Who Are the Quiet Influencers?

Tim Cook, who became CEO of Apple in late 2011 after the illness and ultimate death of Steve Jobs, had some big shoes to fill. His thoughtful demeanor and low-key style were very different from his predecessor, and in his previous role as COO, it appeared that he provided a tempering, calm counterbalance to Jobs's sometime bombastic personality. As COO, Cook was responsible for some major operational changes at Apple that contributed to tremendous company results.

Since his esteemed colleague's passing, Cook has moved forward with his own leadership agenda and has received high marks from many in the technology community. A reporter at Fortune magazine described an investor meeting in which Cook exhibited his own brand of Quiet Influence. "What shocked the Apple investors that day was that CEO Tim Cook popped into the room about 20 minutes into Oppenheimer's (the CFO) talk, quietly sat down in the back of the room, and did something unusual for a CEO of Apple: He listened. He didn't check his email once. He didn't interrupt.

After the CFO finished, Cook, at that point chief executive officer of Apple for all of five months, stood to offer his remarks. He strode confidently to the front of the room and held court in the no-nonsense style that has become his trademark. 'He was in complete control and knew exactly who he was and where he wanted to go,' says one of the investors. 'He answered every question head-on and didn't skirt any issue.' "^[2]

Would you tag Cook as an introvert? I would. He sat in the back of the room, not needing to be the center of attention. He portrayed a no-nonsense style, which focuses on depth. Yet despite his very quiet persona, he is clearly a powerful influencer. By choosing to make a difference using his quietly effective style, Cook is helping to provoke new ways of thinking and move his company forward. Cook is influencing this incredibly creative and successful company to move past the loss of its iconic founder and forge a new future based on continued innovation. For these reasons, I call him a Quiet Influencer—a person who brings about change and forward momentum in a classic introverted style.

Like other Quiet Influencers, Cook has a personal style grounded in humility. Jody Wirtz, managing director at a commercial bank and one of the Quiet Influencers interviewed for this book, displayed a similar tendency for humility when he answered the question "Do you see yourself as an influencer?" with: "You would have to ask those around me. But if I am an influencer, it is because it is through thought that I have discovered truths and became able to articulate or demonstrate those truths in a way that resonated with others and that eventually worked for them."

Even though humble, Cook and Wirtz are not alone in being recognized for their effective form of influence. Eleanor Roosevelt, Charles Darwin, Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, and Rosa Parks were also introverted influencers. So are Warren Buffet, Condoleezza Rice, Steven Spielberg, J. K. Rowling, and Mark Zuckerberg. Although many books have been written on the techniques and approaches to influence, they tend to extol a more extroverted approach to influence that presents significant barriers for introverts. Strategies focus on winning people over to your side by putting yourself at center stage, talking things up, presenting great arguments, and verbally convincing others to do what you want them to do. Quiet Influence is not about talking a great game to win the deal. It is a less understood approach to influence and differs from more "out there" talkative methods.

Quiet Influencers can certainly be found where you may expect to find them: in technology, engineering, and science. But they also are found in marketing, project management, teaching, medicine, the law, human resources, and small businesses. Quiet Influencers sell products and services. Nonprofit organizations that compete for funding and airtime also have great movers and shakers who are Quiet Influencers. What they all have in common is that their powerful approach draws upon what introverts do naturally. I have named this approach the Quiet Influence Process.