Episode 61: The Introvert Leader with Terrance Lee

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About Terrance

Terrance Lee, AKA The Introvert Leader had always avoided taking on leadership roles in his life. At the age of 13, an experience occurred which caused him to doubt his ability to speak in front of people, and caused him to shy away from the spotlight. This worked for Terrance until he eventually had to learn leadership skills by necessity at his first engineering job out of college.

When he had been working in his first role for a short time, his mentor put in his two-week notice. Terrance then found out that he had to take his place presenting to a group of experienced engineers and pilots for a highly technical review. Despite feeling extremely nervous, the meeting that Terrance led went well; which gave him a giant confidence boost.

Since then, Terrance has taken on many leadership and management roles as an introvert at several Fortune 500 companies in the defense industry, with proven results. He utilizes his platform to empower introverts to tap into their own inner leadership potential and is never shy about sharing the tips that he has learned throughout his journey.

Courage Up Moment

When he started his first role at a school as an engineer, he had a mentor. The mentor put in his two week notice. There was a big presentation that was scheduled to come up. He was wondering who was going to do the presentation for a highly technical review, and he found out he was going to do it! The presentation turned out great, he surprised himself. That was a turning point and he gained a lot of confidence from that experience.

Can Introverts be Leaders?

Absolutely!

Advantages to being an Introvert

Introverts are very observant. Maybe not quick to speak, but quick to listen.
Being deep thinkers. This is a key leadership trait.
Calmness. Being able to be calm when things are chaotic.

Balance of Introverts and Extroverts

Respect each others approach to things.
Know your own individual strengths

Confidence in Leadership

Accepting who you are and leaning into that
Practice. Putting yourself in situations where you can get practice.
Having a strong work ethic

Final Thoughts

The big thing with introverted leadership is just courage. Realizing first you can do it, you’re enough and being an introvert is not a limiter, it’s a power. Our self talk can be negative sometimes. It starts with confidence and positive self-talk.