The idea of an introvert being comfortable with improvisation seems counter-intuitive. How could an introvert possibly be comfortable in an environment where we’re required to verbalise and participate without adequate preparation?
Alan Alda, in his book If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?: My Adventures in the Art and Science of Relating and Communicating, discusses how improvisational exercises help medical and scientific practitioners empathize and engage others. While reading his work, I thought that improvisational exercises could also be empowering for introverts.
But how do you start there when the mere idea of improvisation terrifies you, much less actually leveraging that format in a class?
So I felt my fear and did it anyway.
Filled with trepidation, I enrolled in an improvisation workshop. I survived it. I actually enjoyed it! I had a great conversation with Megan Mack, the improvisation facilitator, about my thoughts about integrating an improvisation workshop into my university class on Introverts and Leadership.
Megan and I discussed why improvisation is an important tool (and a good fit) for introverts in my Hope for the Introvert podcast. Here are the highlights from our discussion:
- The beautiful thing about improv, especially for introverts, is that it’s all about listening and reacting.
- Introverts are such good listeners and they’re good followers. They build upon ideas. I think a lot of the time they have empathy; they have emotional intelligence.
- Mirroring helps communicate with people in a way that’s more effective both for them and for myself (Megan).
- Improv really forces you to think, Yes, I like your idea and here’s how we can try to make it work.
- We get stuck in our heads, we stop listening and we think our ideas can be the only ideas or the best ones or the right ones.
- ‘Yes, and’ has been very important for me to understand, especially in leadership positions and you want to have a persona that is supportive of people and not setting an atmosphere where they’re afraid to advance their ideas.
Megan also talked about the importance of just being confident with yourself and trying to build leadership abilities based on that. Fit your introverted leadership style to who you are.
For me as an introvert, one of the biggest gains from participating in improvisation is that it allows me to “get out of my head.” There’s no time for over-analyzing and trying to think of the precise thing I want to say. It’s actually freeing in a sense. I have insecurities and I worry about feeling stupid and clumsy. When I’m doing improvisation, I just respond to my partner and don’t worry about how it looks. I don’t worry about failing. I try to support my partner and continue the story. My natural tendency is to be critical and identify the flaws about why something won’t work. Improvisation is about making it work.
Try out an improvisation class. Enjoy the ride and the unexpected places it may take you. I believe it will increase your confidence and make you better able to respond to unexpected discussions.
If you want to dive deeper into the ideas about how introverts can make strong leaders, we have a great course by Ben on the topic.
Introverts in Leadership
Find out 7 steps that you’ll need to take as an introverted leader.
