Introverts and Extoverts

Yesterday the ITSS Management Team shared our individual results on version of the Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory, provided free online by HumanMetrics.  One very interesting outcome is that all but one of us showed up as extroverts.  Does this mean that extroversion is important for success in leadership?  I don't think so.  Introverts have many advantages in life.  An interesting book on this topic is The Introvert Advantage:  How to Thrive in an Extrovert World by Marti Olsen Laney.  Perhaps you can tell by the title of the book that this author believes extroversion is more widely valued in our work world.  Assuming that is true, introverts may need to work a bit harder to capitalize on the strengths that come with introversion.

On the personality inventory, I came up as an extrovert, but only barely.  I find that I need alone time to relax and recharge.  The introvert in our group has some extrovert tendencies, too.  Like many human characteristics, there is likely to be a bell curve lurking, with most of us in the middle, having some blend of extrovert and introvert.  Relatively few are off the scale on either end. 

I happened to meet a man this week who is a high extrovert.  He was on campus interviewing for a job, and he talked about how the interview experience charged him up.  I know if I had been on a rigorous interview schedule all day, I'd want to go home at the end of the day and collapse.  But not this man.  He predicted he would not even be able to sleep that night, since he was so excited by the whole experience.

I believe that both introverts and extroverts bring valuable qualities to leadership.  Moreover, we may need to temper our qualities in order to be good leaders for all sorts of people.  At the very least, leaders should be aware of the spectrum of characteristics along the introvert-extrovert scale.  We may have to try a little harder to engage high introverts, and we may have to protect ourselves from being overwhelmed by high extroverts.  Overall, we need to value all of the skills that people bring to the table.

Lessons from a Mentor

In last week's post, I mentioned watching others as a strategy for developing your own leadership skills.  This week I'll talk about some lessons I learned from an important mentor of mine, Sandra Featherman.  Sandra was my first boss when I became an administrator.  At that time, she was the Vice Chancellor for Academic Administrator at UMD.  After that she went on to become President of New England University in Maine.  She continues to view mentoring others as a very important aspect of her leadership role.

Sandra was very good at avoiding micro-management.  If I had a concern or problem I was trying to solve, she would listen, and if asked, she would give advice.  But she rarely tried to solve the problem for me.  She provided a safe space for me to explore ideas without taking over or shutting down my creative spirit.  She encouraged me to be a problem solver.  She also encouraged me to look at a problem from multiple aspects before making a decision.

Perhaps Sandra's best advice to me was to use principle-based decision making.  That is, before making a decision, ask yourself if there is a principle you can apply.  If not, is this situation likely enough to recur that you should take the time to develop a principle before making the decision?  By developing a set of principles and using them in making decisions, you will make more consistent decisions over time.  This helps those who are working with you to anticipate what you would do and, best of all, to begin to develop their own principle-based decision making.  In my experience, people appreciate consistency, and lack of consistency tends to make them crazy.  Moreover, using principles makes it easier for me to make decisions over time, cutting down on having to reinvent the wheel at every new decision point.

Sandra Featherman is retired now, but she remains very busy with many activities that continue to take advantage of her great leadership skills.  I am lucky to have had her as one of my important mentors.

Building Your Leadership Skills

Last week I talked about preparing to speak to a class of undergraduates about leadership.  I did that yesterday, and the experience was very enjoyable.  They asked great questions, and I had a good time formulating answers.  As is often the case, both in IT and in leadership, the questions can be quite complex, and consequently the answers are often difficult to frame correctly.

I offered them these ways to develop leadership skills:

• Watch others
• Read books and articles about leadership
• Read my blog (ldeneen@blogspot.com)
• Take a class or a workshop
• Think about how you want to impact the world

Yes, I realize that third one is a bit self serving.  Forgive me!

I also enjoyed writing a letter of recommendation for a younger colleague who is applying to graduate school.  When I asked her what her goals are for working on a graduate degree, she pointed to these skills that learners are expected to develop in the program:

• critical reflection
• investigation and application of educational theory to practice
• evaluation, execution and effective communication of educational research
• intercultural competence
• the creation and participation in communities of learners as professionals
• leadership for educational reform

Just reading this list makes me enthusiastic about her future and the value that education brings to us all.  And here is a program that does emphasize leadership.  So here's to learning!

Talking with Students about Leadership

I am looking forward to giving a guest lecture in a colleague's computer science class next week.  Even though the topic is ethics, I think I'll find a way to slip in a few things about leadership while I am at it.  After all, if the leader doesn't set the right goals and personal example for ethical behavior, how likely is is that the department or company will act ethically?

I am pretty sure that when I was an undergraduate, I didn't think much about leadership.  And thinking back over my educational career, I don't remember much instruction about leadership.  It's likely that is a part of a good education in business schools, but I wonder why it isn't taught more widely across disciplines.  Certainly in higher education, we talk frequently about critical thinking skills.  But we are also educating the leaders of tomorrow, so why not teach leadership across the disciplines?

If you are a faculty member or a supervisor of a student employee, and if you are reading this blog, I hope you will give some thought to building in some time with your students to talk about leadership.  You will be doing our entire society a favor.