#SYDWAC - What's Right With High Performing Introverts?

Sa. Sa. All right. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to start your day. Great. Start your day with a coach. I am your certified high performance coach, Sean Butner. And today we're talking about what's right about high performing introverts. Because I've been working on a new project recently for my coaching business and doing a lot of research and a lot of the information on people that are more introverted seems to be like, what's wrong and how they can survive and be more extroverted instead of just living into what makes them strong. So that's where we're starting out today. If you're here, you know, please feel free to like share. Subscribe to the social media thing and just wanted to point that out. And here we go. So if first let's talk about introversion, right? What is introvert Introversion versus extroversion or extroversion. And you know, why is that important? Right? And really it's just where people get their energy, right? So introverts tend to get energy from doing things that are more internally focused or internal experiences like thoughts, feelings, emotions. That's why they tend to prefer to do reading or video games, stuff like that. Extroverts tend to get energy from interacting with people, right? So external experiences, like more likely to be the person that wants to go skydiving all the time than someone, an introvert who might want to just read, right? So that's how we define introversion. Introversion versus extroversion. And it's important as you're thinking about your teams, it's important when you think about how you're relating to things, family members or friends or other people, that there are just different styles and there's a spectrum too, right? It's not like one or the other. A lot of folks are maybe a little bit more in a gray zone in between those where I like to socialize most of the time or. But you know, there are times when I also need to recharge my batteries in certain circumstances. So it's not a clearly defined thing. So. Okay, we got that. So what's a high performing introvert? Right? So I'm a high performance coach. And when you take a look at society and business and science and you take a look at the people that have made really creative, really big contributions, there are a lot of folks that were more introverted, right? It's the stereotype of engineers that they're really good at doing the technical thing, but they're really bad at communicating pretty, promoting themselves, getting people to understand their ideas, getting people on board, so that type of thing. So why is that important? Well, if you have heard of Susan Cain's book the Power of Introverts in a Talkative World or something like that, the book's named Quiet. She talks about how we live in a very extroverted, focused environment, especially here in the western world, here in the United States, right. So growing up myself, being someone that was a bit more quiet, a little bit more like calm energy, would often get questions from family or friends like, hey, what's wrong with you? It's like, nothing's wrong. I'm completely content. I'm just processing the conversation as it's coming in. I'm trying to figure out like, what's a good thing to say versus just to say something. It was kind of more my style. So, you know, but this constant pressure of, hey, you need to speak up in class, hey, you need to be more gregarious, hey, like, why aren't you out there every night trying to like meet people when you're young and trying to like get married and find a partner and all that stuff, right? So there's a lot of pressure on people not understanding a more reserved style. And so, and this is confirms a lot of the research I've been doing. A lot of like message boards and books and stuff tend to identify this particular problem for more introverted folks. And that people assume there's something wrong with you. Right. Why aren't you social? Maybe you're on the spectrum. I've heard that a bunch of times. And it's just not understanding that, hey, I can socialize, I can do a video like this. I can really have a deep conversation with the important people to me. Or that's, that's why I like to do coaching because it's usually just one on one. We get that really deep connection. Can go really deep on topics that are not as superficial as like, how's the weather, traffic, or you know, stuff like that. Like what really makes you tick. Right. I love that I get fired up about it. I could talk and do that all the time. And that's like socialization. But it doesn't count against, you know, my introversion, introvertish tendencies. I need to come up with better language for that. But we're live here today on a Wednesday, so that all to say, right? So what really makes high performing introverts impactful? Right. If you take a look at like Steve Jobs, Warren Buffett, it's Albert Einstein, Rosa Parks, you know, there's a whole list of folks that have Done great things and have done it without great fanfare. Right. They're just really focused on their cause, their mission, their purpose, don't particularly care if they get credit or not. And so that's in itself what's right. You know, if you want someone that's really going to problem solve and not have an ego with it, you want a high performing introvert on your team, on your side to be able to help you out there. Right. And you also need the other side to be able to communicate it. Right. So if you think of famous pairs and this is going to be kind of weird because like Steve Jobs again and Steve Wozniak, it's just one was a little bit more extroverted than the other and could communicate better. But I think, you know, having that thinking through what you're going to communicate, I think that planning aspect, that strategic aspect of the introvert's personality can be a huge asset everywhere. Right. So really it comes down to if you identify as an introvert, how do you level up and become a little bit more successful, a little bit more impactful, play into your strengths so you're a little bit more happier along the process? Because I'm not sure if you've been there, but I know I have where I've worked in organizations with like open floor plans and you know, every expectant to respond to everything and anything. Anyone like comes up to your desk with, you know, oh, I have this problem I can't get in my email. It's like, I'm not tech support, I'm trying to like fix this other thing. But you know, earlier on in my career, like we're expected to always drop what you were doing to go and help, which is great. But for someone that really needs focus, time and it took me part of my professional journey to realize that I need to protect my focus in order to get the productivity that I really need. That, you know, I was just miserable for a while. So. Yeah. So how can you manage those situations? How do you do the work to realize like, hey, I need to be a little bit more disciplined in when I focus, how I focus, how I'm communicating when I'm focusing so that I can deliver the results that are going to let me shine in my organization, are going to let me have that insightful, thoughtful conversation with a friend or spouse or family member that's really going to bring us more connection. Right. And so that is a lot of what I'm trying to do right now with the coaching. So if you're that person that's like, I'm really like, if you're watching this, you're probably someone that's already super successful regardless of where you get your energy from. But if you're looking to take it to the next level and you're looking for someone that understands introverts because you identify as that way, you know, being inner focused for your energy, reach out to me. I have the free strategy session that I do for the high performance coaching. You can message me wherever you're watching this or email supportner.com and I can show you the process and get you through a free one hour session. I thought I'd just bring that up right now, but so I'm going to be continuing this conversation on introverts. If you have any questions or any struggles as an introvert or relating to introverts. So maybe you're more extroverted. You're like, I just don't understand my spouse. All they want to do is do puzzles, you know, crossword puzzles all the time. They don't want to interact. How do I connect with them? Please leave a comment. Right. And I'll talk about it in the weeks coming up as I get these questions coming in because I think it's an important conversation. It's something that I really am nerding out about right now. And so getting some more people involved will help me have better quality information for you. So if you would help me out, leave a comment. If you know someone that might be more introverted, please share this with them so we can get that conversation started. I'd love to, you know, really help people along this journey, especially if you're more introverted. So that's it guys. Again, I'm Sean Butler, certified high performance coach and this is me saying go and live with more joy in your life, more personal growth, more impact in your, your communities. I'll see you guys on Friday. Take care.