In a world where everything is moving fast, being an introvert can be challenging for many, especially if you are an introverted manager. People often say an introvert cannot handle a team well due to various factors, including not feeling comfortable to gel with others.
Well, this is not the end of the story. You can be an introvert yet an excellent manager. Here’s how you can do that without being overwhelmed.
Ways You Can Shine as an Introvert Manager
As an introverted manager, you may sometimes find it hard to deal with people and situations. Not because you don’t know the drill but because you feel hesitant to come forward (alone), which is genuinely understandable.
However, in the corporate world, it is crucial to leave the hesitation behind to excel as a manager and support your team for all desired outcomes.
Here are these top tips you can follow to become an excellent introvert manager:
1. Embrace Your Strengths as an Introvert
Extroverted individuals are often perceived as great managers for obvious reasons. However, it does not mean an introvert can not be a great manager. Being an introvert has its own benefits as a manager.
For example, you can sit quietly and listen to everyone in a meeting room, their ideas, suggestions, problems, and solutions. It gives you the time to think and consider what and how to present your viewpoints instead of not listening to your team members and just reacting.
Listening to people patiently and collecting your thoughts and words before talking helps enhance your soft skills like active listening and efficient communication while making people respect you more as their manager and colleague.
2. Fully Engage with the Process as an Introverted Manager
It is no secret that introverts are excellent observers, and so you might be. Take complete advantage of this superpower of yours for making impactful decisions rather than reacting without proper observation.
You can take some extra time for matters that need your attention to think and observe everything before coming up with the final decision. For example, if you have to make any changes in your team, observe everything for one week and then think of all possible outcomes. When you start giving that extra time for observations, you will find it easy to deal with adverse situations as an introverted manager.
3. Schedule Time to Recharge Yourself
You will have a lot of meetings as a manager. Most of the time, you might spend your whole day doing meetings and start feeling exhausted as an introvert. Therefore, do yourself a favour and take a 20-30 minute break before every meeting.
While recharging yourself, ensure everyone is well aware that you are not available for that time except for an emergency-like situation. By scheduling a buffer time before every meeting, you can re-energise yourself for the next drill and focus on the agenda more clearly and without feeling exhausted or losing it.
4. Make a Room for Creativity
Being an introvert, you might have a creative mind that generates ideas, and you can develop this habit within your team. You can have brainstorming sessions or create a channel where everyone in your team can share their ideas and solutions without the fear of being judged.
You can use your creativity, and it may give the confidence to your team the liberty to do the same thing. As an introvert manager, you can foster innovation and include creative thinking as a part of your work culture.
5. Strive for More Visibility
Yes, we understand this may sound terrible for an introvert to ask for being visible. However, as a manager, you are already in a highly visible position. As a manager, people’s eyes will be upon you. This is a cycle, and instead of trying to break it or escape from it, try to accept it and actualise being visible a bit more.
While saying so, we are not asking to go all out while you are not feeling at ease or it is making you feel uncomfortable in any manner. You can start by increasing your visibility by 1% per week compared to the previous one. By doing so, you will start observing that people will respect you more and look up to you as someone more credible and has something valuable to say.
Conclusion: Practise Introverted-Friendly Skills to Become Successful as an Introverted Manager
Being a manager does not mean you have to be loud and bossy. Some of the best managers are very polite, soft-spoken, and introverted. You can be one of them by following the above tips. Also, new managers can foster innovation by creating motivation and loyalty among team members using these introvert-friendly skills.
You can do this by showing them examples of how effectively they can complete a task, wearing a positive attitude even if it is unnoticeable, and being a good listener. Do you have further suggestions on becoming an excellent introverted manager?
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