Years ago, I started following Lisa Petrilli on Twitter as I had found some of her blog posts interesting. She had written several blog posts on how Introverts can leverage their skills to be valuable leaders.

I loved the posts because I am an Introvert. If you don’t believe me, then you’ve never seen me hibernate after a large conference or noticed how I am always easier to find in the first few days of a conference than the end of the event. Being moderately “successful”, the posts usually helped to explain why what I was doing was the right thing or gave me tips on how I could do something better. When The Introvert’s Guide to Success came out, I quickly bought it. Then like many work-related books that I buy, it took me a while to read.

Glad I did.

Serial Readings

As I read the book, I was reminded of many Science Fiction classics. Not in tone or topic, but in style. Many early works were actually a compilation of a series of short stories published in one of the magazines of the day. As such, every few “episodes”, a basic tenet of the imagined universe was restated. This makes a lot of sense in a series that is read over a year or more, but not as much sense in a novel.

Lisa fell into this trend during the book. She repeatedly reminds the reader one or more of the key traits of the Introvert. Being an Introvert that understood how we differ from Extroverts, it seemed a little much. This repetition is likely the result of much, if not all, of the material being repurposed from her blog.

Compilation of Worth

The fact that the book primarily seems to be an edited compilation of Lisa’s writing doesn’t change the sound advice in the pages. The book is well organized and builds soundly on the advice from previous sections. It is full of tips for both Introverts and Extroverts alike. My favorite of each are:

• If you are an Introvert, you aren’t broken. You can succeed by embracing that which makes you different.
• Extroverts should look around and make sure that they have some Introverts around to help out. Setup a structure that enables them to contribute to their full potential.

There is a lot more to the book than that, but those two points resonate. Lisa is a coach and you can feel her coaching you throughout the entire book. I have never met her but I imagine that if I do, her conversational style will mirror the writing in the book. This is a good thing as those that can benefit the most from the book likely need that coaching style to take that next step.

Bottom Line

If you are an Introvert looking to move ahead in business, it is worth your time and money. It has a lot of useful tips and strategies that have worked for me. Even if you are successful, just learning a few tips will benefit you.

If you are an leader who is also an Extrovert, please read it. It will help you take advantage of the smart Introverts in your organization. Introverts can help provide a more balanced leadership approach for your organization and learning how to leverage them can only benefit you.

If you are an Introvert and don’t feel your Extroverted leaders understand how to take advantage of your strengths, having them read this book might help. You’ll have to be subtle about it, but if you can pull it off, it can only help you.

Finally, if you’ve been reading Lisa’s blog for years, you probably don’t need this book. You’ve likely garnered the knowledge needed. It can serve as a refresher or an easy to access resource, but there seemed to be very little new.

Now to dive back into the world of Extraverts….