quiet is cool

So many people in my company have said they feel their success is limited by their personalities, that they are quiet and thoughtful and definitely not good salesmen so they can't own their space and their relationships with their clients like the more stereotypical diva hairdressers among us. But when I look around the shops I visit, the reality does not support their fears. Some introverts have leveraged their strengths and are successful precisely because they don't come on too strong. 

Quiet does not equal meek. In fact, it can convey serious presence and in a noisy world may stand out as refreshing if accompanied by a deep sense of self. We need to start coaching individuals from the beginning that there are many ways to skin a cat - introverts and extroverts need different ways to approach conversations with guests and different ways to approach marketing themselves.

This TED talk explains why introverts are often more creative and trusted leaders, despite the culture of personality that exclusively values loud, social types. Introverted means you need to recharge by being alone because you are hypersensitive to external stimuli - whereas extroverts are less sensitive and therefore need far more stimuli to feel "on." Susan Cain offers a compelling case for structuring our work groups to better balance introverted and extroverted strengths.