The strengths of introverts are sometimes overlooked, especially if one compares themselves to their extroverted cousins. However, there are many key abilities that allow introverts to shine.
They are often great intellectuals, who can better understand their thinking and feeling process, stay more self-aware, form more genuine bonds, and so much more. Ignoring your strengths as an introvert can lead to serious negative consequences.
You may miss out on growth opportunities, decrease your confidence, and even hinder your existing strengths. Instead of trying to change your personality, you should try to focus on building upon your existing strengths.
In this article, we will highlight some of the greatest strengths introverts have and how you can utilize them.
Why Are Strengths Of Introverts Important?
Your personality strengths are crucially important to nearly every aspect of your life. Some of the most fantastic leaders in the world point to their strengths as the root of their success.
As such, those with introverted personalities should become aware of their best qualities. It will help them through everything from everyday situations to their most difficult moments.
Some of the best benefits of understanding your strengths include:
- A boost in confidence.
- Finding a career that suits you best and gives you the best odds of success as well as happiness.
- Increased ability to overcome bad habits.
- Boost in your leadership abilities and more career opportunities.
- Being able to effectively pitch yourself as a great candidate for your dream job.
- Build stronger bonds and relationships due to your increased confidence.
- More emotional stability and feel in control of your destiny.
- Increased productivity and ability to meet your goals (also being able to set more specific goals).
- Saves you time, money, and frustration.
- Allows you to become more self-aware and increases your ability to grow as a person.
List of Introverts’ Strengths (Described In Details)
Amazing Communication and Literacy Skills
Being able to effectively communicate with others seems like an extroverted skill. But, it is introverted who can truly have the most meaningful conversations. They tend to be more genuine when speaking to others.
In addition, writing is also a strength of the introvert. They can be poetic and have a way with words. Thus, if they ever write texts, an introvert’s phenomenal writing skills can charm others.
Creative Thinking
Creativity is a key skill that most introverts possess. They spend more time thinking about their inner selves and unlocking their creative talents. Such individuals can freely explore their more unique interests and abilities, leading to a boost in creative thinking.
Introverts do not think creatively for the sake of someone else. They know their best work happens in times when they are alone and immersed deep in their work.
Excellent Listeners Who Know How to Connect With Others
Introverts are known for having excellent listening skills. Their active listening helps them truly understand the person they are communicating with. This ensures that the bond between the two people is strengthened.
Introverts choose to try to focus on understanding the other person’s perspective before pitching in their own ideas. This helps them with empathetic listening.
Trustworthy and Dependable Friend
Trust is a key part of nearly any friendship. Without trust, your relationship can easily be spoiled. Having an introverted friend typically means that are more trustworthy than others. Introverts do not have a plethora of friends.
They prefer to have a small group they are truly committed to and care about. They are truly emotionally attached to this group and are thus less likely to betray them.
Detail-Oriented and Committed
Introverts are constantly collecting information about the world around them. They can spot even slight changes in their environment and quickly work to process them. During social interactions, for example, they may notice how someone changes their eyebrow’s positions to indicate happiness of sadness.
Can Be Truly Independent
Introverts are not only prepared for these emergency moments, but they actually find joy in their independence.
Efficiency for introverts occurs best when they are left alone. They are also understanding when someone else needs time to themselves, and do not get upset at this like some extroverts may be.
Focused Leadership
Introverted leaders can create highly efficient and innovative teams. As leaders, they can learn quickly and adjust to new information effectively. They can also process customer feedback well, and ensure that every customer has an individualized experience with their brand.
Introvert leaders ensure to keep their work and family life separate, which can further boost their productivity and focus during the workday.
Boost in Productivity When Alone
Managers do not enjoy constantly supervising teams. It takes up time, can cause drama, and reduces trust within a team. However, this is sometimes necessary when you have a highly extroverted workplace with a tendency to get off track.
Introverts who are able to stay focused and work hard help save their manager this frustration. They have often been appreciated for their ability to surpass expectations without constant intervention.
Overcoming Stress Through Meditation
Meditation can be a powerful cure to stress. During highly stressful moments, introverts do not crumble. Instead, they take a step back and evaluate the situation.
They look back to their past reactions, take deep breaths, and potentially take time off to truly think about their decisions. This allows them to avoid making mistakes and increases the accuracy of their decision-making.
Self-Aware with a Deep Understanding of Their Inner Self
Introverts get their energy from within. As such, they are often in touch with their emotions and thoughts. They have an easier time controlling their emotions, as they understand what triggers them and how to avoid it.
They can also control their thoughts and energy better than extroverts, who rely on outside sources for their energy.
How To Identify & Master Your Strengths In the Workplace As an Introvert
Now that you know what some of the key introvert personality traits are and why they are valuable, you may be wondering: how do I find what my strengths are? Contrary to what you may intuitively think, it does not take hours of reflection.
The best way to do this is through a simple online assessment such as the HIGH5 test. By taking the assessment, you will be given some of your top strengths along with their descriptions. In addition, you could clearly see how you can apply these strengths to your relationships, improve your career, and so much more.
Another way to find out your strengths would be to ask for your boss’s feedback. However, this may take more time and could lead to inaccurate results. Your boss may not have a significant amount of contact with you, so their input could have limited credibility.
For this reason, the first step you should take is to answer the HIGH5 test questions.
After you know your strengths, the next step is further developing them. This can be done by identifying when you use your strengths best and placing yourself in the correct environment.
For example, if you see your strength is active listening, consider doing more networking events where you can listen to others. If your strength is independence, consider pursuing a career or position which gives you high levels of independence.
What Are Weaknesses Of Introverts
While the strengths of an introvert an undoubtedly incredible, they are not perfect. As with any type of individual, introverts also have some weaknesses. One of these key weaknesses is not being able to advocate for oneself.
Introverts are not the best at standing up for themselves and are thus sometimes overlooked. This contributes to the idea that introverts can sometimes be weaker leaders than their extroverted counterpart, who tends to be a more assertive person.
Although it may be seen as a hidden introvert strength, introverts are sometimes looked down upon for being too sensitive. The sensitive introvert may become too nervous or anxious easily. They may become self-conscious and overly quiet.
Introverts can be seen as weird or full of themselves. Imagine you are in a room where everyone is talking, laughing, and communicating, except for one person who is submerged in their own thoughts.
Others may notice this single person being alone and subconsciously judge them. There are some other introvert weaknesses you should be aware of, including being overly empathetic, not being able to network effectively, having difficulty succeeding in group projects, and being difficult to approach, among other flaws.
How to Improve Introvert Weaknesses Into Strengths
Knowing your weaknesses is the first step to overcoming them. Do not be afraid of acknowledging that you are imperfect, as you can more effectively overcome your problems when you are honest. After you recognize your weak points, you should not focus on “fixing” them.
The weakness-oriented approach has been tried many times, and it is usually unsuccessful. Instead, you should focus in using your strengths as much as possible. A strengths-based approach keeps you more motivated and confident when compared to a weakness-oriented one.
Still, you can take a few steps to reduce the impact of your weakness on success. You can try choosing a career that maximizes your opportunity for using your strengths and minimizes the times you need to use your weaknesses. You can also create a workplace that is organized. This will boost your productivity.
Turning your weaknesses into strengths takes time and effort, but it is possible. If you consistently track how you use a certain skill, and when you are successful in using it, you can try replicating your successful strategies any time you need to use a skill. For example, if you want to improve public speaking and it is your weakness, notice which calming strategies work best for you. If it is deep breathing, you could take multiple deep breaths any time you speak in public.
How To Highlight Introvert Strengths In Resume & Job Interview
If you want to show you have a certain strength, simply listing it out or claiming you have it is not very convincing. Instead, you have to demonstrate you have this strength.
Most employers will not be very impressed if you claim you are a terrific listener, react well in tense situations, and act as a supportive team member. Instead, you need to give some examples of you being supportive, doing well under stress, and listening well.
Giving a thoughtful answer will leave a significant positive impression on the interviewer. Some individuals create a list of their strengths and immediately lose examples of how that strength is demonstrated.
Others just incorporate their strengths into descriptions of their prior work experience. Regardless, one way to make your resume more impactful is by listing some prior contacts who can testify you have a certain strength and providing data to show the strength’s impact on the team.
For example, if you claim you are highly productive, you can show how your department’s sales rose by 20% when you were leading it as compared to the prior leader.
Strengths Of Introverts FAQs
What is special about introverts?
Introverts have many unique qualities that set them apart from others. They are natural-born listeners and have very keen ears. This allows them to more effectively communicate and empathize with others. In addition to this, introverts are great at reflection. They are self-aware.
Plus, introverts tend to be more dependable and trustworthy. They have a small group of friends they are committed to, making it less likely they choose someone else over their group. Introverts are also extremely creative and they thrive when alone. They can even get their energy from within themselves as opposed to outside sources.
What are the best qualities of an introvert?
The best qualities of an introvert are endless. The truth is that there is no single quality that makes introverts succeed. However, their creativity is one quality that does lead to higher levels of success and innovation among introverts.
In addition, the ability to rely on oneself and be independent also serves as one of the best introvert qualities. Additionally, being loyal, dependable, empathetic, and a great listener are all introverted qualities that are amazing.
What is a strong introvert?
A strong introvert is someone who is confident in themselves and able to have genuine conversations with others. They can effectively communicate with others, listen deeply, and stay in touch with their inner self.
They are self-aware, and constantly working on improving their strengths to become even stronger than they already are. Strong introverts can also stay motivated by looking for inner motivation instead of relying on others.
