MIND56 APRIL 2016
A FEW YEARS AGO I had a profoundly weird
experience in Japan. In this truly foreign
country–wheremyhotelroomwascoffin-
sizedandtheKitKatsweregreen–Ifelt
genuinely at home. Despite the language
barrier, dining alone in sushi bars and the
special alienation of being the one naked
whiteguybathinginthehotonsensprings,
IfeltutterlyacceptedinawayIneverhad:as
anintrovert.Iwasclearlywelcome,butnot
required to answer the string of questions
that would pass for politeness back home.
Beingmytrueselfgavemeanewsourceof
calm strength. Being an introvert no longer
feltlikeadirtysecret.
Ithadalwaysseemedlikeanaffliction.At
work,itwasmyAchillesheel.Iwasoncea
chef in a restaurant where my fellow chefs
followed the macho Gordon Ramsay school
of loud abuse. On an “away-day”, our head
cheftookustoatestcentrewhereour
leadership potential was assessed from
behindatwo-waymirror.Aswesetabout
solvingourgrouptask,theextroverts
naturally began to talk over one another,
fighting to display their dominance. The more
they talked, the more I panicked. Then I
becameindignant.ItoldmyselfIhadaright
to be heard. Say something.Anything. Quick!
Reader, I shouted something so salty
Ramsay himself would have blanched.
This is the introvert’s doomed reasoning:
we must beat extroverts at their own game.
ButIhavesincefoundthattheoppositeis
true;theintrovert’sadvantageisapenchant
forreflectiveanalysis.Inaloudenvironment,
the ability to think without speaking sets us
apart. As Susan Cain puts it inQuiet:“The
keytomaximisingourtalentsistoput
ourselves inourzone of stimulation.” At
work, our abilities become supercharged on
flights of solo thought.
The quiet is harder. In the Western world,
silent often means dumb and the wealth of
social capital belongs to more “outgoing”
characters. While extroverts presume intros to
be arrogant or timid, intros characterise
extrovertsasinsincereorbrash.CarlJung,the
psychologist who invented the terms in 1921,
didn’t mean that everyone was either AnimalfromThe Muppetsor Linus fromCharlie
Brown.Jung’sideawasthatintroversionand
extroversionareextremesonascale.
Youmightfancyyourselfasabitofan
Animal, but it’s hard to know where you truly
belong on that scale. The truth comes down
to chemistry. Dopamine, which regulates
your brain’s reward centres, has different
effects. Introverts have a lower threshold, so
they need less sensory input than extroverts
tobehappy.Soifthethoughtofaweekend
alonemakesyouhowlwithfearratherthan
sigh with relief, then you tend to extroversion.
An introvert can self-regulate his own
dopamine levels and prefers goal-oriented
thinking to constant social gratification. After a
day in a chatty open-plan office, intros are
morelikelytorechargebygoingforarunalone
than joining the extroverts at the karaoke bar.
Forwetheintroverted,self-acceptance
holdssurprisebenefits.Atparties,forinstance,
rather than feeling the extrovert’s pressure to
circulate, introverts stand to gain more by
making meaningful connections with fewer
people.Weintrosalsohavelower
than average blood pressure
andaremoreadeptat
public speaking and
influencing people.This may account for the unlikely 40 per cent
of introverted CEOs. It’s just the networking
after our public speeches we find repellent.
There has never been a better time to be an
introvert. Thanks to the internet, written and
spoken language have parity and we own the
toolstobypasssocialanxiety.Facebook
helps us network without interminable small
talk;wecantweetthewittyretortswewere
too tongue-tied to formulate in person; and
ourmobilephonesletusscreenunwanted
calls in favour of texting.
Sothenexttimeyoufeelthepressuretoact
likeTheWorld’sWorstGordonRamsay
Impersonator, use your
introvert advantage – thinking
before blurting. While the
rest of the room is battling
it out with their sharp
verbalelbows,you’llbe
the one quietly solving
the task at hand.GET “IN” WITH THE IN CROWD
IT’S TIME TO COME OUT OF THE INTROVERT CLOSET
AND USE YOUR QUIETER SIDE TO YOUR ADVANTAGE
THE ABILITY TO THINK WITHOUT
SPEAKING SETS INTROVERTS APART
[BYJOHN-PAUL NICHOLAS]