YES to introversion AND yes to extroversion, yes to solitary work and yes to group work, not mutually exclusive
Pontifications
(My apologies if the following comes off as a rant :-) ! Not intended that way! tl;dr we need all styles of thinking and working if we want to make the world better :-) ! And finally if I use the word “should” or “needs” it is merely a “strong” :-) suggestion, I really don’t like telling people what to do!)
- In my 30 years in the software world, I’ve learned that the most effective leadership is from introverts (at least that’s been my experience, I don’t think any of the fab leaders I have worked for are or were extroverts).
- Therefore I find book’s like Susan Cain’s Quiet much too extreme. There is nothing wrong with both introverts and extroverts.
- There is nothing wrong with working by yourself as Susan Cain has written and more balanced folks like Stowe Boyd have written; everybody needs at least 1 hour/day doing this preferably in a private office.
- There is nothing wrong with working in a non quiet open space; everybody needs at least 1 hour/day doing this even if it’s just over lunch in a shared public space to get stimulation and to get ideas to riff off of and float trial balloons and just to be part of your tribes (everybody should be part of 1 work tribe and at least one non work tribe where “tribe” can be folks at your regular cafe or your badminton or cross-country skiing club or your church :-) (I’m not a believer but the social networking at churches is fab!)
- Yes to individual and group work! There is nothing wrong with team work; more things happen in a team than just brainstorming (and brainstorming can be improved greatly: outside stimulus no fear, do your homework, encourage crazy and non linear); I hope everybody realizes that the myth of solitary genius is just that, a myth.