Are you an introvert or an extrovert? The business world has always rewarded extroverts, from Groupthinks and brainstorming to social outings and even cubicle farms.

But, as it turns out, introverts make up half the business population and a lot is being written about the differences between the two personality types and how they can live (and work) together in harmony.

Susan Cain, Lisa Petrilli, and Clive Thompson all discuss introverts in today’s workplace.

Traditionally, extroverts have been viewed as having greater success in all aspects of life.

In the workplace, specifically, it has been thought that one could only achieve success if they were outgoing and able to work well in a team environment.

However Susan Cain, author of the new book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, argues that “forcing everyone to act like extroverts harms the quality of our work and our lives.”

Introverts and Extroverts Working Together

Nearly a third of Americans are introverts. These people typically have the profound ability to stay focused and work diligently, but often find themselves overwhelmed by too much forced socializing thanks to team-based work environments and face-to-face collaboration.

Forced socialization can become detrimental to their productivity, causing them to suppress their ideas and thoughts.

So what’s the alternative? Cain suggests the answer is “virtual” collaboration. This is the idea that individual team members work alone prior to discussing solutions with the rest of their team. It is believed that working in this manner yields better results.

The interesting thing about all of this and which Thompson points out in this article, is virtual collaboration is very similar to how people collaborate online. There are a plethora of outlets for which people can interact with one another, but it can be done in private and you can give yourself time to reflect and respond. Cain says that this is “precisely what brings out the best in introverts.”

How well do you know the people you work with and how are you structuring your brainstorming meetings? Do you feel you could be getting more out of these meetings? If you aren’t completely happy with the results coming out your current brainstorming sessions, perhaps it might be time to consider taking this approach to team collaboration.

You never know…a new superstar might emerge with some incredible ideas.

Do you ever think about taking all the great leaders you’ve had the pleasure of working for or with and putting them in one room for a day?

What if you took all the traits that made each of them who they are and combined them into one person, creating a sort of all-star team of leadership traits?

Gretchen Rosswurm's article Leaders Communicate and Communicators Lead inspired this idea.

She looked at the many executives she’s worked with over the years and drew some common denominators.

Five Ways Great Leaders Communicate

• They inspire with their vision. By being able to paint a compelling picture of the future, good leaders truly motivate and inspire their teams. These leaders have a very clear picture of the end goal and they continually share the story.
• They are great listeners. Leaders already know what they know and what they think. They don't want to hear themselves speak; they want to hear from everyone else and learn from them. They show interest and compassion, and are open to hearing feedback; both positive and negative.
• They are open and transparent. Employees don’t like surprises. It makes them feel unstable. Good leaders are open about what’s happening and apprise staff of changes before they are due to happen communicating throughout the process.
• They are more inclusive rather than exclusive. Employees want to be included in decision-making and strategy or at least like to feel they have a say. Good leaders engage and involve more people in the vision to gain input and buy-in. From there, word of mouth helps to build the respect and growth from others.
• They communicate in a variety of ways. Some people like charts, others text and others yet, are very visual. Good leaders understand there is more than one way to communicate to the team and they incorporate all of these elements into multi-media presentations to speak to each of their audiences.

What would you add? What great leaders inspire you?

Thanks to Eyetalk for the image.

You know the expression well; it's lonely at the top.

Every leader deals with self-doubt, fear of making the wrong decision, and other potentially limiting behaviors.

The key is "potentially" because some leaders deal with these emotions well, while others don't.

Leadership coach Art Petty shares the realities of leading others and offers steps for moving past the limiting behaviors. One of the most important things to remember is, even though it feels lonely, no leader is alone in dealing with these issues.

How to Overcome Limiting Behaviors

• It's not easy: Leading, like parenting, is a unique challenge in that you are responsible for others'  livelihoods. Taken seriously, being a leader is no small feat.
• People are complex: There is a joke that jobs would be easier if it weren't for the customers and the employees. It wouldn't be as fun, of course, but the point is, people are complex. No two are the same and leading people requires nuance.
• It's a burden: Not only are you responsible for the livelihoods of your employees, but you are more than likely responsible to directors, shareholders, or your own family to deliver results.
• It's on-the-job training: No leadership school or business degree can fully prepare you for the work ahead of you other than jumping in and learning from experience.
• Failure should be accepted: Some of the best leaders I know aren't afraid to fail. The quicker you do so, the quicker you learn and move on. Your career will be one long episode of trial and error.

So, what do to?

Balance the Negative and Make it Constructive

• Don't be afraid of fear: Look it in the face. Often, you'll find you had nothing to be worried about. Petty cites one example. Many leaders fear giving constructive feedback because they hate confrontation. In fact, you're team is more than likely very open to receiving feedback that helps them improve.
• You don't have to be perfect: You also don't have to be the smartest person in the room. Knowing how to lead means you can turn to the people with the expertise, get counsel from your team, and make the right decisions from there.
• Your team is rooting for you: Know that your team wants to work with someone they enjoy. Be caring, empathic, and a good listener. Involve your team and help them do their best work.

No one said leading was going to be easy. Many entrepreneurs are born from a passion for the business, and weren't prepared for the bigger tasks at hand; leading a team.

Photo by OzinOH.

An interesting headline in the Harvard Business Review blog network caught my attention: What Captures Your Attention Controls Your Life.

Chaos is the term that might come to mind, in this day and age, when it's hard to keep attention focused on any single task or project; when we have notifications pinging on devices and numerous windows open on our computer desktops at any given time.

Stop and take a look now. How many do you have open?

In the article, author Kare Anderson shared a study Disney World had hired her to conduct a few years ago - to see what captured the attention of children in their amusement park.

She and her team went in to observe how kids reacted to the cast members, rides, concessions, and multiple stimuli throughout the park.

What do you think most captured the children's attention? Their parent's cell phones. When their parents were using them.

We don't think about it - we think we can give everyone the attention they deserve and desire,  but our kids, and our teams are the real judges. They can tell us if we're doing a good job of it or not.

How to Become a Better Leader

• Give undivided attention. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to speak to a boss, an employee, or a spouse while they are looking at their phone. They can tell you they are paying attention, but you don't feel it. Communication breaks down when the focus is not there.
• Focus on the positive to stay positive. What we focus on controls our thoughts. How we choose to react to something is how we have trained our brains to exist. Books upon books have been written about consciously shaping your brain to think positively. You know the negative person on your team who takes setbacks as a problem, as something personal, and permanent? The positive thinker in the group immediately sees a challenge and jumps to solve it.
• Leaders (and everyone) should pay attention to what controls the brain. The leader sets the example. A negative leader leaves a negative impact on morale in the team. Ever notice the couple at the dinner table and both of them are staring at their phones? I bet the next day, they thought they had wonderful romantic dinner together. The same goes for when you are in meetings with your teams, or one on one with individual staff members. Take careful stock of where and how you are allocating your attention.

The best thing you can do? Give undivided attention. Be the best listener ever.

Who are some of your closest friends? The ones you enjoy most spending time with? I'd be willing to bet they are the friends who listen to you and care about you.

Listening, explained Anderson, is the "social cement" and the foundation for the best relationships. It makes the other person feel valued, and opens you up to a new world of ideas.

What would you add?

When things aren’t going to plan, it’s a common, knee-jerk reaction to first point blame somewhere else. It can't possibly be our own fault, right?

Monica Wofford wrote an interesting post about inconsistent leadership which requires us as leaders, to look within when employers are underperforming.

It’s an interesting concept, because the first reaction is to blame the underperforming employee, of course, and to think about termination or relocation to a different department.

Did you ever stop to think it could be your own fault?

According to Wofford, an inconsistent leader is hot and cold; good mood, bad mood; approachable, frightening; empathetic, ruthless.

Think of it from your team’s perspective and you can start to see why it would affect performance.

The Cost of Inconsistent Leadership

• They stop trusting you. The hot and cold approach makes employees afraid to approach you. You might have an open door policy in theory, but if you blow up or lose your patience every now and then, your team will stop coming by to talk. Why should they?
• You lose authority. We all lose our tempers, but as leaders, it’s critical to reign that in and not allow it to happen. Don’t act on anger. If you have to, give it time before you handle the situation. If it involves one employee and not the entire team, deal with it privately and discreetly. If you don’t, and you lose your cool on a regular basis, your team will start to ignore you.
• They stop being honest with you. You’re employees will just nod and agree to “keep you from acting scary.” It’s much easier to empathize with you to your face and avoid conflict. You’ll never have a true sense of what is happening in your work environment.
• Team morale will plummet. This pretty much goes without saying. Now your employees are going to gather around and talk about you. They need to get it off their chest so of course they will. Productivity goes down and now you have a team complaining to each other, making matters worse.
• They all are difficult. The biggest symptom is when you feel the entire team is being a challenge. If this is the case, it’s more than likely it’s you and not them.

Awareness is the first step in dealing with inconsistent leadership. See the problem and tackle each one of these one by one. Practice mindfulness and keeping your mood steady.

Remember your mood affects everyone. You don't have the luxury in indulging in mood swings. And talk to your staff. If you find you need to make changes, approach it together. You’re not alone. Everyone wants to like everyone they work with.

Don't you agree?

Strong relationships have always been important in the workplace. As businesses become global and professionals work together across time zones, managing and maintaining workplace relationships has become challenging.

The manager-employee relationship has a critical affect on performance. Smart business leaders know if managers are trained and charged with responsibility for the success of their reports, departmental and organizational performance will take care of itself.

Companies that don’t drive home the importance of this relationship to frontline managers will eventually pay the price, whether it’s in the loss of good employees or decreases in performance resulting from employee dissatisfaction.

Ming Ong wrote an article entitled “How to Find Balance Between Leadership and Management,” and it dives into how to build positive relationships. As business leaders and managers, we need to build and foster positive relationships with our employees.

Three Tips to Build Positive Relationships

Employee Awareness

Don’t just act interested, be interested. Ong suggests to keep in regular contact with your employees and really hear what they are doing as well as what they have on their plate. If you take a sincere interest in your employees, they will feel you are truly interested in them and they’ll be more dedicated to their work and the company’s success.

Accountability

Employees need to be held accountable for their tasks. For a group of employees to work together, they need to understand group and individual goals. Understanding shared and individual goals eliminates finger-pointing because everyone understands the relevance of the teams contributions. This provides employees with increased awareness of their interdependencies.

Empowerment

Offer guidance, but let your employees make the decisions when possible. They will feel valuable and it encourages them to learn more and grow. Inspire, don’t control. Encourage feedback, and communicate what is happening. People want to know their input matters and how they contribute to the company’s success.

What our businesses need today are managers who lead, inspire, and motivate employees to achieve business-wide goals. In the long-term, building solid relationships with employees builds an environment where they want to meet their goals and are not forced to do so.

Eleanor Roosevelt’s famous quote reminds us to “do one thing everyday that scares you.” We all have different thresholds for fear, and different ways we process our fear.

Overcoming fear also has a different meaning for each of us.

But fear can be paralyzing.

Inc. Columnist Geoffrey James wrote an interesting article about tricking yourself out of fear and into action. The idea is that we get the best results when we take big leaps. They may be one of the scariest times, and full of risk, but the outcome, one way or the other, is most rewarding.

Think about some of the biggest decisions you’ve made in your life; things that disrupted your status quo. I’d be willing to bet, even if the planned outcome wasn’t achieved, it opened other doors to new opportunities.

James said, “I’ve managed to retrain my brain to get past the momentary fear and push toward the payoff.”

Four Ways to Reframe Fear Into Action

• Don’t cling to your comfort zone. People stay in jobs, in towns, and in relationships in which they are unhappy because it is easier than taking a risk and making a move to change things. James says to make the conscious decision to live your life the way you want, and make decisions based on that intention.
• Don’t let irrational fears hold you back. Be honest with yourself and ask what exactly you are afraid of. Break it down into scenarios and “what ifs.” You will more than likely find each worry can easily be overcome. Create alternatives and fall back plans for each scenario giving you that safety net should things not go as planned.
• Make fear a call to action. This will resonate for those who appreciate a good challenge. Make the fear your kick in the pants, and get it done today. Simple as that - stop thinking about it and just do it.
• Get excited about the action you fear. Go back to those decisions or situations I asked you to think about at the beginning of this post. In retrospect, it was likely a source of excitement once completed; it might have been quitting a job, starting a business, running a marathon, or climbing a mountain. It might have been as simple as making a phone call or having a confrontation with a boss or employee. It’s scary and nerve-wracking beforehand, but afterwards, it usually feels exhilarating. Latch on to that; the excitement of doing something scary.

I’d love to hear from you, now. What have you done lately to overcome fear?

Photo courtesy of Vale Design.

We are all human; we all err. No one is exempt. As a leader, you’ll be more remembered for how you deal with your mistakes, than your actual mistake. Think about that.

Some of the greatest mistakes in business are more remembered for how they were handled. Think about Johnson and Johnson’s handling of the Tylenol situation, which was seen as positive despite the tragic situation. On the other hand, there is the BP oil spill which became a disaster for all involved because of the CEO’s poor handling of the situation.

In other words, you can make it worse, or you can make it better.  It’s all in how you handle the aftermath of said mistake.

Art Petty shares tips to deal with your mistakes providing a great reminder on a number of levels. Most of all, he advises, rightly so, how you handle your mistakes is a great sign of your leadership abilities.

How to Handle Your Mistakes as a Leader

• Be OK with saying, “I was wrong.” Some people find those words extremely difficult to say. A little humility will take you a long way. You’d be surprised at the reaction when you admit you’re wrong. Anger settles down; emotions simmer down.
• Eliminate the word “but” from your reply. The word “but” deletes any value to anything you said before the word. Try it for yourself. It means you’re making an excuse, and people don’t want to hear excuses. Admit being wrong and leave it at that.
• Don’t assign blame. If it happened by the fault of one of your team members and you are the leader, you are accountable.  Accept responsibility, offer what you’ll do to fix the issue, and learn from it so it doesn’t happen again.
• Apologize. Here are two more words that are hard to say for some people: “I’m sorry.” Again, you’ll be amazed at how it softens the situation. Saying “I’m sorry” is a sign of humility, strength, and character. And remember, don’t use the word “but.”
• Think about the lessons learned. Each mistake should be turned into a lesson learned. Think about what you learned, what you’d do differently next time, and how you’ll avoid it from happening again.

Maybe you’ll stop making mistakes? Don’t count on it. If we are afraid to make mistakes, it means we aren’t taking risks. The best outcomes happen after leaders accept responsibility, apologize, and outline how they will fix the problem.

Have you made a mistake recently? Do you want to practice here and tell us about it?

Gossip at the water cooler, power plays by management, and bullying in the office.

While some leaders appreciate some office politics to create a sense of “survival of the fittest;” competition, others won’t accept it as part of the working environment because it negatively affects morale, turnover, and often, opportunities for star employees who might otherwise be very good, but don’t successfully “play the politics game.”

Skilled employees don't want to work where they can’t succeed on good performance and initiatives but must “play the game” to get ahead. So they look elsewhere.

Realistically, no work environment can be completely free of the politics. You have employees, who are human, with varying personalities, work ethics, and opinions.

How to Eliminate Office Politics

Blinds.com chief executive officer, Jay Steinfeld says you can find a happy balance by creating an environment that encourages competition without the nastiness and jealousy involved in the office politics in his article for Inc.

1. Lead by example. Honesty and transparency. They are big buzzwords these days, but it’s an important mantra. If you breed an environment of office politics it will flourish. Instead, if you have discussions with your employees, allowing them real input and follow-through, handing out credit where credit is due, they will quickly understand they are recognized and valued for their contribution. There’s no room for politics in this type of an environment.
2. Communicate your vision. If you’ve done a good job of sharing where the organization is headed, your employees have a good sense of how they fit into the big picture. Steinfeld says “when everyone has an identical goal, it is less likely people will behave in their own best interests.” This is true because they are all aligned in the same direction. Teams are being rewarded for reaching goals, and everyone is recognized for their contribution.
3. Allow healthy debate. Even the best marriages have debates and arguments. We’re not suggesting this should be eliminated. But there is a healthy way and an unhealthy way to allow a healthy debate. Debate good ideas, eliminate personal attacks; especially those based on gender, religion, race, and politics.
4. Reject negative politics. Don’t allow behavior you don’t want to see. If there are problems with managers within your organization, for example, you want to know. Be approachable, so you have a clear picture of what is happening in the workplace. Make it very clear backstabbing, gossip, and power plays aren’t welcome in this environment.

By nature of leading a team of people, there will always be challenging interpersonal dynamics. Office politics won’t go away completely and forever. However, by leading by example, you show the type of working environment you want to foster; one which is competitive and open to healthy debate, but closed to negative attacks.

Do you have issues with office politics in your business? What do you do to keep it at bay?