内向的人照样可以是职场千里马

    一提起领袖人物，人们脑海中最先浮现的便是杰克•韦尔奇或比尔•克林顿这样的大人物——他们善于交际，在公众场合更是活力四射。

    一般来说，企业也更器重性格外向的员工，给与他们更多晋升机会；相反，性格内向的员工在这方面的待遇就要差得多了。原因在于，性格内向的员工往往需要借助思考或一对一的交流来汲取能量，但在公司里，这类员工却很容易受到忽视。然而根据统计，性格内向者和性格外向者在人数上基本持平。这意味着将有数量惊人的优秀人才因此而无法进入高管层。

    这一比例与女性受歧视的比例相当，而且苏珊•凯恩认为，忽视性格内向者是一种缺乏远见的做法。苏珊•凯恩近期出版了一本新书——《静水流深：喧嚣世界里内向者的力量》（Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking.）。她认为：“它体现了我们的文化对于内向性格存在的偏见。”借用贝蒂•弗莱顿在《女性的奥秘》（Feminine Mystique）一书中的一句话：“它是我们文化中一个无名的难题”——虽然非常普遍，但至少到目前为止，很少有人谈起。

    诚然，内向性格者要想在职场取得成功确实会面临各种障碍。比如，许多公司在招聘过程中进行的个性测试似乎存心就是为了淘汰内向性格的人而设。

    凯恩表示，即便内向性格者通过了测试，他很快就会发现，“大部分公司工作场所的布置都是为了实现最大程度的刺激”。她说，约70%的办公室被设计成“开放式”的办公环境，人们必须“全天忍受开放办公环境中的噪音和来自同事们关注的目光。”

    大部分公司“过分迷信会议和头脑风暴的作用”，而且，公司更器重那些善于自我表现的人，比如不管发言有没有价值，总是抢先发言的人。结果，“我们中大多数人在年轻的时候就学会了如何隐藏真实的自我，刻意表现得更加外向。”

    但这种现象却忽视了一个事实——其实内向性格者的许多优势对公司来说也非常有用。

    首先，喜欢思考并不是坏事。C-Level Strategies公司CEO丽莎•彼得里利自称是一位内向性格者，她主要和市值在1-10亿美元之间的中型企业领导人打交道。她说：“我们从所谓的内心世界获得能量。这种能量非常强大。好点子确实能够促进公司的发展。”我们可以这样解读从内心世界获得能量的行为，即“能够找到、创造一个愿景，吸引其他人一起追随。”

    其次，虽然内向者说的很少，但他们却非常善于倾听——在进行客户沟通时，这是一项不错的技能。

    其实，内向者或许更善于交际。商务社交网站LinkedIn全球发言人琳赛•波拉克认为：“人们一直以为，主动出击、在鸡尾酒会上主动与陌生人搭讪才是交际的真谛。其实，最好的交际方式是通过中间熟人来实现。腼腆的人与熟人交流感觉最为自在。他们可以让朋友介绍其他人。而这正是一种非常有效的交际策略。”琳赛•波拉克的作品《从学业到职业》（Getting from College to Career）将于近期再版。

    不过，对于内向性格者和希望挖掘他们才华的公司来说，这里有一个好消息——科技使人们能够更方便地展现自己，而无需在会议中高谈阔论。凯恩认为：“科技真正所能做的在于它可以使我们用一种更为温和的方式与他人沟通。”

    When you picture a leader, the image that usually comes to mind is someone like Jack Welch or Bill Clinton -- gregarious, energized by crowds.

    Organizations tend to celebrate and promote such extroverted personalities, as opposed to introverts, who draw energy from ideas or one-on-one interactions. Such quiet types are often not as visible within companies, but by some calculations, introverts make up half of the population. That's an awful lot of talent to exclude from executive ranks.

    It's the numerical equivalent of excluding women -- and similarly shortsighted, says Susan Cain, author of the new book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. "There's a bias in our culture against introversion," she says. To use Betty Friedan's language from The Feminine Mystique, "it's a problem in our culture that has no name" -- pervasive, yet seldom discussed, at least until recently.

    Certainly, introverts trying to make it in business face obstacles. As part of their hiring processes, some companies give personality tests that seem designed to weed out introverts.

    If you survive that, you soon discover that "Most of our workplaces are set up for maximum stimulation," says Cain. Some 70%, she says, are "open plan" offices, where people must deal with "the noise and gazes of their co-workers all day long."

    Companies have an "inordinate belief in the power of meetings and brainstorming," and they tend to promote people who make themselves visible, often by speaking up first (whether they have anything meaningful to contribute or not). As a result, "most of us, at a young age, learn how to act much more extroverted than we are."

    But this ignores that introverts have several strengths that are helpful in business.

    For starters, being inside one's own head a lot isn't a bad thing. "We get our energy from what people refer to as our inner world," says Lisa Petrilli, a self-proclaimed introvert and CEO of C-Level Strategies, a company that works with leaders in mid-sized firms ($100 million to $1 billion). "That's very powerful. Ideas really do run businesses." Being energized by one's inner world translates into "being able to see and create a vision for others to follow."

    Second, while introverts don't spend a lot of time talking, they do spend a lot of time listening -- not a bad skill for managing client interactions.

    They may even be better networkers. "There's a myth that networking is all about cold-calling people and walking up to strangers at cocktail parties," says Lindsey Pollak, global spokesperson for LinkedIn (LNKD) and author of the newly re-issued book Getting from College to Career. "Often the best connections are made through mutual acquaintances. Shy people tend to feel most comfortable networking with the people they know, and then ask those people for referrals to others. That's a good strategy for anyone."

    Fortunately for introverts and the organizations that would like to tap their talent, technology is making it easier to be visible without shouting. "What technology does, really, is it allows us to connect with other people in less stimulating ways," says Cain.