Translator: Quế Ngân Ngân Reviewer: Nada Qanbar
I believe we all have the capacity to be great leaders.
What's important is the act of being a leader
and discovering our moments to lead in life.
Being prepared for leadership moments means making the choices
that will ultimately put you in a position to succeed
when given the opportunity.
Teams in sports, teams in business,
even family teams need to have strong leadership
to collectively reach desired outcomes.
Ninety-six percent of leadership positions
are filled with extroverted individuals with extroverted qualities.
Only 50% of the population actually identifies as being an extrovert.
That other half, the introverts, supply only 4% of our leaders.
As an introvert, who has held leadership positions
on teams that I've played for, as well as being
the President of the Women's Sports Foundation,
it seems to me that supplying the vast majority of our leaders
with only half of the population is a bit short-sighted.
Imagine a group made up of only extroverts.
(Laughter)
Now imagine a group made up of only introverts.
Isn't it the blend of the two that really creates the best space?
Energy, enthusiasm, excitement, combined with groundedness,
the ability to listen, and strength and calm.
Can introverts lead too?
Yes, we can.
Today, I want to tell you how we can create the conditions
to make that happen.
As an introvert, I definitely need my downtime,
especially after being around large groups.
I remember when I was seven years old and was working on a class assignment.
The school bell rang signaling for recess
which was one of my favorite times of the day.
I jumped up to go grab my coat. The teacher turned to me and said,
"Angela, you can't go outside yet, you haven't finished your assignment.
You can either finish it now or you stay inside the classroom."
Well, that's what she said. It wouldn't be until I was an adult
that I understood what she meant was to stay inside the classroom
until you finish your assignment.
I loved the feeling of running around the school playground and that freedom.
There was something quite peaceful
right after all of my classmates had left the room.
In that moment, I observed this peace, this quiet.
I remember there was sun streaming in from the window
and this feeling of energy flowing back to me.
This is my earliest memory
of enjoying and needing that quiet and recharging time as an introvert.
You can imagine my surprise when I turned to the teacher
and said I was just fine staying inside the classroom
to wait until recess was over, instead of doing my assignment.
She escorted me right down to the principal's office.
(Laughter)
I wasn't trying to be sassy or troublesome.
I was in that moment expressing what I actually needed,
and wound up getting in trouble for it.
Have you ever been misunderstood before?
Or felt dishonored like I did by my teacher?
Maybe you're an extrovert,
and someone told you to stop talking so much and be quiet.
Or maybe you're an introvert
and someone said to speak up more and participate.
That craving and desire of stillness was a sign of my introverted self.
It was an example of how,
even though at times introverts may be quieter than others,
less likely to dive head-on into conflict,
we can still maintain a very strong will.
There is still a passion residing in an introverted soul,
even if he or she may be more reserved most of the time.
It's the time of solitude when introverts can draw upon their strength to lead,
to find courage,
which can later be displayed once our teammates,
work colleagues, classmates return from that playground.
Have you ever needed a time just to regroup or recharge yourself?
Maybe you are at work and disappear to a bathroom stall,
or maybe you just needed to step outside for a walk alone.
It's during those times of solitude,
and really that strength and power within its quiet,
where we can draw upon our strength to lead, to find courage,
which can later be displayed once everyone gets back to the room.
There was a very special time back in 2008.
It was the 2008 Summer Olympics, I was playing for the US soccer team,
and we won.
(Applause and cheering)
We placed first and earned gold at the Beijing Summer Olympics.
As a gold medalist in soccer, and every player in that roster
can then rock some gold bling around her neck,
I was also the Silver Boot winner.
Meaning I was the second leading goal scorer
in the entire Olympics for women's soccer.
(Applause)
Thank you.
Additionally, I was the US team's leading goal scorer
for that Olympics that year.
(Applause)
And that is the extroverted version of this story.
I still struggle expressing that version of the story to this day.
Does anyone else here get a little bit squeamish
when they have to talk about their own accomplishments?
The irony is that with the success my team and I shared at that Olympics,
it's a bittersweet memory for me.
Behind the success, there was stress.
There was anxiety and a really big fear to overcome.
The leading and driving force of our 2008 Olympic Team
was our forward, Abby Wambach.
She was the energy, she was the engine,
and that vocal extroverted leader of our team.
Leading up to the Olympics, before we even flew over to China,
we played a practice game, called a friendly match, versus Brazil.
During that match, our extroverted leader,
whose energy was really large enough to fill a 100,000-seated stadium,
Abby Wambach goes into the tackle and breaks her leg.
She would no longer be able to compete in the Olympics with us that year,
and we were devastated.
Not only were we incredibly upset to lose our fearless leader,
but we didn't really have a plan B without her.
And the time when we needed to be at our peak and the most focused,
we had feelings of nervousness
on top of what we were already naturally feeling
about competing in the Olympics.
Our first game in the Olympics, we faced Norway.
Fifty-nine seconds into the start of the game,
Norway scores a goal.
Three minutes later, Norway scores a second goal.
We would eventually get a goal later on in the match, but it wouldn't be enough,
and we lost our opening game at the Olympics: 2-1.
All those fears that we had,
all of the comments from doubting reporters
questioning our ability to not only defend our title,
but to make it out of group play,
really started to bubble up to the surface of our team.
What would you think in this situation if you were part of this team?
Can you think back to a time
whether in work, or family, or even a sports event,
when the stakes where extremely high and you faced this moment of truth?
What did you do?
Well, my team had to make a choice:
to step into the defeat that was staring us in the face,
or step into the opposite direction, towards that Olympic podium.
We had a defining moment.
Our focus and our mentality switched.
So, what did we do?
We let go of that first loss against Norway.
We put it behind us.
We decided to commit and trust in our abilities,
trust in our preparation.
We individually and collectively seized our moment to lead.
We understood that each of us had a larger responsibility to fulfill,
not to be relied upon just one extroverted leader.
So we stepped onto the field with an elevated sense of confidence,
an elevated responsibility, because we had to.
We needed to use our leadership qualities
in order to stand a chance of reaching our ultimate goal.
Throughout that Olympics, we were tasked to gain confidence in the media
and others that doubted our abilities.
But more importantly, we played in a way to give us confidence for ourselves.
The majority of my career and time with the US national team,
I was a reserve, a bench player coming into games.
Throughout my life, I had some coaches
encouraging me to act like other players at times
instead of myself.
At this Olympics, it was a very special opportunity.
You see, the year before this Olympics was our World Cup year.
I was one of only two players to not play a single minute in that entire tournament.
However, this Olympics,
this introvert was being asked to start
and to play in place of the most extroverted leader of our team,
Abby Wambach.
During this leadership crisis,
no teammate, no coach
asked me to play, talk, or be like someone else.
They understood what I needed.
They allowed me to be me.
The space being created allowed me to play or recover
however made me feel the best.
And that allowed me to perform my best.
I started noticing the same things out of my other teammates as well,
whether a starter or reserve, typically vocal or typically quiet.
People were stepping into their roles and responsibilities freely,
and something magical began to happen.
People were starting
to step into their leadership roles and responsibilities.
The energy and cohesion of our team started to form in a new way,
at the perfect time.
What first felt like a devastating loss, from Abby's injury and that wake-up call
from the loss against Norway,
we transformed it into a collective victory.
By individually stepping into our own unique leadership positions
and each seizing the moment to lead,
we were able to have every single player on that US soccer team that year
stepping up onto the podium with a gold medal around her neck
after the final whistle blow.
The New York Times recently published an article
entitled: "What Google Learned From its Quest to Build the Perfect Team."
A common behavior the most successful team shared
had an equality in the distribution of conversational turn-taking.
The other finding was that teams had a high average social sensitivity.
In essence, individuals on teams
felt psychologically safe and secure to be themselves, to speak up,
and feelings of mutual trust and respect.
My 2008 Olympic journey was my first-hand experience
in showing me exactly what that research talks about.
It doesn't matter who you are.
It doesn't matter what position or title you might currently hold.
It doesn't even matter what personality you have.
Our greatest chance of success, of having a happy home life,
of reaching our quotas with our teams at work,
or making it to an Olympic podium,
comes from each of us having the opportunity
to contribute to the conversation.
I don't know the breakdown in percentage
of how many extroverts versus introverts there were in that Olympic team.
But what I do know is that there was a space that opened up,
one in which allowed an introvert like myself
an opportunity to display leadership.
At the beginning of this talk, I mentioned that 96% of leadership positions
are filled with extroverted individuals, with extroverted qualities,
and only 50% of the population identifies with being an extrovert.
If we continue to fill 96% of all our leadership positions
with only half of the population,
are we truly operating at our best potential?
We all have unique abilities.
How would things change if we open up the space for everyone
to feel psychologically safe and secure to be themselves?
No matter who you are, each and every one of us has the ability
to tap into our passion itself, into our strong wills,
and when the moment comes we'll be prepared.
Let's make sure that we focus
on creating and opening the space for one another,
no matter what type of "vert" we may be,
so that any one of us is ready for that moment to lead.
Thank you.
(Applause)