More About "Self Promotion for Introverts"

One of the things I love about Nancy Ancowitz's book is that she's clearly writing for introverts but not in a way that would alienate them.  An extrovert reading the book, I believe, would gain insights into the inner workings of the introverts near and dear to them.  Even more important, Ancowitz writes her book to help introverts become successful in the extrovert-dominated culture, but nowhere in the book does she instruct readers in methods of transforming their characters.  That is, the object is not to become an extrovert. 

Too often we introverts view ourselves as failed extroverts.  We've been trained since we were young that it's rude to say no to invitations.  That it's weird to want to be by yourself.

Some of the best times I've ever had in my life have been all by myself.  I love travelling alone.  I lived in China and travelled through Asia on and off alone. I go to movies, theatre, dance and I love to dine alone (without a book!).  I also like people, am immensely curious about them, and have a few that are sufficiently curious and interested  to be friends of mine.  I enjoy spending time with them -- my life is richer because of them ... and they help to teach me how to play well with the people I need to work with ;-) 

At the heart of her book, Ancowitz emphasises the importance of discovery.  She says it's vital to be an authentic version of yourself so that you can build on that authenticity -- refine it and become the strongest, savviest, most professional version of what you already are.

I believe another critical factor here is confidence.  Not all introverts are influenced negatively by a lack of confidence and shyness.  That is, however, a stereotype that is placed on them because of their quietness.  Knowing this (negative) stereotype is helpful because as introverts, we can pull together our personal strengths and create a strategy before meeting with people -- thus smashing the stereotype!

It's all about the strategy.

So whenever possible, plan, plan, plan & plan some more ahead when you have a meeting.  Know who you're meeting with, where you'll be meeting -- visualize it all.  Know what you're going to wear, the pen you're going to use ... I mean, map out the whole meeting.  If you've already seen yourself having had the meeting and it went well, chances are great it will.  (high performance athletes do this all the time -- it's called visualization).