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Can introverts be better bosses for extroverts?

Published: 10 May 2016

For the last 10 years I have worked for an introverted boss. Introverts have become an increasing part of the leadership conversation however vast majority of the leadership literature seems to be written to and for extroverted managers.

Why do introverted bosses work?

In this article I want to talk about a key way that introverted managers can be better managers for their extroverted employees.

The distribution of introverts and extroverts is spread across the European population. About third of our employees will be extroverted to some degree, and another third classed as introverted. Thus for any manager, it is imperative to learn how to manage each of these groups a bit differently, not too much, but a bit.

In our research, where we have interviewed over 150 CEOs, more than 30% of senior executives are introverts. At the middle and first line manager the levels are closer to 50%. How our introverts manage has a very considerable impact on how effective our organizations can be.

Professor Karl Moore is from the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University. 

Read full article: Changeboard, May 10, 2016 

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