I'm a little behind on posting this article, but this is still worth discussing.
The USA Today featured a compelling article about famous Introverts who are phenomenally succesful CEO's (Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, etc).
According to this article, 4 out of every 10 top executives prefer introversion. The article also mentions research CPP plans to release showing that younger generations are displaying an increase in Extroversion (perhaps due to Social Media opportunities?).
Check out the whole article to read insteresting perspectives on issues such as shyness, charisma, and energy of successful executives. I think this article adds more depth to the comment debate that surfaced in my blog on the Top 10 Misconceptions of the MBTI. This is yet another example of why using MBTI for selection (or assuming skill level) is unethical. How many successful CEOs would have been screened out because the perception is that a leader must be charismatic and very social? By the way, JimCollins' book Good to Great has a great section on why a charismatic leader is not necessarily desirable.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2006-06-06-shy-ceo-usat_x.htm
What do you think about this article? Which CEO is most admirable to you? Is he/she an introvert or extrovert?
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Can an Introvert be a CEO?
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5 comments:
Breanne I tend to agree with the lead author of the study that this came from, Brad Agle of the University of Pittsburgh. I even posted it on my own blog, Sales Accelerator Coach Specializing for Introverts and Shy, on July 5th.
There is little to discourage introverts and if anything from this research, we can be ENCOURAGED.
While you and I know introvert does not equal shy, I hope we agree that this research has uplifting and encouraging news for all introverts who may have not seen their own traits as strengths. This is often not it full view in our extroverted society.
In the little experience that I've had with the MBTI, I've been finding that those with preference for introversion seem to be better organized with expressing their thoughts.
In one of the exercises during my last workshop, I coincidentally had two each of NF and SJ small groups - one with introverted preference and the other with extraverted preference.
The introverted group presented very well-organized and thought-out answers that the extraverted groups agreed with. I heard several exclamations of "That's exactly what we wanted to say!"
Although charisma has its place in leadership, a quiet confidence speaks volumes as well, IMHO.
I'd be interested to know what Tony Hsieh's (your recent favorite) preference is. When I watched his interview, I would have guessed him to prefer introversion.
As someone with scatter-brained extraversion (that's an understatement), I highly admire the introverted leaders. :-)
This is very exciting. After Linda asked about the MBTI type of Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, I decided to just ask him! AND...he responded! How cool is that! I love being able to talk to people through Twitter. Tony sent me a message saying he is an INTJ. There you have it- another amazing CEO introvert! Thank you for responding, Tony!
Another stereotype that needs busting is that only people with a preference for Extraversion are charismatic. My experience is that charisma is something that depends more on how well you deploy your preferences rather than what these preferences are!
Katherine-
You are so right. The commonly held misconception is that introverts are shy, and extroverts are charismatic (and NOT vice versa). It is unfortunate the the words introversion and extroversion are so well known, but their meaning is so misunderstood.
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