When it comes to elect a group leader, whom are you likely to vote for? Would it be one of the people eagerly waving their hands in the air in a meeting? These individuals are probably the ones who tend to be most outgoing, sociable, and hyped up about an opportunity to be recognized and identified. 

Admitted it or not, in organizations, we still frequently hear comments that represent stereotypes based on gender, age, religion and personality. “Women will not relocate for a promotion,” “older workers cannot learn new skills,” “Asian immigrants are hard-working and conscientious,” and also, “Extroverts can be better leaders”. When we question what qualities shape a successful figure, the answers seem obvious. It is easy to notice that most job advertisements require their employees to be outgoing and extrovert. In most people’s mind, introvert and reserved people can only be analysts or calm observers in a team.

However, it turns out that your best choice of a leader is more likely to be the quiet and reticent person who takes a back seat in public discussions. Introverts make better leaders than extroverts actually. 

Through the Ted talk of Susan Cain, who makes the speech on “the power of introverts” we learn that introversion is a complex personal trait. Virtually, it is arbitrary to classify those shy and quiet ones into introverts. To observe them closely, they in fact are more qualified to be wisdom listeners and inspirer.  

Under the ideal circumstance, a good team is that the personalities of a leader and followers should be in harmony for a group to achieve maximum productivity. Can introvert leaders achieve this goal? Yes, and actually they can do better than extroverts!! In some specific cases, extroverts are easily irritated and cause more conflicts inside the team, while those introverts can alleviate the disputes and solve the difficulties with less effort and cost to integrate the whole team closely. Without any doubt, we may rate those introvert leaders higher due to their ability to maximize the group’s actual productivity. It is widely acknowledged that introverts are observant by nature and then they can spark teammates’ motivation subtly, which is more efficient than those of extroverts.

After discussing above, we can learn that introverts, equipped with acute ability of observing and solving, are definitely better leaders for a successful teamwork than extroverts. With an introvert leader, the team will be more productive and harmonious, rather that those extroverts who usually take advantage of group work as a stage for themselves to show off.

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Cain, Susan. “The power of introverts.” Susan Cain: The power of introverts | TED Talk | TED.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2017.

In Kaitlyn ho’s blog, Lonely Millionaires, she pointed out that many leaders, in fact, feel isolated and conflicted when it comes to personal relationships in the workplace. We often speak about all the perks of having a leadership position: money, recognition, experience, and an outstanding résumé. However, we never stop and think about how difficult it is to maintain that role and how the pressure might affect the leader’s personal and professional life.

Katy’s post mentioned the fact that leaders do not really have anyone to turn to when times get tough and you’re facing a challenge. It’s a interesting topic and a novel perspective. However, I could understand that it would be difficult to manage the power imbalance in a group of friends and thus, you’d be lonely as a leader. But i don’t think a successful leader couldn’t find anyone when they feel sad or stressful. They have their own social circle and everyone has friends can understand each other.

Learning to manage pressure is a basic skill for everyone. Not being loneliness It’s their own job not others. Motivating employees is a important job for leaders. But the reason why is leaders want to achieve the goal of eliminating the cost of human resources. Motivating employees is not what they should do, but it is what they want to do. Similarly, being happy is none of others business. Even for the managers, what they should do is try to adjust themselves and they are actually the only people care about themselves.

All in all, we all want to get rid of the loneliness. Maybe for the top people, they are more easily to be lonely due to the level. But that is their responsibility to adjust themselves, it just like why they enjoys the happiness about power.

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In Michaela Quinn’s blog about the gender equality, she discusses how to motivate female employees and achieve the gender equality on workplace.

For the most part, I agree with Michaela’s perspective that having children has a huge impact on a woman’s decision to keep working or to stay home. She mentioned that company could offer gender equal benefits to make female workers’ life easier. But what I actually want to say is why the company need to think about get benefits for female workers and attract more and more female employees become workforce.

In the last years, we have witnessed major changes in social attitudes towards women in the workforce and management positions. Six decades ago, a Gallup study showed that 66% of working adults preferred to work for a male manager and only 5% preferred a female boss.

Come modern times and another Gallup study, and the numbers may take us by surprise: 33% of adult respondents said they preferred a male boss and 20% answered they most definitely preferred a female manager.

Those research clearly shows that female employees become more and more popular, but why?

Based on common sense and daily experience alone, parents of girls will tell you that girls performed better in school environments since early ages than boys did.

A study conducted at the University of Georgia and Columbia University showed that girls possess a set of traits that go beyond the realm of cognitive performances (attention, memory, etc.) and the realm of what we commonly call “intelligence.” Girls perform better in school and become better learners because of their attitude towards the act of learning.

In other words, girls, young and mature women present higher levels of learning eagerness, task persistence, learning independence, better work organization, flexibility and engagement with the topics learned.

Having a pro-active approach towards learning and being better at organizing, women tend to become better employees as they understand the tasks at hand faster. However, if you were a child prodigy in school, this doesn’t mean your traits and natural skills will hold forever if you don’t keep your edge.

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Work cited:

Sandberg, S. (2010, December 21). Sheryl Sandberg: Why we have too few women leaders [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/sheryl_sandberg_why_we_have_too_few_women_leaders.html

Why Girls Do Better in School. (2015, October 06). Retrieved April 01, 2017, from https://psychcentral.com/news/2013/01/05/why-girls-do-better-in-school/50050.html