{"id":80767,"date":"2015-09-20T11:01:47","date_gmt":"2015-09-20T16:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=80767"},"modified":"2015-09-30T09:19:24","modified_gmt":"2015-09-30T14:19:24","slug":"the-power-of-introversion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=80767","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Introversion"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Diana La Femina
\npreviously published 9\/8\/14<\/em><\/p>\n

The Power of Introversion<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"diana<\/a>I\u2019ve been reading Quiet Influence: The Introvert\u2019s Guide to Making a Difference<\/em> by Jennifer B.\u00a0Kahnweiler. It\u2019s an interesting, short book explaining how introverts can make the most of their\u00a0innate strengths and translate these strengths into their careers. Kahnweiler discusses six main\u00a0strengths: taking quiet time, preparation, engaged listening, focused conversations, writing, and\u00a0thoughtful use of social media. There\u2019s also a quiz to show you how strong you are in each of the\u00a0above strengths and which you need to improve, as well as sections in each chapter that explain\u00a0the dangers of overusing each strength and further steps to help you become stronger in these\u00a0areas.<\/p>\n

The book is excellent and I highly suggest reading it, mainly because it shows that introverts\u00a0are not weak. It\u2019s not that introverts don\u2019t like being around people or that they aren\u2019t good\u00a0socializing; being an introvert means you gain strength from solitary endeavors and recharging.\u00a0By contrast, extroverts recharge by being in social situations. For some reason, though, there\u2019s a\u00a0pervasive belief that introverts are weaker than extroverts.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve read a number of books and articles on how to move forward in your career (or, really, just\u00a0how to start<\/em> a career) and most of the suggestions were very extrovert-centric. The tactics I\u2019ve\u00a0found suggested for networking and selling yourself don\u2019t play to an introvert\u2019s strengths and\u00a0make it seem like you have to be an extrovert to get ahead. Perhaps librarianship is a bit better,\u00a0but in my experience this belief pervades most workplaces.<\/p>\n

I worked on Wall Street for a year, and I was dumbfounded how people who talked a lot were\u00a0seen as better workers, even when they didn\u2019t contribute anything. (A popular tactic was to\u00a0repeat exactly what the last person had said, only reworded.) It\u2019s disheartening when your first\u00a0instinct is to roll a situation over in your mind and figure out the best solution without flapping\u00a0your mouth about.<\/p>\n

This \u201cinferior introversion\u201d belief holds true outside of the workplace as well. I have a friend\u00a0(who truly has my best interests at heart) who is constantly trying to force me to become an\u00a0extrovert. I made the mistake of having Quiet Influence<\/em> on me the last time I saw them; the\u00a0floodgates opened. They ripped the premise of the book apart and discounted any notion that\u00a0introversion has inherent strength. What they argued boiled down to this: building on the\u00a0strengths of introversion was a cop-out for people who didn\u2019t want to put in the effort to become\u00a0more extroverted.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re an introvert you probably have someone like this in your life, though hopefully\u00a0someone a bit less forceful (don\u2019t worry about me, I have a very strong sense of self). Ignore\u00a0them. They\u2019re most likely trying to look out for you, but you know yourself better. Build upon\u00a0your quiet strengths and use them to their full potential. If your extroverted, then build upon your\u00a0own innate strengths but also try to work on your introverted side.<\/p>\n

We live and work in an extrovert-centric world but introversion should not be so easily\u00a0discounted. Introverts have the power of introspection, of being able to mull over an issue on\u00a0their own and come up with a unique answer. Introverts can be better in public service rolls\u00a0because they tend to listen to a person rather than just hearing what they\u2019re saying, thus figuring\u00a0out what the real problem is.<\/p>\n

So when you\u2019re putting your resumes together, or going on interviews or what have you, don\u2019t\u00a0try to hide your introvert nature and learn how it can be a strength. Building on our weaknesses\u00a0is a fantastic endeavor, but we\u2019ll never truly reach our potential unless we also build up our\u00a0strengths as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Diana La Femina previously published 9\/8\/14 The Power of Introversion I\u2019ve been reading Quiet Influence: The Introvert\u2019s Guide to Making a Difference by Jennifer B.\u00a0Kahnweiler. It\u2019s an interesting, short book explaining how introverts can make the most of their\u00a0innate strengths and translate these strengths into their careers. Kahnweiler discusses six main\u00a0strengths: taking quiet time,…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":74114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,3592,3996,3666,3992,6486,5888,4391,6358,3667,4712,6523,6524,6522],"class_list":["post-80767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-diana-la-femina","tag-inalj-alberta","tag-inalj-british-columbia","tag-inalj-labrador","tag-inalj-manitoba","tag-inalj-new-brunswick","tag-inalj-newfoundland","tag-inalj-northwest-territories","tag-introverts","tag-jennifer-b-kahnweiler","tag-power-of-introversion","tag-quiet-influence-the-introverts-guide-to-making-a-difference"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/diana-la-femina.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-l0H","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/74114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}