True story. I once had to justify skipping out on a three-hour training seminar at work on “Time Management and Setting Priorities” in order to, you know, spend that time doing my job instead. My VP later asked me why I didn’t feel the need to attend. I said it should be self-explanatory.
In fact, I should have received higher marks than anyone who sat through a three-hour role-playing meeting demonstrating strategies for ‘setting priorities’ at work, rather than actually working.
That’s the trouble with many corporate cultures. Some kind of weird ‘group think’ has been allowed to take over many organizations replacing logic or actual accountability for tangible results.
By turning down the invitation to corporate development training, I was shooting myself in the foot – but dodging a bullet at the same time. (Not necessarily an easy combination of gun metaphors to accomplish simultaneously.)
Shooting myself in the foot
- Are you saying you don’t see any growth potential within this company?
- Are you looking elsewhere?
- Are you just so unsavvy that you don’t know how the game is played?
- Are you giving our corporate culture the finger?
I know that by skipping out on ‘management training’ seminars that the company was offering me, I was limiting my potential growth within the organization. Human Resources and upper management feel like they are selecting you for possible advancement, and investing in your development by including you in these seminars.
The thing is that I have been in the corporate world for long enough to see teams, whole departments, people at every level all the way up to Vice President and even President let go out of the blue. The average tenure at any one job in Canada now is roughly two years.
The lack of loyalty works both ways. Companies are under pressure to deliver on short-term corporate goals in order to stay alive. Employees are always keeping their eye out for the next gig, because there is no job security in any one place. Job security is building a successful career across many employers. (But that is another article.)
My point is that these corporate ‘grooming’ sessions are mostly fake. It’s posturing so that it can go into the employee handbook as one of the perks companies offer. It does not actually position employers for potential growth or a greater level of job security within the organization.
However, when you turn down the invitation to join the management training seminar series, you’re raising some potential red flags over yourself for your potential employer. They’re asking:
No, it doesn’t necessarily mean any of those things. It means that group ‘thinking’ sessions were designed by and for extroverts who are too often running the show. They’re great for people who like to be surrounded by fellow loud talkers, shouting out ideas, and seeking attention. They’re not really for thinkers.
Being an introvert
Studies have shown that extroverts are better at leading passive teams, groups that need to be pushed, because they are naturally gifted at motivation and inspiring others. However, those kinds of teams, disengaged workers who need to be spurred on by an energetic and outspoken leader just aren’t the way the world of work is going.
In today’s economy creative thinking and innovation are increasingly important to success and survival for most businesses.
Introverts are better at leading proactive teams because they genuinely listen to people and encourage others to run with their ideas. More innovations and creative idea-sharing are generated when we are all willing to listen to others, rather than simply having a leader who does all of the talking and directing.
Dodging a bullet
I am an introvert. I find group seminar sessions draining on my energy and spirit. I especially abhor role-playing scenarios where random team members pretend to act out potential scenarios.
I have learned to be a public speaker, and have spoken at large conferences, presented to large groups, given career advice and resume writing seminars, and appeared on numerous news and television shows. That’s me consciously overcoming my tendency towards introversion for a cause. Of course I can do it to spread the word: to help people, to offer career advice, to advance the brands I represent.
But I am at my best reading, strategizing, and writing. My team has editorial and planning meetings and then we go. We execute the creative plan and deliver results.
I would have hated spending hours at a conference table with randomly selected other keeners being groomed for growth. Scribbling down notes on ‘active listening,’ practicing ‘authenticity in feedback‘ phrases, and learning the ‘12 essential steps to making better snap decisions.’
And that time spent listening to these corporate best practices would time I didn’t get to spend doing what I do best. Delivering results that matter. My team tripled the editorial traffic for that company. We turned 212,000 page views a month into 750,000 a month in three years.
That is prioritizing my work.
Oh, and as for my communication and management skills? All of those same team members who delivered those results had worked with me at various sites across the web and had chosen to work with me again. How’s that for a 360-degree management style review?
Oh, and we all left our jobs together to found Yackler. (Where we have banned all trust building exercises, role-playing scenarios, and three-hour prioritization meetings.)