Leadership and Silent Individuals

Training Silent Individuals for Leadership
Sven Nyberg, Consultant, Sweden, Member
All skills needed to be a good leader can be trained. Difficulties such as controlling one's feelings and/or get out of your silence can be achieved if you are willing to pay the price i.e. put enough effort in practicing.

Leadership and Silent Individuals
Joanne Andersen-Toi
In some cases, the silent person or the individual who requires extended communications skills will encounter numerous experiences that if learned will lead toward leadership. For example, the individual will observe the various emotions around quicker and deeper leading to a better assessment of his/her environment and others. A silent person has the experience but needs study, theory, mentorship and then get out of their way...

Leadership : Know Thyself
Nicola Page, United Kingdom, Member
I believe to become a good leader you must first understand yourself, intrapersonally and then develop forwards.

Silent Leadership
Chiro, Business Consultant, Kenya, Member
Also known as 'positional power' a true leader determines his/her level of authority if any, and learns how to motivate and inspire others to do the work or job without using any authority - only their influence.

Silent Leadership and Toastmasters
Curtis Richardson, Business Consultant, United States, Member
Leadership can be developed and requires a voice. If you're a good leader then you can touch the hearts and minds of the people around you. Even a silent leader has good one-to-one skills to convey their message.
Per my experience, the best learning happens by doing and there is one group that will give you the opportunity to grow, practice, and experince talking to others in a group -- toastmasters. If you're a silent leader and want to become a vibrant leader, stop thinking and act now -- visit a toastmasters club near you.

Leaderships
Nicola Page, United Kingdom, Member
Toastmasters are probably similar to that of action learning sets but my difficulty was not being able to be emotional in a personal sense when I still believe that business should not be mixed with pleasure.

Mixing Personal and Business Boundries
Curtis Richardson, Business Consultant, United States, Member
Anytime you have action learning, business and pleasure will blend together. Have you ever had a perplexing problem and the breakthrough came while visiting with family or doing something fun? Have you ever used leadership principles learned at work while participating in your favorite group activity? Yes and I'm willing to bet you have had similar experiences!
Ethics (departure from code of conduct) is a completely different topic than taking advantage of blending your experiences. You can not avoid the nexus of personal and business life experiences -- you!

Careful with Changing Silent Individuals
Michael D. Moore, Entrepreneur, United States, Member
The comments to your blog are well meaning and with much value. That said, I am going out on a limb here and suggest that well intended people who believe they can bring about change in others are sincere but misguided.
For example, when there is a silent person in a team, the very thought that a manager can "change" that person is chilling. Whatever the causes for the "silent personality", they are at the very core of the person.
The most professional thing a manager can do is to find opportunities for the silent person to be involved on the team and contribute in their own way.
Recognize and celebrate their contributions but do not try to make them into something they are not. My favorite quote from a well respected professor is "If you marry a man that eats peas with a fork, you married a man that eats peas with a fork!" - they won't change.

Silence may actually help Leaders to Reflect
Ashok Kumar
It is easy to define leadership in terms of how one needs to act. Leaders are decisive; they take action. But what do great leaders draw upon when making their decision? An observation of Margaret Thatcher shared during her tribute to Ronald Reagan, she described what made him a great President in her opinion.; "Ronald Reagan knew his own mind, he had firm principles, and I believe right ones, he expounded them clearly, he acted upon them decisively".
"He knew his own mind", that is not always the case with people in leadership position. They seem to sway with public opinion, whether in the business or political realm.
In the business world, we need individuals who carve out quality time in their busy lives to go deeper than their ability to get things done. It is only through silence and stillness that we can come to our thoughts in any meaningful way and from that spring take action.