Women at Work: Too Shy to Be a Leader

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Management, Business/marketing, Strategy, Entrepreneurship, Business/management, Hbr, Finance, Marketing, Communication, Innovation, Teams, Business, Business/entrepreneurship, Economics, Harvard, Leadership

4.3 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 23 November 2020

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Women at Work is a podcast from Harvard Business Review that looks at the struggles and successes of women in the workplace, hosted by HBR's Amy Bernstein, Amy Gallo, and Emily Caulfield. In this episode, you'll hear about the tension that comes from feeling like you are a shy person, but also an ambitious one who want to lead a team. Former clinical psychologist Alice Boyes gives advice on the professional advantages of certain personality traits related to shyness — like sensitivity and thoughtfulness — and discusses strategies to overcome the aspects of them that may hold you back at work.

Transcript

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0:00.0	How do you navigate gender in your workplace?
0:04.0	HBR's fan favorite podcast Women at Work is back with personal stories, the newest research,
0:09.6	and practical advice on navigating divorce, disability, and career failures.
0:14.0	Listen for free to H.B.
0:16.0	Women at Work wherever you get your podcasts.
0:19.0	Welcome to the H.B Cast from Harvard Business Review. I'm Allison Beard.
0:27.0	On this show we work hard to bring you the freshest ideas on everything from
0:31.0	corporate strategy to managing your own career.
0:34.0	But I wanted to make sure you knew about another HPR show,
0:37.2	Women at Work.
0:38.5	It tackles equally important issues with a focus on women and their allies.
0:43.0	In the episode you're about to hear, the hosts and their guests look at the seeming conflict between being shy and becoming a leader.
0:50.0	They explore whether people whose personality traits go against preconceived notions about what's needed to succeed
0:55.8	can actually use it to their advantage, because we know leadership isn't a one-size-fits-all kind of thing.
1:02.3	I hope you enjoy it.
1:05.0	Recently we got an email from a listener named Laura who talked to us about a problem that really resonated with me.
1:15.0	She suffers from what I would describe as painful shyness,
1:20.0	you know, she is loaded with ideas. She is highly competent, but when the spotlight turns to her she turns boiled lobster red that's how she describes it. And the part that really got me was when she
1:37.2	started to describe how this kind of extreme sensitivity and her introversion is starting to get in the way of her career
1:49.0	advancement. I mean it has become a real barrier. You can read her frustration in her email.
1:56.1	Yeah, we all read that email.
1:58.4	We thought it would make such a good episode,
	...

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