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Adrian Malpass

Business Developer (Emotionally Intelligent), The Experience Group

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Do introverts make better leaders?

Part of what I do is involved in developing emotionally intelligent businesses, leaders and teams.

Having recently seen Susan Cain's video on TED.com on 'The Power of Introverts' and listened to her in a recent radio interview here in the UK, I am increasingly finding my mind occupied by wondering about any link between being an introvert and being a successful leader.

My experience tells me that introverts quite possibly, or even probably, make better leaders than 'extroverts'.

What are your thoughts?

Related Talks:
Topics: Emotional Intelligence Extrovert business business development business idea collaborative learning introvert leadership team work
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    pranoy sundar 20+

    • +6
    Apr 12 2012: Introvertness is just a small portion of ones character, it alone doesn't defines a person as whole. ofcourse, introvertness can be regarded as sign of weakness, but then we must also think that there were no such great leaders in the history without even a small sort of weakness in their personality.
    anyway, introverts can definitely think like a non-introvert person or can even think better, and as i know,beeing extrovert is not the most essential or supreme quality of a leader ... so why don't we just concentrate on other things to judge leadership.

    • Edward Bolton

      • 0
      Apr 16 2012: Being an introvert does not necessarily make a person weak, because like you stated many other elements make up personal characteristics. For instance, I am an introvert, but I also have a dominant personality (blanchard assessment), and am Type A on the Type A/B personality scale (organizational behavior test). If anything, I am overconfident, too outspoken, stubborn, too much of a perfectionist, and too demanding. However, since I know my strengths and weaknesses, I have the ability to enhance my strengths and limit my weaknesses. To know thyself creates the ability to improve thyself. However, I should also add that my personality is very rare according to myers-briggs (less than 3% of the population). I also think everyone should take the personality assessment tests to find out who they truly are for self-improvement purposes.

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