When a nine year old Susan Cain went off to summer camp with a suitcase full of books, she was faced with a camp counselor who put her and her fellow campers through a group cheer — "R-O-W-D-I-E that's the way we spell rowdy, rowdy! Let's get rowdy!"
The noisy exercise left the inquisitive Cain with questions.
"Why did we have to be rowdy, and spell this word incorrectly?" she asked.
On Monday night, a mixed crowd of introverts and extroverts — even some ambiverts, who fall in the middle of the spectrum — met in Wharton Center to hear Cain's discussion on why exactly it was that her camp counselor wanted her campers to get rowdy and why it was seen as being completely natural that the campers would oblige with her request.
A best-selling author, TED Talk speaker and self-proclaimed introvert activist, Cain has traveled across the country do discuss her view that introverts are under-appreciated in Western society. They have been set up for failure by a societal structure that places an emphasis on being bold and outspoken, she said. As a consequence, when we think of a strong leader, we often picture someone who is charismatic and excels in public speaking.
But introverts are actually the ones who appear to be the best leaders.
The reason for this, Cain said, was that introverts are authentic leaders. In other words, they're there because they're passionate about what their doing, rather than trying to get a leadership position purely for the attention. She cited Mahatma Gandhi as such an example of the introverted leader.
"Gandhi ran home from school after the bell rang to avoid social interaction," Cain said.
But when he began his activist work, he took on a leadership role and was there "because he cared."
As an introvert who does lecture circuits in front of huge crowds, Cain is something of a walking contradiction. But, like Gandhi, she does this work because she is passionate about making a change.
Her Quiet Leadership Institute has set out with the goal to "empower introverts for the betterment of us all" and has met with organizations like NASA and Fortune 100 companies to change the minds of those who are quick to discount the value of introverts in leadership positions.
Cain's upcoming project is quietrev.com, which will launch in April and intends to be "a gathering place and information hub for introverts and those who love, work with, parent and partner with them." The site will also include resources for teachers who are unfamiliar with working with introverted students.
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