Introducing The Quiet Leadership Cafe

Inspired by my Gonzaga leadership research and the book by Susan Cain, Quiet, my leadership project was a creation of a web-site on the UHG OneConnect platform that connects introverted personality types with extrovert personality types to gain a better appreciation of each other’s personality.

The OneConnect site is built to help introverts build on their strengths and make those strengths more visible to business leaders. This increase awareness with business leaders and working with extroverted colleagues strives to connect introverts with their community to allow the creative abilities of introverted employees to shine.

United HealthGroup's strategic drivers are identified as NPS, Growth, Quality, and Customer Experience. More importantly our defined corporate values are uniquely suited for the type of strengths found in introverted personalities. As an organization, creating culture where introverts strengths can flourish will only help to serve our values and in turn drive better outcomes around strategic drivers. Because introverted leaders are more inclined to listen to others and have a lack of interest in dominating social situations they are more likely to hear and implement suggestions that are now seen as critical to achieving the creativity needed to succeed in a competitive marketplace.

I choose to use a social networking as leadership program tool for the following reasons:

1. Research indicates that social media is an important tool used by leaders to develop a communication style that transmit information with speed and precision. In today’s information economy this communication style delivers the needed value that can be lost with face-to face communication interactions commonly used by extroverted leaders.

2. Communication and relationships are central to a leader’s effectiveness. Introverted leaders may seem ineffective in today’s world of constant meetings, conference calls, PowerPoint presentations and face-to-face discussions. If most people were asked to list the qualities of an effective leader, it is likely that “extroverted personality” is a perceived characteristic of an effective leader. Current leaders have the opportunity to use social media tools to help increase their communication and leadership effectiveness. The social media world is uniquely focused on the connection or relationship between leaders and followers.

3. Social Media can include blogs, picture sharing, podcasts, forums, and information sharing hubs. These tools become an important part of the relationship building strategy that is usually an uncomfortable component of an introverted leader’s responsibility. Social media actually aids in the formation of communities as it provides the opportunity for people to form connections intellectually without the bias of actual encounters. This intellectual capacity enabled by social media can be seen as helpful for introverted leaders.

4. Preciseness is now seen as an important communication style for leaders in the information economy that introverted leaders can capitalize to increase their effectiveness. Social media has made new forms of leadership possible for scores of people who do not fit the extraverted personality mold. Introverts, using their intellectual skills, can connect others through the use of social media to find new solutions that can have a significant positive impact. The use of social media has increased the speed and frequency of communication causing leaders to be more precise and considerate in their communication.