If You’re an Introvert, Working Alone Often Brings Out Your Best

What’s wrong with working alone? Nothing! In fact, if you’re an introvert, working alone frequently means working at your best.

Shortly after I wrote a blog post about my very introverted preference for working alone, my very introverted sister Kathy texted me some troubling feedback that made me want to spring to her defense, like she did so many times for me growing up.

(I’m the youngest, she’s the oldest, and we have twin brothers in the middle. Need I say more about my precarious childhood existence?)

“Your post helps me feel good about my desire to work alone,” Kathy said.

Yes! That was my 
intent—and not just for her but for everyone reading the piece.

But then she followed up with this frustrating nugget:

“Always felt like I wasn’t a good team player.”

Actually, Kathy—and actually, anyone else reading this comment and thinking the same thing of yourself—let me rephrase it for you:

You were probably made to feel like you weren’t/aren’t a good team player.

Only now are you beginning to question it.

No Need for Fixing

No, you weren’t brainwashed against your will, and yes, we are all responsible for doing our best to be good team members when and where the situation calls for it.

But generally speaking, our culture regards being able to work well on a team far more highly than it regards being able to work well alone.

Which means that wanting to work alone is often seen as a) bad, b) inferior to working with others, and therefore c) something to be fixed, not respected and leveraged.

But working alone isn’t bad.

Nor is it inferior to working on a team.

Working on a team isn’t bad either, by the way, nor is working on a team inferior to working alone.

The place we need to arrive is one of equality …

Working alone is just as valid, and just as important, as working on a team.

If only our society reflected this seemingly self-evident belief.

Situational Differences

Even the clichés we’re surrounded by tend to promote teamwork over individual work.

“There’s strength in numbers.”

“Two heads are better than one.”

“There’s no ‘I’ in ‘TEAM.’” In fact, TEAM is an acronym for “Together, Everyone Achieves More.”

Like all clichés, these particular ones are true in some cases.

When I took a beginning French course, for example, our instructor preached often about the value of learning a new language in a classroom setting, with others who are in the same rickety boat as you are.

“In 20 years of teaching,” she said at the time, “I’ve met maybe five people who were actually able to learn French all by themselves, online.”

“Part of learning a language—of really, truly learning it in a way you can actually use,” she emphasized, “is practicing it with others who are willing to listen to you as you’re learning it.”

Agreed. No argument here. In that type of situation, together everyone really does achieve more.

Sometimes, though, it seems like TEAM—by a sort of unquestioned default—stands for “The Extroverts Always Monopolize.”

It’s as though the extroverted way of operating is deemed to be the valid way, while the introverted way of operating is deemed to be the wrong way.

That’s the kind of thinking that needs to change, in our workplaces and our schools especially.

Because there are just too many success stories out there who have shown, through both their words and their accomplishments, that the ability and willingness to work alone should be cultivated, not denigrated.

Working Alone Is Valid Too

It would be hard to find someone who hasn’t heard of Steve Jobs, the extroverted co-founder of Apple.

Less well-known is his introverted co-founder and friend, Steve Wozniak, who has this to say about teamwork vs. working alone:

“I don’t believe anything really revolutionary has been invented by committee. If you’re that rare engineer who’s an inventor and also an artist, I’m going to give you some advice that might be hard to take. That advice is: Work alone. You’re going to be best able to design revolutionary products and features if you’re working on your own. Not on a committee. Not on team.”

Wozniak isn’t always right, of course.

Neither was inventor Nikola Tesla when he said: “Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.”

But their perspectives on work style certainly aren’t fundamentally wrong, either.

Nor is yours, Kathy.

Nor is mine.

Nor is any introvert’s.