Are you more of a slow and steady achiever than a speed demon? If so, you can probably relate to the tortoise in Aesop’s fable, The Hare and the Tortoise. Remember how the tortoise beat the hare to the finishing line by putting one foot in front of the next at her own pace while the overconfident hare took a snooze and woke up too late to win the race?
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McGraw-Hill is reprinting Self-Promotion for Introverts®. A word of gratitude. This wouldn’t have happened without you. Big thanks to friends and fans from around the world for buying the book and spreading the message about how you can get heard more—even if you talk less.

I’d like to share media highlights to help you take a fresh look at your career, promote yourself authentically without bragging, get a new job, build your business, and give a talk with more confidence.
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“The brains of shy or introverted individuals might actually process the world differently than their more extroverted counterparts, a new study suggests,” according to a recent article on the LiveScience Web site.

It is unclear whether the study, which was conducted by researchers at Stony Brook University in New York and Southwest University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, both in China, makes a distinction between shyness (social anxiety) and introversion (recharging your energy during your quiet time).

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I am delighted to extend a special offer to readers of this blog. Susan Cain, a colleague of mine whom I interviewed for my book, Self-Promotion for Introverts®, is offering a free seminar on negotiating, persuading, and influencing skills at a Midtown location in New York City on Monday, January 31, from 6:30-8 p.m. If you’ll be in town on that date, you’re welcome to come. The seminar will give you an extremely relaxed, nonjudgmental, and supportive environment in which to practice your negotiation skills. It will be open to a small group and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please e-mail me ASAP if you’d like to attend. (more…)

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is considering including introversion as a determining factor for diagnosing mental disorders in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—commonly known as the DSM-5. The APA’s proposed definition of introversion is: “Withdrawal from other people, ranging from intimate relationships to the world at large; restricted affective experience and expression; limited hedonic capacity.” The definition also includes “deficit in the capacity to feel pleasure or take interest in things.”
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It can increase your attention span, sharpen your brain, and improve your performance at just about anything. It’s also free. Still not sure about meditation? The latest research credits it with “measurable changes in gray-matter density in parts of the brain associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress,” according to a recent chart-topping article in the New York Times. What’s the rage about meditation and how can the benefits of this age-old practice include bolstering your professional profile? (more…)

Ready for a snarky little diversion? “Every single time I text LOL (laugh out loud), I feel like such an imposter,” says author Mary Hershey. “Honestly, it is rare that I laugh out loud, particularly when I’m texting,” she adds on her and R.L. La Fevers’s Shrinking Violet Promotions blog. “It’s more likely that I am LQ2M (laughing quietly to myself).”
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Body language didn’t used to get much respect. Lynne Davidson, Ph.D., a professor of business and organizational behavior at New York University, quips about an incident in the mid-1970s when she was teaching social psychology at another institution. “I submitted a description for a course called Body Language and it was turned down because it was considered too trite and not academic enough,” she says. Without changing as much as a comma in the science-based course description, Davidson, who studied with masters in the field including Albert Scheflen, MD,  got the course accepted by renaming it Kinesics and Symbolic Interactionism. (more…)

How can introverts thrive in the business world? Do you need to schmooze to get ahead? How are introverts and extroverts biologically different? Toronto magazine writer, Jasmine Budak, just interviewed me about my book, Self-Promotion for Introverts®, and a couple of Canadian businesspeople shared their insights as well. See Budak’s article, “An Introvert’s Guide to Schmoozing,” which originally appeared in Canadian Business magazine.

How competitive are you? Some of us work collaboratively with our colleagues, even if we’re vying for our share of the same bonus pool. Others one-up each another at meetings, keep valuable information to themselves, and jockey – with pointy elbows – to curry more favor with the boss or to seal the biggest deal. (more…)