When it comes to careers in business, many people thinks extroverts have higher chance of success compared to introverts. That kind of stereotype already lingers around for many years. The business world as we see now, is an exciting playground for extroverts, but maybe not so much naturally for introverts — if they don’t put in the work to adjust and adapt.
Many years ago, typical recruiters in business prefer to prioritize applicants who were extroverted. Even now, we are still living in a world that idealizes extroversion. If you don’t talk much, some people might consider you as being awkward, anti-social, or even “weird”. Quietness are often mistaken as rudeness, silence as incapability, and solitude as lack of interest.
Indeed, extroverts have more energy when it comes to dealing with people — and isn’t it what business is mostly about? Building relationships, forming partnerships, pushing for sales — all leads to people skills. You need to have resilience to cope with a full-day of negotiations, meetings, selling, networking. Hey introverts, feel that familiar churning feeling in your stomach?
According to Dr. Laurie Helgoe, researches have shown that introverts have higher level electrical activities in the brain than extroverts. With more brain activity, introverts may process more information per second than extroverts. They also have a more active Broca’s area in the brain, which is often responsible for self-talks & inner monologues. We all know already that introverts gain energy from inwards, but the two factors above additionally causes introverts to react differently than extroverts do:
They’re prone to overthinking
They’re prone to anxiety problems
They get overwhelmed easier & quicker from external stimulation
They find it hard or uncomfortable to respond quickly/spontaneously to a statement. Introverts takes a longer time to process information compared to extroverts, as they process things more thoughtfully & prefer to they take extra time to understand ideas.
“There is Zero Correlation Between Being the Best Talker and Having the Best Ideas” — Susan Cain
So, can introverts actually succeed in business? Of course! Make no mistake, when I say ‘uncomfortable’, I don’t mean ‘incapable’. In fact, many business leaders & entrepreneurs today are indeed introverts. Some introverts can actually be a very good business leaders, and some even excel in more specific roles like sales or business development.
The better question is: can introverts be well and happy, doing their jobs in business, for a long period of time, without getting burned out? The answer is, it depends. Without self-awareness of their own limitation and personal need, it is likely that introverts will get burned out much sooner than their extroverted colleagues, which eventually will lead to decrease in performance and demotivation. At the end of the day, happiness is still a big factor that affects people’s productivity.
So, if you’re an introvert, how can you endure such a demanding nature of 'extroverted' work, without exhausting yourself in the long run? Below are some tips that might help you to get started:
1. Know yourself & understand your limitation
The first and most important thing: know yourself and your limitation. How many back to back meetings or calls can you tolerate in a day? Are you more comfortable speaking in front of many small groups, or one large forum? How spontaneous are you in discussions? How much time do you need in preparation before coming to a meeting?
During work from home time, I witness the madness that my husband, as an entrepreneur, is having on a day-to-day basis. He practically looks like a call center all day long: back-to-back calls from morning to evening. For him, that might be an normal work practice. But not for me. I know my limitation. I will not be able to endure such things when it happens continuously every day in a week.
However, as a manager, meetings are the meat of your job, it is inevitable. This is why it’s important to find your “style” to avoid being burned in such situation. I, for example, did some of these things to help me cope with my daily rhythm:
Remove as much as possible calls/meetings that can be done via written forms or text discussions instead
Limit the amount of back-to-back meetings I have in one day, and forced myself to have breaks in between meetings (more of that in point #2 below)
Always spare some preparation time before any meetings/calls
Delegating some meetings to team members instead — those of which I don’t have the urgency or importance to attend to.
2. Force an “alone” time in-between meetings, or during work
Some people have difficulty to endure back-to-back meetings without a break in the middle. I am part of this group.
So, I often block my own calendar, typically for 1–2 hours, to give myself some safe thinking time alone. This will avoid other people to schedule back-to-back meetings right after another. During these times, I can either finish some meaningful written works, think, reflect & strategize takeaways from previous meeting, and prepare for next meeting. Of course this should be treated flexibly for urgent cases. Meanwhile, some other people might have a different style, where they prefer to pack their meetings all in one time, then finish early and spare more “alone” time afterwards. Again, knowing yourself is the key.
This also applies to daily work in office. Whether you realize or not, open office layout can also be an added factor that drains you up in office. I like to take 10–15 minutes break every now and then, to just sit comfortably outside of a café near my office, all by myself. During this times, I often reflect and think better. When working from office, make sure you also spare some time for yourself, away from other people, if that’s important for you.
3. Communicate your preference to key stakeholders in your business
One thing I learned and I really appreciate during my time working in BCG, is that in the beginning of a project, there is this introductory team meetings with the objective of everyone to share their personal working style and get alignments from others. This allows people to adapt to each other and respect everyone’s different styles and preferences. For example, some things highlighted in the sessions are:
Communication preference: Are you a “call” person, or a “text” person? How do you feel about a spontaneous call when your colleague wants to speak or discuss with you?
Brainstorming style: Do you prefer a spontaneous brainstorming where you speak your mind out loud, or do you prefer a “thinking” time alone before a brainstorming session where you come in already with some thoughts/ideas?
These are just two of the many other points of working preferences that you can utilize to reflect upon yourself. Make sure you communicate these things with your colleagues or stakeholders, and find a balanced compromise with their working style.
4. Find a team that complements you — not overlaps with you
If you are an introvert, chances is that you’ll likely be more comfortable working with another introvert. But this might be counterproductive, as a team works best with diversity.
An extroverted boss or team member can complement you do to the speaking when you’re out of energy, they can cover you for networking or social events when you’re are at your low point that day. They can handle the more “chatty” accounts/clients, while you take care of the more reserved ones. Many ways of better collaboration with a team that complements you. The most important thing is how you can adapt well with them.
5. Plan and focus on efficiency
If an extrovert finds energy by talking with as many clients as possible and for as long as possible, as an introvert you will find this draining. Hence, introverts better push themselves to achieve the same level of results with less time or effort needed, which translates to efficiency. How can you do that?
Make the best out of your “preparation” time: Most introverts are planners, and they don’t do well in spontaneous and pressurized environments where they have to improvise on the go. Make sure you regularly observe what’s happening in your calendar. This can ensure you prepare yourself mentally for a busy day of meetings. Also, come to meetings fully prepared, so that it takes less time to achieve your goal.
Practice and make yourself used to it: Practice not only increases efficiency, but also increases your level of comfort in doing a certain activity. The better you are at doing something, the less you feel it as a burden, and the slower it will drain you.
Let’s say you need to go to different networking events every day for this week. You will most likely feel uncomfortable after the first hour, and that one hour that you’ve spent will regretfully flew by without you being able to hit your key objective for the night, because you’re inefficient. In a different case, if you push yourself and keep getting better at it, most likely you will be able to achieve much more with the same one hour time that you spent. Plus, you will endure longer and get even more out of the event.
“Knowing Yourself is the Beginning of All Wisdom” — Aristotle
All the above points are good to avoid yourself being burned out quickly. However, to push yourself further for success in the longer term, it’s not enough to just think about these. It is also important that you keep pushing your boundary and regularly go out of your comfort zone. Then you will eventually be more and more comfortable facing the wild world out there. Remember, practice makes perfect even if you’re initially really bad at it; and social circle, as well as environment, can change people — sometimes to an unbelievable extent that you won’t imagine
For example, someone very introverted in his teen can look very outspoken in his adult, thanks to being raised in an environment that pushes him that way. He may as well still be an introvert at the core, but his tolerance towards extroverted activities has just increased, just because he is used to it. It doesn't mean that an introvert will need to completely change themselves in order to be successful. In fact, they need to embrace who they are, and recognize their strengths that comes with their introversion. However, the ones who survive are the ones who adapt.
So find the right “out of your comfort zone” challenge. Don’t push yourself too hard, but do it regularly and consistently. Don’t make your introversion an excuse to not perform and don’t avoid the challenge. Tolerate yourself, but try to adapt and keep pushing your boundaries.