Quietly Powerful: How your quiet nature is your hidden leadership strength

by Megumi Miki

In the uncertain, changing, global and interconnected world, the 'alpha' or 'hero' leadership style alone is outdated and inadequate. Quieter professionals, who are often overlooked or taken advantage of without recognition, have immense value to contribute to organisations. In this book, Megumi Miki shares her own experience and those of many other quiet professionals who have achieved great success in the business environment. Megumi believes that a shift in our beliefs about leadership will allow talented quiet professionals to view their quiet nature as a strength and to succeed in their own way, rather than seeing it as a disadvantage. She aims to empower quieter professionals and those outside majority groups to fulfil their potential. Quietly Powerful challenges quiet professionals to reframe the story they tell themselves about their leadership potential - and encourages organisations to expand their ideas about what good leadership looks, sounds and feels like.

Genres: Leadership

256 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2022

Reviews

[Trent · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I did not finish reading the whole book. I read parts 1, 2 and 4 out of 5 total parts.

Quietly Powerful is a book that articulates the leadership style of introverts or people with quiet natures. This book has a lot to offer for the right reader. The book is best read by people who don't have the self-confidence to be comfortable in their natural, quiet/introverted state. This is especially relevant for people in an office-setting, although the principles can be used more broadly in general life situations. Showing quiet people that they have inherent values and good insight is a really interesting idea for a book. I applaud Miki for trying to empower those who have traditionally been looked over or spoken over. This ties in to the more general feminist idea that a diverse pool of descriptive representation increases quality output. If I was a business executive or manager, this would be valuable information. And that's the point, this book is not only meant to inspire quiet workers, but also to show how quietly powerful individuals can greatly help those in power.

Despite the positive and modern ideas stated in the book, there is one main issue that caused me to rate it 2/5. The book is not succinct. The vast majority of the ideas in this book are very straightforward, make a lot of sense and are articulated very well. Backing up your point is very good, especially in essays. But it made for dreadfully boring reading when I understood and agreed with Miki's point after the first time she said it. This book could have been condensed to 100 pages, but Miki seems determined to appeal to authority by referencing a plethora of people to prove her point. While this shows that Miki indeed knows what she's talking about, the dragging out of each point made for tiresome reading.

I would recommend this book but only for people who are not accepting of introversion, whether that be their own introversion, an employee's or a coworker's. This book did help me see the value in accepting my own introversion and for that, I did like this book. But ultimately the long-winded examples caused me to start skim-reading, and eventually I just looked in the contents to find things I actually wanted to read about in the book. There is value in this book, and I can see how others may find more value in the numerous examples Miki puts forward. Personally, I was less interested in the examples, which is unfortunate because they make up a large portion of the book.

[Zoë Routh · Rating 5 out of 5]

meticulous and motivating

Megumi has written a well-researched expose of the traps inherent in a confidence-obsessed world. Those who are louder grab attention while those who are less so miss the support and credit due.

We need to re-vamp our workplaces and leadership to create space for different ways of being and contributing. Otherwise we are doomed to a grey tapestry of thought where we might have vivid colour, subtle patterns, and brilliant new pictures of the future.

[Allie Ford · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an introvert and generally quiet person, I found this book interesting, but not quite as helpful as I'd hoped. It's split into five parts, each with a distinct focus, from quietness in general, to the contribution quiet leaders can make, how quiet leaders can develop themselves to become quietly powerful, and how those who aren't naturally quiet can find their own quiet power, and support colleagues. The writer has a Japanese background, has worked for a number of global organisations, and is now based in Melbourne, so there's a lot of local references, particularly to organisations such as RACV - handy for Aussies, but maybe a bit more difficult to follow or understand if you're overseas.
Some parts were helpful in reinforcing that quietness is not the same as broken or weak, and there were a few useful strategies and interesting quotes from quietly powerful leaders.
BUT: I found the book had the same problem I often experience when reading or listening to those in positions of influence giving motivational presentations. There's a lot of information about those people and how they got there, but not quite enough information to actually help those not in those positions to reach them. This is in large part because much of the information is about how those in influential positions either work with others to mentor, coach and support them, or were supported in order to get where they've got. But if you're not in the position of having such a mentor or coach, the key ingredients about how to find and access those people is usually not there, and without the right support the goal seems just as unattainable. The book mostly helped reinforce my perceptions that many leaders in organisations have got there through talking the talk, rather than walking the walk. Yes, we need balance in leadership, but with many loud leaders currently running things and biased to appoint managers in their own image, how do we get them to read books such as this and make the change?

There are some useful tips and perspectives, but overall I feel like I was left with more questions than answers. It's like I was constantly reminded of where the finish line is, and told about how others had reached it, but never helped to get over the actual hurdle right in front of me.
(Perhaps if I'd read this book before others, such as Quiet by Susan Cain, I'd have had a different experience).

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed reading this book. It gave me a different perspective of introverts.