The short answer is yes — from Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of Meta Platforms) to Emma Watson (actor and activist) and Barack Obama (former President of the United States), many introverts have thrived and succeeded in ‘extroverted’ careers that regularly involve interacting and engaging with a diverse range of people.
First, it is important to recognise that introversion and extroversion are not binary traits, they are on opposite ends of the spectrum and both have their own strengths and weaknesses. Contrary to popular belief that extroverts are more suited for ‘extroverted’ careers, more studies are showing that success in an ‘extroverted’ career (or any career for that matter) is not determined solely by one’s personality type, but rather a combination of situational and personal factors such as the organisational or team culture and climate, nature of job tasks or environment, prior work experiences, and job-related attitudes and mindsets. Introverts also possess good leadership qualities, but the value of their strengths is not often understood.
In a 10-year study called the “CEO Genome Project” which conducted 17,000 assessments of C-suite executives, including 2,000 CEOs, it was revealed that while boards are often impressed by charismatic extroverts, introverts are more likely to exceed the expectations of their boards and investors. The study also found that successful CEOs tend to demonstrate four specific behaviours — namely, they make decisions with speed and conviction, they get buy-in among employees and stakeholders, they adjust proactively to a rapidly changing environment, and they reliably produce results, all of which are behaviours that can be cultivated and enacted by introverts and extroverts.