Empowering your introverted software engineer

In a world where the one who is most vocal gets noticed and recognized, and the one who is quiet gets coached to learn and be someone else, talented introverts struggle to prosper . Introvert software engineers typically are not social in the corporate networking groups, not hanging out in happy hours, not making connections over lunch or coffee, not presenting their ideas in front of a large audience. So, it’s very likely that the leadership group who directly doesn’t supervise them, wouldn’t even know them or the value they bring to the table compared to the extroverts.

The common feedback provided to introvert engineers is to be more vocal, ask questions, challenge someone, go in front of a large crowd and showcase a demo, don’t have any inhibitions, communicate often loud and clear. This is like telling introverts to be someone else. Imagine if you are an extrovert and someone told you not to connect with people, practice talking less. Feels like a punishment eh? Introverts would feel the same.

So how can you empower introverts and enable them to prosper without asking them to be a different person or judging them for the wrong reasons? What should you do to identify the real talents and build diverse teams? Let’s take a look at few scenarios

• In team meetings : It is natural in the meetings for extroverts to do all the talk, gossiping and likely also step over the introverts view points. Here are some tips on how to handle this scenario. Knowing who the quiet ones are in the meeting and explicitly asking them for their inputs by giving them space and time to talk will create a comfort zone for the introverts. You can continue to seek inputs offline by making it clear that they can send you an email with their thoughts. Also, you can ask everyone to come prepared to the meeting by entering their topics or talking points in a document before hand. That way, when you go through the document that has the list of topics during the meeting, it would naturally provide an opportunity to everyone who entered topics to speak and introverts are not left out.

• In a group celebration or a fun event : Recognition is an excellent form of motivating and empowering someone to do great things. Very often recognitions take the shape of celebrating as a group. While extroverts love these activities and can spend hours and hours chatting and networking with strangers, these are the events that would make your introvert engineers some what uncomfortable. A close group team lunch that is for a shorter duration would make introverts feel more comfortable. Similarly, fun team activities that are quieter and that require to use ones brain power while working with smaller groups , such as escape rooms would engage your introvert engineers the best . Also, recognizing ones work individually in a personalized way is another great option.
• Building partnerships with other groups: Initiating conversations with strangers and building partnerships with new groups can get very uncomfortable for introverts. The upfront kickoff’s, probing and asking questions, meet and greets are better suited for extroverts. Pairing talented introverts with extroverts is a great way to engage with external groups. Also, introverts typically like to observe , digest the content and then make a point. They may even take time to do follow up’s via emails or have working sessions. So don’t judge the engagement and influence with other groups only on the basis of the upfront meeting conversations where extroverts are most visible and vocal. There is a lot of influence that would happen offline, where introverts would be playing a crucial role; pay attention to that as well.
• Suitable Office space : With open office spaces being a trend these days, one tends to ignore the philosophy behind creating these layouts. The idea was to create a more collaborative environment with easy access to your team mates, supervisors, ultimately increasing team productivity. But, introverts like to work in quiet places, where in they are by themselves. That way, they can focus and give their best; it will also help them recharge . They don’t want to be distracted with someone suddenly stopping by their desk or random chit chats or privacy intrusion. Creating flexibility for introverts to work from quiet little places in your office or remotely will empower your introvert engineers and boost overall productivity .

• Showcasing broader influence : Introverts might find it uncomfortable to go in front of a large audience and present on a topic. You can encourage your introverted engineers to seek alternate forms of influence and showcase their skills such as documenting thoughts or designs and sharing broadly, creating some training materials or writing a blog or creating lab exercises etc .
• Regular 1–1’s or small focus group sessions : While having regular 1–1’s with everyone on your team is important; for introverts these meetings mean much more . They open up more and tend to go deep in these settings. It will give them an opportunity to speak for their efforts which are generally not flashing visible to you.

Remember, everyone on your team is different, they bring different value to the table; just like the fingers on your hand, each serve a different purpose. Identify what that value add is and encourage your introvert engineers to leverage their strengths and grow, rather than asking them to be someone else.