Quote:
Originally Posted by pylon
The bolded part kinda proves a point. I am not saying it is a fair point, but it proves one.
Take out social committee events, and trade that for negotiating for venture Capital, or negotiating a contract with a vendor, a salary roll back with an employee, the re-branding of your corporate image.... etc.
Sometimes you need the brash, loudmouth, take no prisoners type at the top to handle these types of things. I have seen people with an unpopular ideas sway the vote of an entire room using straight up brute force A-type personality and salesmanship traits to get exactly what they want.
That's the guy you want running a company in most cases, because he can leverage those skills for his employer.
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I don't really know where I fit on the extro/intro vert spectrum. If I were to guess I would say that I am really introverted. I have done some things that would be really extroverted such as run for public office, and at times my profession has me in some extroverted situations, but I wouldn't say I am comfortable. I skip a lot of more social engagements to avoid those situations actually. I am relatively terrible at networking, and making small talk is painful and I absolutely can't do it. A few weeks ago I was at an event with a couple hundred people in another city. I knew a few others there, but not well and due to circumstances beyond my control, I had to find a place to sit amongst others. For some people that's no big deal; strike up a conversation, have a seat next to your new best friend. It was torture. I wandered around and basically did anything I could do avoid having to do this. I did find a seat, but I totally took the easy way out. I sat at an empty table and made other people come to me. I would guess that any extroverted person reading this probably has no idea how stressing that scenario was for me, but there you are.
The reason I quoted you here pylon is because of the business implications. I have my own business and basically anyone who is self employed has to sell themselves at least a chunk of the time. I have sat in high pressure meetings for investments and watched the extra aggressive guy full of bravado go about their business. It's amusing at times, actually. Most of the time I am the quiet guy at the boardroom table, but that doesn't mean that I don't recognize what's going on, or that the hard sell, aggressive strategy wins the day everytime. In fact you know what the hard sell leads to in the real world? A lot of consumers buying things to pacify someone and later returning those items. Or committing to something only to not want to follow through because they felt pressured. I know its not every time. But there is a fine line between assertion and aggression.