TED Talk – Susan Cain – The Power of Introverts

Susan Cain is a former corporate lawyer who challenges us in her TED talk “The Power of Introverts”. She wants us to consider the damage we are doing to the creative productivity of our society by allowing our educational and work structures to be hijacked by extroverts.

Knowing how dominant extroverts are in our executive teams and boards, she makes some good points worth consideration. These points are especially true for those trying to get the most out of their leadership teams. What is really needed is more effective contribution by both the noisy and more silent participants.

She argues that our culture undervalues introverts, despite the evidence that some of the great contributions to society – from Chopin’s nocturnes to the invention of the personal computer to Gandhi’s transformative leadership – were delivered by introverts. “There’s zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas.” – so why do we tend to follow the best talker?

Susan calls on introverts to “free themselves from the distortion of group dynamics” so that their contribution is not lost. Her research is detailed in her recent book ”Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking”.

The talk should certainly prompt some thinking and discussion about the contribution both introverts and extroverts make around your leadership table and whether we are doing ourselves a disservice by creating a bias against introverts.