"Leadership is best suite to a certain personality type" would be true if leadership had no consequences. Unfortunately, it matters not only THAT someone leads, but WHERE they lead.

The "one standing up and taking charge" is not always the one who knows what he's doing. Leadership today is more than being able to slam your foot on the gas; you also have to know how to steer and read a map.

For example, UC-Berkeley researcher Cameron Anderson and Gavin Kilduff discovered that loud, aggressive people were ranked higher as leaders by team mates when tasked to solve math problems as a group, but were not the participants who provided the most correct answers.

Why would we make such terrible mistakes when choosing leaders? Because our brains did not evolve solving math problems. They evolved killing mammoths, fighting tribal wars, and picking fruit.

What we have is a systemic problem (meaning it's not the responsibility of individual introverts to address) derived from having social instincts geared for the small-scale, technologically primitive environment of the Stone Age, even though we are now in a global society, often working in organizations with thousands of people (well above the Dunbar Number), using Information Age technology.

The leaders our Stone Age brains want are not the leaders our Information Age civilization needs. It's not enough to learn how our instincts want us to pick leaders. We need to learn how to pick leaders better suited to today's environment, often in spite of our instincts.

I have just stumbled upon your blog, and I am absolutely in love with it. Not only this article, but every article I have happened upon so far, has made me think. You should see the look of sheer awe on my face right now.

I will definitely be following and sharing your work. You are a great writer and thinker, and someone I will truly enjoy hearing more of.

Now, as far as this article goes, I myself am an introvert. I feel that the think-then-speak attitude that you mention, and that I do carry, helps me. Then again, it may hurt me as well.

While I think to myself, and I carry great ideas(or what I think to be great ideas) around with me, until I let someone know what's on my mind, they just think I'm the average Joe. Surely being open and forthright with your thoughts has a better chance of making you known and popular?

But when I do let on that I might have an opinion about something, I think it strikes other people more genuinely. They see some mystery there and wonder what other knowledge lies inside the introvert.

It really depends on whether or not a person uses it to their advantage. Whether they 'leverage' it or not.

Last year I got a new boss and she wants me to be more outgoing, shine during our status meetings, and think more outside of the box. She even criticized me for leaving a Christmas Party early. I wish extroverted people took the time to understand us more. I do very good at my job, but just because I'm not an extrovert doesn't mean that I'm slacking.