Written by: Patience Ogunbona, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
As we get to the 6 months mark of the year, it’s time to start planning or reviewing the plans for the remainder of the year.
Introverts are known to be deep thinkers with the capacity to stay focused on the goal or challenge for as long as it takes to generate ideas.
Because of their deep-thinking capabilities, introverts need to take more time to process ideas and information, this means they tend to notice things that perhaps extroverts would overlook. They find the “missing pieces of the puzzle”
Very often though this strength can be overlooked in a fast paced ever-changing world.
Organisations tend to under utilise the talents that introverts bring to the table and introverts tend to shrink back in quietness and may find it challenging to put forward their ideas.
In the challenging times that we find ourselves, the ability to generate and apply unique business insights and opportunities to create a competitive advantage is vital.
This is a good argument for organisations to invest time in building diverse teams and for introverts in organisations to come forward as visionaries that can help shape the future.
I always champion leveraging introverted strengths to create an impactful presence and position within the marketplace. Here are some suggestions on how introverted strategic thinking strengths can be leveraged for success:
1. Diversify, Identify and Allocate: Parts of the argument that needs to continue to be made for inclusion and diversity is the richness of talents that an organisation can tap into for competitive advantage and profitability. Many organisations tend to use personality profiling tools to recruit new employees, however the information generated is not always used in creating teams and having a balance of personalities and strengths to leverage. Once you have a diverse team in place, take time to identify strategic thinkers and allocate tasks accordingly.
2. Maximise through curiosity: Staying curious facilitates strategic thinking. As said by Walt Disney,
“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
It is a well-known fact that one of the jobs in which introverts can excel is research, therefore this is an area where their strengths can be leveraged.
In addition, introverted strengths such as deep listening, observation and deep thinking combined with staying curious can result in some great innovations.
3. Time, Space and Solitude: Introverts tend to spend lots of time thinking through and love to do this in a quiet space and in solitude. In an open office environment, this can be challenging. Those allocated to do strategic thinking work, need the time and space that will facilitate this. Therefore, where to position staff to achieve the best results is something leaders in organisations need to consider.
4. Strategic Thinking and Strategic Planning: Allocating resources in accordance with the nature of the tasks will help to maximise strategy development. Strategic thinking is all about innovation, creativity, and research, the “Why and What” whereas Strategic Planning is more about implementation and allocation of resources, the ‘How and When”. Being able to identify the thinkers and the doers allows you to allocate responsibilities accordingly.
Introverts can be known to over analyse and overthink this could keep you stuck without execution; therefore, it is important to have a good mix of introverts versus extroverts to progress ideas.
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To access resources that will help you develop as a strategic thinker and leader or bring these resources to your organisation
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Patience Ogunbona, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Patience Ogunbona (aka The Visionary Introverted Woman) is a Business Strategist, Executive Transformational and Leadership Coach and Trainer, who believes that introversion gives her purpose.
Alongside her passion for leadership, corporate training and speaking, she has leveraged her introverted strengths to thrive and stand out in an extroverted world.
Her signature programme, The Aligned Introvert Method™️ is designed to help ambitious, highly skilled, driven and empathic introverted female entrepreneurs to create an aligned and authentic business that achieves presence and positions them as an authority in their marketplace so they can generate consistent leads, clients and profit.
