and they could chat (1-on-1 as introverts prefer) and get to know each other. Through that consistent, quiet presence he made people feel welcomed and connected. He never wanted to sit on the committee that planned the event or be the person up front with the mic but from a small, seemingly unimportant job, he made people feel welcome. [/quote]

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