I recently conducted a workshop on leadership and communication styles, something I do regularly. A number of participants worked in the same organization, most were attending individually. Afterwards, as I gathered my materials and prepared to leave, one of the participants re-entered the room and asked to talk with me for a few minutes.
At the end of the day, many of us cruise through our inbox hoping to quickly respond to email messages, lightening the load for the next day. If you’re on the receiving end of the response, you can usually tell by the tone and structure of the reply if it was done hurriedly. And likely, because you’ve done this yourself, you can empathize with the sender.
Much was made in the media about Mary Barra being selected as the next CEO of General Motors. She is the first woman to run a major auto manufacturing company, and in that industry at the age of 51 she is relatively young.
Having grown up in Detroit, I was also interested that she attended General Motor’s Institute where some of my high school friends also received their engineering degrees. It was prestigious to attend GMI because it guaranteed a first rate education, a job at GM after graduating, and apprentice/intern jobs during the summer while you were a student. Not a bad deal.
Some years ago I wrote a post about introverts and extroverts to clarify the relationships between introversion, extroversion, interpersonal, and intrapersonal processing (click here). I think it’s time to revisit the discussion, furthering it a bit.
Those who are strong interpersonally, the thinking-out-loud-seeking-engagement types can be introverts or extroverts. Likewise, the intrapersonally strong—those who need to seek inner clarity before they meaningfully engage with others—can also be either introverts or extroverts.