Not that being an introvert doesn’t have some pluses, too. Kathleen McFeeters, president and CEO of dressmaker Donna Morgan, spent 15 years in the fashion biz before co-founding her own company. “I was always one of the top moneymakers, but as a typical introvert, I never asked for raises or promotions,” she says. “On the other hand, if I hadn’t spent so many years just keeping my head down and working very, very hard, I doubt I would ever have had the skills to start a company.”
She adds, “Even now, we’re one of the top women-owned businesses in New York, but we don’t really seek fame or publicity. We like being quietly successful.” Nothing wrong with that–is there?
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Actors like Streep prepare extensively to take us into the world of that character. Likewise, introverts often emphasize how much they prepare for meetings, calls, presentations, etc. so that they perform at their best ( a side note: Meryl Streep is an introvert like many actors). Yet, despite careful preparation, you can’t always anticipate what is thrown at you. Handling the moment sometimes trumps preparation. Continue reading the rest of this article...
The sort of coaching that fosters effective innovation and judgment, not merely the replication of technique, may not be so easy to cultivate. Yet modern society increasingly depends on ordinary people taking responsibility for doing extraordinary things: operating inside people’s bodies, teaching eighth graders algebraic concepts that Euclid would have struggled with, building a highway through a mountain, constructing a wireless computer network across a state, running a factory, reducing a city’s crime rate. In the absence of guidance, how many people can do such complex tasks at the level we require? With a diploma, a few will achieve sustained mastery; with a good coach, many could. We treat guidance for professionals as a luxury—you can guess what gets cut first when school-district budgets are slashed. But coaching may prove essential to the success of modern society. Continue reading the rest of this article...
Introverts are so often mischaracterized and even blamed for the woes of the world. Now government workers seem to be taking the hit. Continue reading the rest of this article...
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