http://www.crouser.com/books/extrovert.htmSo, let's define it. Extroversion is a personal preference for socially engaging activities and settings. Introversion is a personal preference for solitary, non-social activities and settings. But a Shy Extrovert is a person who performs well socially, but experiences painful thoughts and feelings. Should they be too painful, then working with a professional might be in order. For the purpose of the book she treats introverts, shy folks and shy extroverts the same.
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Childhood is when we all begin to learn to negotiate: whose doll is that anyway? Will you help me build sandcastles? If you had trouble with these early playgroups, you might have trouble functioning on the job. That's because organizations function very much like early play groups. There are always those chosen to be leaders - and then there's everyone else.
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She cites one study that found an astounding 75 percent of all jobs were secured through networking. In my mind, that's astounding because that means 75 percent of all people hired were found through networking and we are folks who generally don't like to network! No wonder we have so much difficulty finding people to work for us.
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Introverts are not great communicators and when we avoid building rapport with workers and when we don't make an effort to stay closely connected, problems rapidly develop. Often, the compounded danger for us lies in how others perceive them. A lot of it is a bum rap. We appear distant or arrogant. Although this may not be true, many people interpret their perception as reality. They wonder, "Are we quietly paying attention or are we quietly thinking they are an idiot?"