Leadership Conversations: Challenging High Potential Managers to Become Great Leaders

CHAPTER 7

Know Your Strengths and Their Shadows

We talk about quality in products and services. What about quality in our relationships, quality in our communications, and quality in our promises to each other?

—MAX DE PREE

A 2011 study looked at whether extroverts or introverts were more effective as leaders.¹ To align our definitions: extroverts gain energy by sharing ideas in a group and lose energy working alone. Conversely, introverts value the opportunity to evaluate a situation and consider alternatives thoroughly; they lose energy when participating in meetings where rapid-fire choices must be made. The study found that leaders of both types were equally effective—as long as they surrounded themselves with people of the opposite style. ...