What introverted leaders said about the challenges of Networking and Socialising:

• “I'm less sociable than others and less willing to do networking/marketing. That leads to a lower personal profile when networking/meeting others/forming alliances.”
  
  
• “I'm still uncomfortable at times when there's a lot of small-talk - like buffet lunches in the middle of a conference. I'm often to be found studying a very dull leaflet left out by the venue, or taking longer than strictly necessary to go to the loo!”
  
  
• “On occasions the demands to 'network' and 'perform' have been stressful/energy sapping.”
  
  
• “ I am also not naturally very gregarious, and at more senior levels, a degree of 'schmoozing' is expected, which I am not very good at.”
  
  
• “My weaknesses in networking - although I got better at it, and am less socially hopeless in role than in private, I think that this became perhaps one of the most important limitations on my career.”
  
  
• “I felt there was an ‘in crowd’ and an ‘out crowd’ and I didn’t even want to be part of the ‘in crowd’.”
  
  
• “I tend not to do conferences. I don’t think there is anything much worse than going to a formal dinner. I get asked to dinners in London but I just don’t do it. I don’t mind working breakfasts but staying late for dinner is not my idea of fun.”
  
  
• “I don’t like residential training. We get to the dinner and my heart just sinks. By the evening I am so tired, I don’t feel like being there. My head is so full, I feel uncomfortable sitting there especially with groups of people I don’t know that well.”
  
  
• “On a busy project, if I can't get some space for reflection, and the extroverts are keen to socialise over meals or in a pub until late at night, I get very tired and desperate to get away and 'switch off'.”
  
  
• “I've felt that my profile and visibility has suffered on many occasions because I rarely engage in social activities with work colleagues outside work. I used to do so, but if I stayed sober I felt painfully self-conscious and out of sorts in a big group - and, while I felt more relaxed if I had a drink or two, I would tend to get involved in very 'deep' conversations with individuals in the group which then put me under more pressure than I wanted to support them after the social event (I'd end up in 'counselling' mode!).”