More, earlier and better:

Key issues included:

• understanding the strengths of introversion and that it is ok to be introvert
  
  
• recognising the benefits of mentoring or coaching and its particular attraction to introverted leaders
  
  
• having access to MBTI earlier in careers
  
  
• learning how to manage conflict
  
  
• the importance of specific feedback.

Introversion is OK:

• “I think I was probably always aware that I was not an extrovert but I think there is a feeling in the workplace generally that extroversion is better! It may have been helpful earlier in my career to feel that introversion was okay and help me work with that as opposed to trying to be something I wasn’t.”
  
  
• “I think the greatest help would have lain in a more inclusive approach to styles of leadership. Diversity is not just about colour, gender, culture and alike; it is about celebrating the differences in all of us. That matters to a white apparently Anglo Saxon male with introverted tendencies who often feels excluded.”
  
  
• “Possibly a group forum on leadership techniques for introverted leaders just to feel there are others with similar ways of working.”

Mentoring / Coaching:

• “A lot more one-to-one mentoring.”
  
  
• “Being mentored by another introverted leader would have been good. Earlier on in my career it would have been useful to have mentoring sessions with a CEO who was an introvert and who had found successful ways of accommodating this preference and being a successful CEO.”
  
  
• “Perhaps if I had been mentored by a like-minded person at an earlier stage in my career I would have achieved more earlier?”
  
  
• “Coaching for me is key.”
  
  
• “I think talking to other introverts would be helpful. How about introverts anonymous?”

Understanding introversion and extroversion earlier:

• “Much earlier understanding of the energy issue – perhaps through more specific follow up from the Myers Briggs team days we did.”
  
  
• “If only MBTI was used and understood much earlier in life. Since understanding it myself I’ve replayed incidents from the last forty years over in my head and have only now understood why I felt like I have done. Since I have realised why I am like I am I have suddenly opened my eyes and noticed many more introverts around me!”
  
  
• “It would have helped to do Myers Briggs earlier – maybe as a medical student.”

Managing conflict:

• “Greater emphasis on strategies for managing potential conflicts between personal preferences and role / job demands.”
  
  
• “I wish I had learnt to deal with conflict better during my childhood.” As an only child I spent a lot of time avoiding playground disputes when it would have been better to have learnt how to resolve them.”
  
  
• “A specific focus on how to be effective amongst a cohort of extroverts who seem to run away with themselves and then wonder why things are not going well."