Introverting as a route into reflective practice for leadership

This paper discusses the concept of Moments of Introverting (MOIs), which emerged from qualitative research processifying the personality trait of introversion to extend understanding (Solinger et al., 2024). For this special issue we use the data to show that MOIs help balance contrasting leadership demands, such as the demands arising from compassionate and strategic
leadership. Based on our study using autophotography (Drew and Guillemin, 2014) and multiple unstructured interviews with staff, managers and senior managers in government and in educational institutions, we conclude that reframing a static personality trait as a process and experience that we have called a MOI, changes the narrative on introversion in leadership. Instead of the primarily negatively viewed characteristics of introversion in the workplace
(Blevins et al., 2022; Herbert et al., 2023) our reconceptualisation suggests that MOIs can serve as routes into reflective practice that support leadership development. Drawing on Linstead (2018), we specify the value of aesthetic, ethical, poetic and political MOIs for leadership practice in general and SL and CL in particular and finish suggesting ways forward for MOIs.