How Two Introverts Reacted to a Challenge

One escaped fear, the other one embraced it

Last week, in the office, we organized a meeting with a top manager. The topic concerned challenges we face at work. Two young women were asked to explain their experiences during a course.

They are two wonderful employees, who work hard to build their careers, and both are introverts. When they realized they had to speak in front of a small group, they got anxious. Since I was involved in the program, I helped them prepare some sentences in English, and I gave them as many details as possible to help them feel a little in control of the situation.

I soon realized that one of them was very afraid: she is very shy, and she doesn’t feel comfortable with her use of English. She asked me about the agenda of the meeting and was very relieved when I told her that it was so tight that there might not be enough time for her speech.

The other girl was in the same situation, but she asked me for help. We met twice and she rehearsed her speech, I asked some questions as if I were one of the attendees. She told me she would repeat it once more the next morning.

When the meeting started, one of the two was hiding in a corner trying to make herself as small as possible, and I could see she was uncomfortable. The other was standing with her colleagues, tense and silent.

When she was asked to make her presentation, she repeated the conversation we planned and added a few sentences. The meeting went on, and actually there was no time for the other girl.

Afterward, the girl who spoke told me she was very happy, she felt relieved but stronger, and she wanted to do it again in the future. She learned that she could speak to important people and described her experience as valuable.

There is always a choice, one is to embrace the fear and become stronger, the other is to avoid challenges. If you choose the second approach because you are too afraid, you don’t grow, and you never learn how strong you are. You possibly limit your future: in fact, after the event, I spoke to my boss about the girl’s speech, and he was very impressed. She gained the attention of somebody important.

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