Imagine that I make a choice and that you don’t know why I acted as I did. It’s quite possible you may never have the opportunity to discover my reasons.
If you recognize that I did have reasons, even if you don’t know what they were, I experience your response as trust, and you open yourself to learn.
Acknowledging that an answer exists to the question “why?” may sometimes be more valuable than pushing to find out what that answer is.
Thick-skinned tries to remain untouched and therefore undamaged by touch. Resilient is of like mind with Permeable and values the ability to respond to a touch.
When we are fortunate and able to work with thoughtful, warm, and mutually supportive people, we will quite possibly feel competent and able to contribute.
Afterwards, we may notice that this is in contrast to how we often feel when trying to work with unseeing, unsympathetic people: weary, unable to contribute, and dull.
Photo: debaird
If the lifeblood of business is relationships, how can an introvert succeed in business?
Being introverted doesn’t mean being weak at creating, nourishing, and sustaining relationships; being introverted just means not radiating a desire to interact with others in certain contexts. A more introverted person may initially shy away from sales and blogging, but there is more than one way to skin a cat (though I must say, that’s quite a saying when you reflect on it. What possessed people to think about skinning a cat, anyway!?), and “introverted” and “extraverted” are not pure categories but rather social constructions.
Even with the internet’s constraints, and most certainly in spite of the deafening voices out there insisting that social medium X or Web 2.0 technique Y is “what everybody’s doing,” there must be ways of building and enjoying two-way relationships online that the introvert-leaning type can excel in.
What are they? What are the tools of choice, or the “modes of choice” while using the tools available?
Suggestions and observations welcome from extraverts and introverts welcome!