 Cool. So as a project manager, especially in the agency world, there are some general unspoken expectations of you. One being that you're from the most part extrovert. You're dealing with multiple team members at once in various capacities. You're dealing with clients on a daily basis. You are the face of the company when it comes to client relationships in many ways. Being social is just part of that gig. Well, I'm here to say that introverts unite. We have our own superpowers. We can and do excel at jobs that are typically filled by extroverts. You just have to find your own rhythm. You are not alone. As we'll get into in this session, introverts bring a lot to the table. From my perspective, my introverted traits have helped me greatly in larger meetings where there are a ton of people and personalities. I found it most beneficial for me to listen and observe and really only chime in when it makes the most sense, whether it be with an opinion that I have based on something we're talking about and answer an idea, etc. Thank you guys for joining. My name is Casey Minner and I'm a project manager at Atten Design Group. I've been working within the digital space now for about eight years. Two of them have been with Atten. Atten has been around for 20 years. We're a full-service digital agency providing award-winning user engagement strategy, responsive and accessible website design, and open source development, primarily with Drupal but also within WordPress React and Gatsby. We were found to serve mission-driven organizations. And for the past 20 years, we've worked with some of the most amazing mission-driven organizations in the world. We only seek to do work that matters. So let's get into it and talk about some basics when we think of the PM role overall. As a project manager, we typically find ourselves engaged in a few or more of the following scenarios multiple times a day. So video conferencing and phone calls, rapid response messages both with your internal team and the client relationship, context switching, and quickly changing the trajectory of a conversation based on a common inaction or action by the client. While these personality traits might not have been listed in our role description, these are traits that we think of when we think of a project manager. So grace under pressure, maintaining composure within the chaos, being vocal, not being afraid to speak up or speak out, enthusiasm, showing enthusiasm to your team and clients. Quick thinking, having the ability to think on your feet and command and control. So being more authoritative in the sense that you are not scared to make your voice heard. I want to set the table with some basic definitions. When we think of introverts, we think of a reserved or shy person who enjoys spending time alone. When we think of extroverts, we think of a gregarious and unreserved person. When you think of introverts versus extroverts, you think of two very different type of people. Think of Steve Martin versus a Bill Murray or Nora Jones versus Madonna. So with these definitions in mind, let's do some personality math. As you can see, under these two scenarios, the first one is kind of a dull moment while the second might have some people cringing. You may think an introvert can't handle the responsibilities that are expected of someone in the PM role. That is entirely opinion-based. As we will discuss today, there are great attributes to introverts bring to the table and to this role. In the next few slides, I will run through some tips and tools that you can apply to your everyday life as an introvert. So adapting your personality to the job at hand, but don't change who you are. In the book Quiet that I'll reference at the end of the deck here, Susan Kane says that we are all elastics. We can stretch but only so far. So remember, balance is key. This is quite the cliche term, but is applicable in so many aspects of life. If 75% of your day is meetings and you have to be on, find that time to take a break for yourself and recharge. Don't overcommit yourself. Give yourself that safe space. Promote your strengths. You're good at your job. Do not downplay your strengths if you think they aren't as important as those of your extroverted peers. If you need to make a sticky note that lists your strengths and remind yourself of these daily. Silence is in fact okay. Silence on a client call can be deafening. We rush to fill the silence. We think this means we aren't doing our jobs, but as it turns out, silence is okay. It's okay to take a moment and compose your thoughts. It's okay to take a moment to let what was just said sink in. And lastly, focus on the function. You have a huge meeting coming up as an introvert. You're likely laser focused on the fact that it's a meeting where you will be talking to a number of people and set it and instead try to flip the script on yourself. Focus on that function. You are having this meeting to discuss x, y and z. Think of the actual public speaking portion of your job leading said meeting as one requirement of your job. This way, these type of extroverted elements or job requirements just become a function of your job. And lastly, some next some strategies that you can apply to your position that set you up for success. Organization as a priority. This is for the PM role overall, but especially for an introverted PM as an introvert we typically don't like being caught off guard because that puts us on the spot. If you're an introvert, but someone who's typically not organized work to adjust this aspect of yourself can be incredibly beneficial. Along the same lines of organization, you should work to constantly prepare. Do your research, gather your data, have your budget and timeline numbers ready ahead of any client call. Plan your agendas way before the meeting itself. Preparing helps you prevent moments that might take you out of your comfort zone. Plan your day accordingly. Do you more spunk in the morning schedule your calls during that time frame. It might not always be possible but try to schedule your weekly work calendar in a way that gives you a full day or even a couple afternoons off from meetings. Create that space for you to be heads down as a PM we're responsible for most if not all client meetings for each account. Give yourself some time where you know you have a break. Rehearse leading a major meeting with a lot of stakeholders rehearse and then rehearse some more practice your opening play devil's advocate for yourself and imagine questions that might arise and or things that might go wrong. It's important to note that rehearsing should not mean that you sound scripted. Rehearsing means that you're preparing answers for every possible scenario or question. Perhaps writing down these questions that could be asked best case scenarios also worst case scenarios and prepping for all of that. PM still need to be able to respond on the fly so sticking to a script won't always work. And lastly encourage engagement. Engage your team members engage your clients work together to come to a solution as introverts. We prefer to work this way we don't operate in a way where we instead prefer to lead people to our solutions. Encourage fellow introverts to speak up where applicable as well give them the floor in a way that also promotes their strengths without throwing them into the deep end of their comfort zone. Positive attributes that introvert can bring to the table. Referencing the book quite again. They know that one of the major strengths introverts bring is the ability to stay out of the moment. While extroverts want to be fully immersed in the experience introverts tend to stay out of things observing the impact and or meeting of the moment. For a PM facilitating the moment or experience while observing from the sideline can help provide clarity as to how these things impact everything overall. So by being to these attributes attributes active listening as introverts we tend to be really great at listening use this to your advantage listen with purpose when we do this the moments where we actually work up the courage to speak or even more powerful. Observing along the same lines of active listening. We are great at observing we take stock of everything around us we notice things others might not because of the constant chatter. We have challenges we soak up everything and process it. We tend to pick up on the things that can help us change to the trajectory of a meeting if we need to such as body language, facial expression, etc. Empathy, everyone wants to be heard. Find common ground with your peers and clients, ensure that they understand you know where they are coming from, put yourself in their shoes. This will go a long way when it comes to building trust and lasting partnerships. As introverts, we don't like to dictate. We like to work as a team. We want others to want to work with us. We find efficiencies in getting to know our peers better. In thoughtfulness, along the same lines of listening and observing introverts tend to take more time and consider a wide array of perspectives before coming to opinion before coming to an opinion of our own. So have your own toolkit to ensure you are set up for success, even when put on the spot. Ask questions. You're on a client call. The client says or asked something that you hadn't thought of and therefore had not prepared for. As an introvert, a typical reaction is to panic. Take a second and ask clarifying and follow up questions. If the client has mentioned a new feature that puts the entire timeline and budget at risk. Ask questions. Is this a business team? What's driving this timeline? Use your team to your advantage. The client asks for something that you've never even heard of. If you have a team member on the call that you know might have an answer, punt it over to that subject matter expert. Do not feel like you need to have all the answers. Use your internal communication tools to your advantage as well. Ask the team member on Slack if they feel comfortable speaking to this. And if not, feel free to let that client know that it's a great thought, but you would like to regroup internally to discuss this further. Another note along these same lines is it's important to time box people. Give them the time to speak, but be cognizant of time spent and help them stick to a dedicated amount of time. And practicing self awareness. So oftentimes when we're nervous, we have a tick that we might not even notice ourselves. We can run in our chair, playing with our hands, etc. As an introvert, we need to be aware of these and do a self check in these scenarios as to not give off signals that could make people feel like we are standoffish or incapable. The bottom line is, even if you feel like a fish out of water, you are not. You have what you need to accomplish the job at hand. And while it may be a different approach than your extroverted peers, it's still an efficient and reliable approach. Here are a few great reads if you're interested in diving further into this topic, and the various approaches that are discussed. So, being that this is likely a room of introverts, I totally understand if no one wants to speak up. Honestly, it took a lot for me to submit as a speaker. I've included my email here in case anyone feels more comfortable reaching out to me directly. So with that, I'd love to answer any questions if anyone has any or again feel free to reach out to me directly. And a bunch of introverts in this room. So as always, and we brought free sketchbooks. Stop by the ad booth to get yours. So it looks like we have a couple questions coming. How do you know if you're introverted. It's a good question. Typically, introverts prefer to be by themselves, whether it's in a worker environment or even at home. If we're tasked with a larger project or something we need to tackle, we prefer to be heads down whereas extroverts might prefer to have that ability to chat it out with people and be in a room with others, because being by peers or by friends really energizes people. Whereas if you're introverted that can be very draining for you. Any tips on presenting as an introvert. It's a good question practice, rehearse. Don't drink. Prepare yourself just by practicing with friends or family or getting on a zoom by yourself and practicing so you can see, you know, your own facial expressions and how you're reading things how you're sounding so that you don't sound as scripted as you need to. What's your favorite introvert superpower. I would say my favorite introvert superpower is the active listening. I really prefer to sit in a meeting, regardless of how small or large that meeting is and really soak up all the information. That may mean that I don't even chime in in that meeting or that I have questions afterwards but I really prefer to hear everyone out and hear the various perspectives, and then use that information to come to my own perspective, or my own task list or the next steps that I need to tackle things like that. All right, well all great questions. I've been happy to address anything one on one. Don't be afraid to reach out to me I totally get it so no issues addressing those. Another question how would you recommend extroverted peers recognize if you need to take a step back that's a really good question. And, you know, we really value collaboration so Janice I appreciate you asking that. Obviously, if you feel that, you know, maybe they are having trouble active listening, because of so many people involved in in a meeting or things like that, just, you know, allow them just don't force them to step up and say something that they don't need to allow them to have that moment. You know, another thing is realizing the number of meetings you're asking your introverted peers to be involved in. You know, introverts can tend to get burnt out quicker with meetings, especially if you have full day meeting so just being cognizant of their schedules and trying to, to work around, you know, when they are most effective so if they have two meetings in the morning until four don't schedule a meeting for right smack in the middle of those try to try to bulk those up so that they can have that head downtime and really be as productive as they want to be. Thank you.