She stands on the stage in a gown created for a different time. A different life.
Glamorous. A symbol of purity and hope for the future.
Bright lights are shining in her eyes, reflecting off the jewels on her gown, as a microphone inches towards her. Invading her personal space.
A microphone held by a gregarious, overly happy man with purple hair.
Katniss Everdeen stands in her white wedding gown with a frozen expression on her beautifully made-up face.
Caesar Flickerman stands beside her playing his part of the vacuous show host dressed in a brightly colored costume.
When it’s Peeta Mellark’s turn to approach the microphone, he appears calm and more comfortable. He uses words and facial expressions to impart a message to the crowd of strangers.
He engages Caesar in this game to try to save Katniss, himself and perhaps the other victors as well.
In the Hunger Games: Catching Fire, we find many characters thrown into a world of war and famine – each trying to find their path.
Put aside who you believe to be good or evil in this epic tale and for a moment, think about HOW they interact.
How comfortable do they appear in public forums versus smaller, private interactions. How do they express themselves.
Caesar appears more extroverted than Peeta. Peeta appears more extroverted than Katniss.
What do YOU notice.
When you observe the behavior of a person whether fictional or on your team, begin to look for patterns. Observe to understand.
As an extrovert, you tend to observe anyway as you seek out human interaction, so use your skills – your superpowers – to find ways to bridge the communication gaps between more introverted and more extroverted people.
You have the power to improve the communication in your team.
And communication is an essential part of a happy, productive company culture.
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN:
- Three areas – wake-up calls – for managing employees who are more introverted than you are.
- Three action steps you can take right now to better manage introverted employees.
Complete Your Workwork:
- For the next week, write down how long you can sit in quiet alone before you feel the need to text a friend, grab dinner out, meet the fellas for a beer. Three hours? One hour? 30 minutes? 5 minutes?
- Write down how long it takes for your energy to come back once you escaped the silence and started interacting with someone.
- After the week of observation, look for patterns. Are you more or less extroverted than you expected?
- When you observe to understand the people on your team, you can ask yourself where they would be compared to the patterns you observed about yourself.
Extra credit: The next time you interact with someone more introverted than you are, I want you to keep track of the percent of time you spent talking. You may be surprised. What if you spend 60% or even 90% of the conversation talking? Giving someone a millisecond of silence and expecting them to fight to be a part of the conversation is a bit ridiculous – regardless of the other person’s communication style. Try leaving longer pauses to give the other person a chance to be a part of your conversation.
I’m being hard on you, but I know you can take it.
Be better. Use your skills of gab for good.
I can’t wait to hear what you found out in the comments below.
Caesar interviews Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.
PS – Have you listened to the sister episode called Three Wake-up Calls for Introverts Managing Extroverts?
Thank You For Listening!
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