Socially awkward. Shy. Unfriendly. Those are just a few of the stereotypes that are out there about introverts. Do you know why? Because studies say that most people, 75% to be exact, are extroverts. So before you throw in the towel on the introverts on your team, see what makes them tick. I thought of this post back during football season when all of the hubbub with Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler was going on. If you remember, he came out of the NFC Championship game with an injury and carried himself very poorly on the sideline. Sport talk radio blasted him, saying he was not a leader and was pouting on the sideline. From all accounts, Cutler is an introvert who is not all that interested in what others think of him. My advice to him is to start caring and learn how to fake the extroverted traits that people want from him (getting fired up about good plays, fist pumps, etc.) so that he can be an effective leader with his teammates. So what's the difference between an extrovert and an introvert anyway? Very basically: extroverts are energized by other people and introverts are energized by time with themselves. Since I'm an introvert myself, I'm interested in showing people how to encourage and manage the introverts on their teams. Here are a few tips for empowering your introverts to be amazing leaders and captains.
3 things to do when your team leaders are introverts Help them to watch their body language and facial expressions. If I've heard it once, I've heard it a million times. Someone will ask me "what's wrong" when absolutely nothing is wrong...things are great, as a matter of fact! The problem is you can't tell by looking at me, so I've got to constantly be aware of how I present myself to people so they don't think the sky is falling or that I'm just an angry, angry woman. I actually gave a speech on being an introvert to my Toastmasters group and the one correction I got was to smile more. *sigh*
Encourage them to make personal connections with their teammates. Introverts like making real connections with people, so when we're in group situations, we typically identify a few people to get to know. Whereas the extrovert is the "upgrader", always looking over your shoulder trying to find someone cooler to talk to or checking their phone instead of looking you in the eye...introverts are willing to invest the time into getting to know you. The extrovert may have two thousand "friends" on Facebook, but the introvert will have created solid relationships.
Let them know that sometimes they'll have to fake it. As awesome as we introverts are...there are times when we've got to channel our inner extrovert. Personally, I'm not as introverted when I coach my team. I don't think "silence is golden" or "I need me time" are good foundations for working with athletes. You can teach your introverts how to fake it as well. Typical extrovert traits are: being outgoing in groups, loving competition, being aggressive, taking risks...those sound like athletic traits instead of extrovert traits, right? But as I said before, most folks are extroverts and the introverts on your team will just have to jump on the bandwagon for two hours each practice and game day. Now that you know more about the rare gems out there that we call introverts, I hope you will embrace us and our quirks. I also hope you learned that you can have introverts who are quite effective leaders. But mostly, I hope you learned that introverts are awesome! Dawn Redd is the Head Volleyball Coach at Beloit College. Come visit Coach Dawn's community of coaching nerds and team leaders over at her blog, http://www.coachdawnwrites.com, where she teaches how to become an excellent coach, motivate individuals, and build successful teams. Twitter: @CoachDawnWrites
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