The Perceptions of Others

Challenges

Introverted leaders reported that they struggled with other peoples’ perceptions of their character and skills.

Common misperceptions or limiting perceptions included:

• being fragile and in need of support
• not being leadership material
• being indecisive
• not fitting the image of the typical leader
• being remote, distant or difficult to approach
• being shy
• being too laid back
• not being sufficiently gregarious
• not having an opinion
• being too sensible, serious
• taking too long to think about things
• being too conceptual or ‘academic’
• having insufficient drive
• being unsympathetic.

Other have noted that:

• the tendency to ‘freeze’ in conflict situations can create a perception that introverted leaders are weak or uncaring
• creating positive first impressions can be particularly challenging as the culture may require one-off spontaneous likeability
• for those introverted leaders who ‘act extrovert’, the mismatch between this and their ‘authentic’ behaviour can be disconcerting to colleagues.