Having the stature of a leader is not given to everyone, it requires very specific character traits such as having charisma, ambition, a sense of responsibility or even natural authority. But there is one aspect of personality that is not thought of when it comes to leading crowds (or at least a team) and yet it is the common characteristic of competent bosses according to science. It's about... being introverted! Researchers from the Chicago-based consultancy ghSmart spent 10 years studying the personalities of 2,000 business executives, which led them to conclude that the vast majority of these successful people are introverts. The discovery dispels the conventional wisdom that a troop leader is outgoing, confident and full of charisma…
"When we look at the news or just social media news feeds, we are bombarded with images of neat looking icons from America's top universities and whose companies are among the top 100 most prosperous in the world “, explains an author of the study to the magazine Harvard Business Review . “ And we say to ourselves that we will never be able to look like them “, he adds. Except that most of these businessmen have neither the character nor the background that we expect. The scientist continues:“Actually, they come from a variety of backgrounds. Only 7% of the 6 million business leaders in the United States come from a high school, and 8% have never graduated from college. Some are immigrants, and many started at the bottom and built up as they went .
The study has made it possible to establish the 4 major character traits of business leaders:knowing how to forge links with stakeholders (the actors concerned by a decision or a project, who embody the interests), being able to adapt well to change, be reliable and consistent rather than achieving exceptional performance that will not be repeated, and make decisions quickly with conviction, even if they do not turn out to be perfect. If introverts are therefore the most willing to combine these capacities, it is the extroverts, often perceived as more charismatic, who win the favor of employers in job interviews. But this character trait does not influence their professional performance...
