By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to more fully value the quiet leaders in your organization. Reading time: 3:02.

The human resources vice president fumed during talent review meetings when his colleagues carped about the introverted tendencies of potential leaders in the organization.

He felt like flinging a raw egg at someone.

Then he thought of something more convincing: why not throw a dozen eggs at those whiners. And so at the next meeting of the talent review committee he let his colleagues have it.

They all ended up with egg all over the faces after he made his case for the value of the QUIET leader in serving as QUITE the leader. And in the process taught me a lesson in leadership that I will never forget.

“Bland can be grand,” beamed the vice president, opening a carton of eggs to showcase six colored “Easter eggs” and 6 white shelled eggs.

“Of course we all want more of these kinds of leaders in our company,” said the vice president, pointing to the colored eggs. “So how do we get more of those vibrant, creative, colorful eggs in our corporate basket? With these. He pointed to the bland white shelled eggs.

His colleagues winced in disbelief, fearing their vice president of human resources had lost it. Continue reading →