I’ve always known I’m an off-the-chart introvert, but I’ve spent my life being told ‘No way! You are totally extroverted!’ by my employers, so I wanted to learn more about the dynamics of introvert vs. extrovert.
This is a great book. As I’ve said, I’ve always known I’m an introvert, but I had no idea what that meant in terms of showing affection, conflict resolution – even my nervous system! Reading this was a great breath of fresh air for me – I’m not ‘broken’ because I can’t ‘fight’ the ‘right’ way and I can’t always control my need to run in the opposite direction from social events larger than 4 people. Other themes that struck a chord: guilt, the need to please, the feelings of devastation at the slightest sign of disapproval, amongst so many others.
From a management perspective – well, I wish this book was required reading for anyone managing a number of people. I work in an ‘open office plan’, and while I’m an introvert, I’m not shy, so it’s a daily battle not to turn around and yell at everybody to shut the hell up – or run screaming out of the room myself.
I don’t have children, but the last part of the book did a wonderful job touching on the subject of introversion in children and their experiences in the educational system. I never got the standard ‘do you speak English’-type comments growing up (see above about not being shy), but my mother had to deal with 12 years of ‘your daughter is extremely bright but has an attitude problem’ – until I read this book I NEVER understood this as all I ever wanted to do was please my teachers.
All in all, a very eye-opening read. For Introverts, it’s an affirmation. For extroverts with introverts in your lives, hopefully reading this book will make understanding us a bit easier.
I listened to the audio and while the narrator was excellent (she spoke very quietly – on purpose do you think?), I think this might be a book I’d like to own in print for easy reference in the future.