From Reactive to Proactive: How to Lead a Successful Team as an Introvert
Oct 5, 2022
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Learn how introverts can lead successful teams with Kathy Keating, a tech leader. Explore introvert-extrovert dynamics, effective leadership strategies, and setting weekly goals for impact. Discover the power of aligning values for success in the workplace.
Introverts can lead successful teams by emphasizing vision and emotional connections.
Introverted leaders can leverage their perceptive skills and structured coaching for personal growth and team success.
Deep dives
Kathy Keating's Journey in Technology and Leadership
Kathy Keating, a successful tech founder and introverted VP-level technical leader, shares insights from her career journey. Starting as a software engineer, she tackled challenging projects, including AI at Monster during the early days of online job boards. Keating's transition into leadership required learning various roles beyond software engineering, emphasizing a mission-driven approach in her current role at AdHoc, overseeing 450 technologists. A pivotal moment at AdHoc, realizing the impact of their work on healthcare.gov, highlighted the emotional connection between tech and societal impact.
Leadership and Mentorship Insights
Reflecting on leadership, Keating emphasizes the importance of vision articulation and inspiring teams towards a shared mission. She highlights the shift in leadership dynamics post-2001 crash, noting a trend towards task-oriented management lacking vision. Keating advocates for leaders to focus on vision, people, and emotional connections at work, fostering a more engaged and motivated workforce. She underscores the significance of mentoring leaders on transitioning to strategic thinking and emotional engagement beyond task management.
Leveraging Introversion in Leadership
As an introvert, Keating leverages her perceptive and intuitive skills to excel in leadership. She emphasizes building habits to enhance social interactions' mechanical side paired with psychological recovery mechanisms. By creating dialogue structures to inspire others and strategically utilizing questioning to foster connections, Keating navigates her introversion in leadership effectively. Leveraging introversion helps her to create impactful dialogues and energy exchanges, contributing positively to interpersonal dynamics.
Kathy Keating's Coaching Venture
Transitioning into coaching and mentorship, Keating recognized the transformative power of structured coaching in nurturing leadership skills and personal growth. Drawing on her experience as a mentor in Techstars, she emphasizes coaching's impact in providing actionable feedback and building leadership capabilities. Keating's coaching endeavor aims to support individuals in developing strategic leadership skills, fostering growth, and enhancing interpersonal dynamics within the workplace.
Think about the classic stereotypical leader that we see in entertainment and the media: an extrovert; a bold, brash, type-A personality leading the charge. Now contrast that with an image of a normal, actual leader, making thoughtful, calculated decisions to achieve a goal. And, most importantly, this leader is an introvert.
"Impossible!" you say? Nay, it's quite possible, and we've got proof: Kathy Keating, a self-described "100% introvert" leader is here to tell you how it's done.
And with such a successful career in the tech space, we can think of no one better.
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