A couple days ago Brad Feld had a post about CEOs that are introverts. He may not realize it, but I fall into that category. I’m not a fan of big crowds and don’t get energy from it, though I love to have conversations with small groups of people.
The spark for his post was a USA Today article called “Not all successful CEOs are extroverts.” Which reminded me of Jim Collins, the brilliant author of Built to Last and Good to Great (both aff.). I don’t know what he thinks about introverts, but he persuasively argues that charismatic CEOs are usually bad for companies. (Also check out the mp3 called “Being charismatic and wrong is a bad combination” on this page.)
I believe this is behind the phenomenon of outrageously overpaid CEOs who make out like bandits even then they run the company poorly. These CEOs are often very charismatic and so convince the board to hire him and give him an impossible-to-lose contract. This in turn shows how markets don’t always work very well. I’m a capitalist and love capitalism, but economists have shown over and over that markets don’t always produce the desired social result or even force companies to improve and innovate. If he escapes prosecution, Joe Nacchio is exhibit A.
A couple years ago the Atlantic ran a great essay about introverts by Jonathan Rauch. Evidently it was very popular.