Susan Cain has exposed the myth of high achievers
We have become used to the antics of those in-your-face ‘celebrities’ who increasingly dominate our television screens – often people of limited talent but unlimited self-belief who feel the need to inflict their ‘personalities’ on the nation. In the worst cases, they are little more than career loudmouths.
Unfortunately, their attention-seeking behaviour has been encouraged by television executives and producers who think that viewing figures will be boosted by the incontinent outpourings of individuals who, in an earlier age, would have been judged in need of psychological or spiritual help. The publishing industry has helped to reinforce the trend by marketing the ‘autobiographies’ (often ghost-written) of so-called stars, in which their rise to fame is usually presented as a story of courageous triumph over childhood adversity, and initial setback before breaking into the big-time. Some of these accounts would be more accurately placed in the fiction section of bookshops.
Clearly there is a public appetite for material of this sort. However, of greater interest than its surface manifestation is what it reveals about contemporary culture. In this regard, a recent book by Susan Cain, entitled simply ‘Quiet’, offers some interesting insights. She draws attention to the ascendancy of a particular ‘ideal’ personality type which is outgoing, upbeat, positive, and endlessly cheerful. Whereas in the past, modesty, unassertiveness and humility were seen as admirable characteristics, nowadays they are regarded as signs of weakness, as evidence of unfitness to function effectively in the modern world.
Cain fears that ‘Introversion – along with its cousins sensitivity, seriousness and shyness – is now a second-class personality trait, somewhere between a disappointment and a pathology’. By contrast, extroversion has become ‘an oppressive standard to which most of us feel we have to conform’.
Schools promote a particular version of the extrovert ideal: they celebrate role models who are active rather than reflective, sociable rather than independent. The studious ‘loner’ is regarded with suspicion and may become the target of bullies. In business, the confident go-getter is more highly valued than the quiet, backroom person who may have the creative ideas which will take the organisation forward.
One of Cain’s chapters is entitled ‘The Myth of Charismatic Leadership’, in which she takes issue with many of the assumptions of training courses designed to assist men and women hoping to advance their careers. These convey the message that persuasive rhetoric is to be preferred over deep thinking: that presentation is more important than substance; and that public relations matter more than truth.
Cain points out that many high achievers in the past have not been notably extrovert and, in some cases, they have suffered from acute shyness and social inhibition. Citing examples from diverse fields – science, politics, music, literature, technology – she makes a plea for a more balanced view of the range of human temperaments, and a recognition that the qualities that are worth valuing are not confined to one end of the introversion-extroversion spectrum.
Another chapter is entitled ‘When Collaboration Kills Creativity’ and offers a critique of the dominant view that teamwork is always best. The ‘rise of the new groupthink’ is contrasted with the ‘power of working alone’. She cites psychological experiments which show that the pressure to conform when working in groups can often lead to wrong conclusions – and, of course, in group settings it is likely that those who exert the most influence will be the self-assured talkers rather than the self-effacing thinkers. Cain advises: ‘Don’t mistake assertiveness or eloquence for good ideas’. While face-to-face contact among colleagues is often important, particularly in relation to building trust, ‘group dynamics contain unavoidable impediments to creative thinking’.
Recently my attention was drawn to a promotional video featuring someone I have met. In this case he is an intelligent man with some interesting ideas, but the presentation was so over-the-top that it was positively cringe-making to watch. I doubt, however, if my embarrassment would have been shared by the subject. Once you have embarked on the road to egomania, particularly if encouraged to do so by others who may have a vested interest in your success, it must be difficult to see the attractions of a more understated, less boastful route.
In an age of multi-media, when there are so many easy outlets for the ‘look-at-me’ mentality, it is doubtful if we can ever return to the world of Jane Austen, in which heroes and heroines were expected to be discreet, principled and undemonstrative. But we could strike a modest blow for the reinstatement of quietness as an admirable personal quality, by switching off our television sets whenever one of the blustering narcissists appears on the screen.
Walter Humes held professorships at the universities of Aberdeen, Strathclyde and West of Scotland and is now a visiting professor of education at the University of Stirling
website design by Big Blue Dogwebsite development by NSD Web