This post was co-written by Jon Victor.
The CEO of a major multinational came to class and told us that as an introverted leader, he had to put his “game face” on whenever he left his floor. If you want to be the CEO of a big company, he said, you need to act like an extrovert at times. To do this, he shared one of his techniques, which he called “Five-Click Leadership.”
When he was a senior executive in the running to be the CEO in the not too distant future, his firm arranged for a leadership coach to help him. The coach introduced him to the technique: at least five times during the day, he was to approach coworkers and engage them in a friendly interaction, something a bit contrary to his natural disposition. He logged these encounters on a clicker he carried around with him, hence the name “Five-Click”. Introverts are somewhat less apt to just talk to people when they get in an elevator, but he was encouraged to do so — nothing profound, just a "good morning" and a comment on the weather.
These small interactions contain very little substance but are helpful for a senior leader to do. If Karl gets in the elevator with the Principal (President) of our university and she ignores him, his human nature may tell him that she doesn’t like him or that he's done something wrong. He may even start polishing up his C.V. Realizing this, the CEO's leadership coach encouraged him to have these simple social interactions more frequently in order to prepare him for people's expectations of how a CEO “should” act. In fact, this is true for most leaders: people tend to expect those in power to act a certain way — like an extrovert.
That being said, research has shown that introverted qualities are just as valuable in leadership. Some of the strongest leaders are introverts. It’s natural for employees and outsiders to assume that expressive, vocal, charismatic individuals would make the best leaders — this has been the assumption for years. The CEO naturally decided, when the opportunity came for him to run for CEO, that he needed to work on his extroversion. While that does deserve merit, introverts also have qualities extroverts need to work on.
In an earlier blog post, Karl argued that after studying introverts in the C-suite, he has concluded that extroverts must also put on their “game faces” and act like introverts at times in order to be effective leaders. Granted, not everyone wants to be a senior leader — fair enough. We are writing to those introverts who wish to be better leaders and rise up to more senior leadership positions; you don’t need to be an extrovert to be the most effective leader.
Introverts have great strengths. One of Karl's current research projects on leadership involves interviewing the CEOs of bigger firms about introverts in their C-suite and asking them about the considerable strengths that introverts bring to the table. Based on this research, we have come to believe that introverts are typically better listeners; they wait for others to express their ideas before they jump in with theirs; they don’t need to be at the centre of every conversation; and when they present their ideas, they tend come out more fully formed and well-thought-out. Many business executives value this approach as a way to ensure that the ideas of all team members are being given due consideration, so that there is no valuable insight going overlooked. Employees will also appreciate being valued more and will see you as a better manager.
Two ways in which Karl has tried to be more like an introverted leader is by listening more closely and backing off more often in conversations to allow people who work for him to be at the centre of things. Listening closely seems to be a theme that has come up frequently in his research over the past few years. Introverts prefer to listen and will naturally be silent in a conversation in which the other person is speaking more, which means that their potentially valuable thoughts will go unvoiced. By acting more like an introvert, Karl gives those around him more space to teach him.
Still, just as Karl, an extrovert, has to put his “game face” on in his work life, many introverts aspiring for senior roles within their companies would benefit from incorporating characteristics of extroverts into their leadership styles. A very practical way of doing this is using the Five-Click technique. Click away!
Jon Victor is a rising sophomore at Yale University. He is working with me this summer as a research assistant for my upcoming book Quiet Leaders: Introverts in the Executive Suite. You can follow him on
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