About 70 percent of my team are introverts, and all of them were here when I came on board as a manager. They won’t come together to solve problems. We have weekly staff meetings and give everyone an opportunity to speak so we can coordinate and work together, but I get the sense that they don’t have time to involve someone else. In fact, one of my employees told me, “I like to figure things out on my own.” It’s like each one of them lives on an island, and it’s too hard to take their boat over to collaborate. Any advice?
To read the answer, click here: Finding the Perfect Fit
Strongly suggest obtaining Dr. Leonard Yong’s book, “Emotional Excellence in the Workplace”, ISBN 978-983-43472-1-5. Might have to go to his website to purchase it. About US$20. One benefit of the book is that it describes how to communicate effectively with different “types” of people. I put Dr. Yong’s approach to very good use at two different companies, and was able to achieve breakthroughs.
Preferences of introverts aside, and I am certainly one, by finding the motivators of the introverts, managers can tailor their leadership approach to lead people of all kinds in the directions the business needs. Once managers discover what the key motivators are, then developing a results and rewards system is straightforward.
I can help you out in it. Being introverts they don’t like to share their ideas. you just need to find their driving/motivating force. once it is found out link it with ideas generation. Also you can ask their ideas through other mediums i.e. which are secret and remains only between the generator and receiver.
you can use either of it or both at one time. Its up to you know.
Not quite true. We love to share our ideas, but we don’t share in the same way as extraverts. We don’t just blurt things out in meetings. We don’t like brainstorming meetings.
Give them time to prepare and think Ask them to think up ideas ahead of time and write them down, then come to the meeting with their ideas. Go around the table one at a time, asking each person what they think and allowing them time to talk. Get someone to take notes on the white board. Allow them to discuss and hash things out via email instead of a big meeting. Let them work in smaller groups of two or three. Don’t force them to act as a large team.
If you want a sports metaphor, introverts are more like swimmers or fencers, or bowlers. They aren’t like hockey or football “team” players.
This isn’t just about being introverts. Plenty of introverts do just fine collaborating.
Off the top of my head, and not having read Suzanne’s response, I can think of some possible issues you should be looking at.
What was the culture before you came on? What incentives were there to collaborate, and what were the dis-incentives? The latter question may not be as easy to answer as it seems, as sometimes it’s not a direct line. In other words, it’s obvious that not giving collaborators credit is likely a dis-incentive to collaborate. But, it may not be so obvious that if people who collaborate get dinged for “not being a team player” because they don’t join social activities, that also creates a disincentive to collaborate.
Another thing is that weekly meeting may actually be discouraging idea sharing. Perhaps you should restructure the meeting or even get rid of it. Perhaps you could replace (or supplement it) with good collaboration tools and making it easy for staff to meet on an as needed basis.
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