The Life of an Introvert

Can Introverts Be Good Leaders?

In school today, we were talking about King Louis XVI, who ruled France before the French revolution. Many people said that he wasn't a good leader, because he preferred hunting to leading.

(And I promise this is not a history lesson, this actually leads up to something, so please don't fall asleep.) Anyway, in class, we were going over the qualities that may have contributed to Louis XVI's being a bad leader, and someone pointed out that he was introverted.

Now, was Louis XVI introverted? Possibly. He seemed to like to spend more time on his own.

But then, some people in class took a little farther and assumed that his introvertedness was what made him such a poor leader. And I kept asking myself, does that claim have any merit?

I know I've definitely touched base with this topic several times in some of my posts, but in this one I want to go into it a little deeper. Before we start, I want to give you guys some background information. So put your phones away, unless you're using your phone to read this chapter. (You know who you are)

Anyway, the day after learning about Louis VXI, I saw an interesting Facebook post as I was trying to avoid doing work. And yeah, before you ask, I do have work to do in the Summer. Online classes? Fun? Not so much.

But anyways, back to the post. It said something along these lines. I'm paraphrasing here, but this was the general message.

"It's okay to be a quiet person. Just because someone is quiet doesn't mean that they they're not thinking about things, or coming up with ideas."

I, for one, appreciate this post. The post was made on a pretty popular Facebook page, so of course there were a lot of responses, and there was one in particular that caught my attention.

"The 'so-called great ideas' that quiet people have will only be that: ideas unless they learn that they have to speak up in a loud voice in order to get themselves noticed."

First of all, I've already mentioned this before when I was talking about class participation. And I think this is part of the reason that people unfairly came to equate how much you talk with how good your ideas are. A lot of people would probably say that an extroverted personality is important in a leader.

I've said this a million times and I'll say it a million more: Some of the most prominent leaders in history were introverts. A lot of them weren't even known for how much they talked or loud they were, but rather for their ideas and gentle, nonviolent persuasion. Ghandi is a great example of that.

And I do think that people have a habit of assuming that if a person has a lot to say and talks loudly, that must mean that they're intelligent and will make good leaders someday. They may assume that someone who has a lot to say and can present an idea well is more intelligent than someone who says less, but that is not always true.

To illustrate the point I'm trying to make a little more clearly, let me tell you a story. And this story is actually not my own. It was in an article I read, but I think it would definitely help drive home what I'm saying.

Let's say we have a fourth grade class. Their hypothetical teacher tells them to split into groups and have each group come with up a proposal on how to keep the school bathrooms cleaner. So the kids split off into four groups and try to come up with ideas.

In one group, you may notice a girl named Natelie sitting among them, clearly uncomfortable. There is nothing organized about this group, and rather than take turns talking, everyone blurts out ideas and the kid that's the loudest is dubbed the leader.

They're gone with their proposal in about five minutes, and in that time, Natelie comes up with an idea that she thinks is good. 'Wait!' she tells them. 'I have an idea."

The leader of the group, as well as everyone else, turns to give Natelie an annoyed look. 'What is it?' the leader says, clearly irritated.

The irritation, and the annoyed looks, cause Natelie to shut down immediately. She turns and mumbles something incoherently while the rest of her team shrugs and takes their own idea to the teacher.

As their leader reads off their paper, it becomes clear that their idea doesn't make much sense, but she presents it in such a firm way and in a loud voice, so the teacher accepts it."

Now, of course, this was a hypothetical situation, right?

Except maybe it's not so hypothetical. I myself, a lot of times, have seen one person's ideas favored over another because that person seemed louder, and talked for a longer amount of time.

And I can identify so much with the hypothetical Natelie when she shuts down over the irritated looks her team were giving her. Whenever I can see that someone is annoyed with me, or doesn't want to hear what I'm saying, or is just plain uninterested, it's like a giant vacuum comes into the room and sucks out all of the confidence I had in my idea, in my presentation, in the words I'm saying.

Of course, being able to present an idea or talk to a crowd are important qualities that every person should work on. But it's also important not to discount someone as a leader just because they're soft-spoken.

Introverts have several qualities that make them good leaders. One is that they're more oriented towards listening to people, and tend to accept and try to incorporate new ideas. Listening skills are very important of those of a leader.

Another is that they're cautious, and not likely to be the ones to jump into a new idea without first checking the water for sharks.

Now, I'm not saying that extroverts cannot listen to people and that they cannot be good leaders. But I do think that an extroverted temperament seems to be valued more when it comes to determining quality traits for being a leader. I think a good leader is someone who can talk the best of both traits and be able to talk, but also to listen.

A leader is someone who leads a group of people or organization. Nowhere in that definition does it say that a leader can't be introverted. So don't stop yourself from going after a leadership position just because you're not as talkative of a person.

With all that done, I would like to bring this post back to that facebook comment I saw and the remark made about Louis XVI.

I agree that if you ever want to get your ideas noticed, talking is involved. Or at least, you have to assert yourself in some way, whether it's through writing or through words.

Louis VXI was not a poor leader because of the fact that he was an introvert. His being introverted could have actually made him a very good leader. His problem was that he was not interested in leading in the first place. He was more interested in hunting. I think he was forced into being king since he was born into a certain family and didn't really have much of a choice anyway.

I do feel bad for him, though, since he ended up being executed later.

Wow, got way off track again. To make a long story short, (too late for that), the answer is yes. Introverts can be good leaders.