Peter is an older man who puts one foot in front of the other as he sweeps the street each morning in front of the local school. I have seen him each December on my daily walks on this small island tucked away in the blue seas of the Caribbean. As drivers go to work, they give him a slight horn “toot” in their morning meet and greet. Peter looks up and responds with a gentle nod of the head. He then goes back to his task – walking the same steps every day, cleaning the same stretch of road.
One morning, it was cloudy and when I stopped to say hello. I asked Peter if the locals welcomed the gray skies. He smiled his sweet smile and said in his beautiful, slow and cadenced voice, “You know, we just accept it.”
I came home from our lovely holiday relaxed, with new vigor. Then my website crashed, a client disappeared and on and on. I then remembered my gentle street sweeper friend and his calm demeanor.In a slightly altered version of a popular question, I now ask, ”What would Peter do?” And almost always the answer is acceptance. If I do that first, I can move into action if necessary. Sounds a lot like the successful introverted leaders I researched. They don’t go into a panic and react to circumstances they cannot control, even in the midst of chaos.
At a recent book signing, Sheri, an introverted training manager, told me she holds onto an image from nature to comfort her when she feels overpowered by extroverted team members.
As a proud introvert, Sheri relates to the great blue heron. This bird will stalk prey slowly and deliberately. They are solitary or small-group foragers. While the geese are loudly squawking, or doing what geese do, she… Continue reading the rest of this article...
I love the universality of the introverted leadership theme. Language is no barrier when we strive to deepen our understanding of temperaments. Continue reading the rest of this article...
I am not sure how I feel about this. Easy for me to say as an adult, but isn’t the school bus a kind of learning lab for social interaction? We learn how to make conversations and talk to people different than ourselves. We even get some experience in fending off the mean girls and rough boys. And what about getting the real scoop about teachers and school policies, etc.??? All of these are skills that serve us well as we swing through the workplace. Continue reading the rest of this article...
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