Sergio Visinoni

I provide you with better Engineering Leadership via the following services:

* Fractional CTO
* Technical Advisory
* Leadership Mentoring and Coaching

Founder

Pullpo (PV 23-1)

Helping Pullpo build better products for engineering teams, one conversation at a time.

Member of the Technical Advisory Board

Volumio

I'm supporting Volumio as a Fractional CTO.
We have something big cooking, stay tuned

Fractional CTO

Grupo OLX

I'm having a blast working closely with the CEO and the tech leadership team to help Grupo OLX succeed during a critical transition period.

Tech Advisor and Coach

Lidr.co | Training great Tech Leaders

I'm a Mentor for LIDR, where I share my experience with aspiring, new and current Engineering Leaders that are looking to level up their professional skills.

Mentor

Nansen

I advise the newly minted VP of Engineering at Nansen

Technical Advisor

Aa VP of Engineering for Nansen since October 2023 I managed to achieve the following results:

* We launched Nansen 2 which improves dashboard load time by a factor of 10x to 100x, while significantly reducing costs
* Despite going through a layoff of 30% of the staff in June 2023, productivity has improved by all visible measures
* Introduced engineering metrics that are helping all our Engineering Managers have insights on potential areas for improvement in their teams
* Introduced the notion of SLOs and therefore improved reliability of our systems.
* Improved security by establishing stronger controls and processes to proactively handle vulnerabilities
* Reduced the overall cloud bill by approximately 30% when comparing the same month YoY.
* Set up an organisation that is in a much better position to deliver the next years of value thanks to better clarity in roles, responsibilities and processes
* Managed to identify and groom a successor that will take over from me starting from January 2024

VP of Engineering

NA-KD.com

With the exit of the former Chief Growth Officer who was leading the Product organisation, I was asked to take on the CPTO role. It was my decision to take this role on an interim bases since we were and are in the process of reviewing the overall company strategy, and I wanted to make sure we had clear expectations for the role(s) in Product and Engineering once that will be completed.

The key focus in the first few months is and will be around:
* Establishing clear career ladders for Product Managers and Product Designers, replicating the work done with the Engineering organisation in the previous months (WIP)
* Make sure the Product Strategy and tactics are fully aligned with the most pressing business needs that have arisen in the past few months, following significant changes in the organisation
* Focus on improving our approach around experimentation and validating hypothesis, that will ideally lead us to implement a framework such as ICE to structure our prioritisation process and discussions (WIP)

Interim Chief Product and Technology Officer

NA-KD is a direct to consumer online fashion brand that leverages technology to fuel its impressive growth. I joined NA-KD as CTO and during the first 6 months in office I focused on the following areas:

* Establish clear expectations for members of the engineering organisation by implementing an engineering career ladder framework. This framework is used to align expectation with current team members, develop personalised development plans and hire the right skills for the right job
* Develop and socialise the first ever NA-KD Tech Strategy, helping the team going from a reactive mindset of "build what you're told" to proactively manage the evolution of the tech stack
* Introduced concepts around the accelerate metrics, and helped reduce significantly Change Fail Rate in an attempt to create a stable base to then increase deployment frequency and reduce lead time for change
* Established structured processes around OKRs, goal settings and follow-up with all our empowered teams to enable autonomy within the boundaries of clearly set priorities

Chief Technology Officer

willhaben internet service GmbH & Co KG

As a board member for Willhaben I played a key role to make sure that key topics such as investment in technical capabilities and resources were deeply understood and appreciated for their strategic element in the board and in the management team.
That being my key focus, I took part to all conversations about how the overall business is operated. All in all this has been a greatly formative experience to learn how a board operates, how partners sometimes fight and often cooperate, and how the board should be there to support the Management team and not only to make unreasonable requests :)

Board Member

Adevinta

At some point I was offered to take on the responsibility of Product in addition to Engineering.

In this position, I've added the following key focus areas to my role, while delegating most of the engineering specific topics to my Director of Engineering:

* Ensure that our CPOs in each of our markets had support in defining and executing their product strategy, acting as both a sounding board and facilitator whenever such discussions required additional budget or a significant change of priorities

* Build and leverage a small team of strong product leaders that were deployed to work in collaboration with our marketplaces, helping them in two main ways: product leadership to deliver key initiatives, such as the transactional transition in Subito.it, and/or support on improving practices around product development, with a strong focus in balancing delivery with discovery work, outcome focused initiatives and the use of data for prioritising and deciding on investments.

VP of Product and Engineering for Global Markets and New Models

After the spinoff of Adevinta from Schibsted my role continued, and I was able to add more engineering resources to the team to offer dedicated support to our markets in terms of competent teams and resources deployed to help them "do the right thing".

These teams focused on two main areas:

* Backend refactoring, helping our markets moving towards an event driven architecture with a key focus around the "ad management" domain
* Frontend Enablers that helped some of our markets moving towards a modern frontend stack leveraging advanced frameworks (React, NextJS) and modern architectural patterns such as micro-frontends

All this while continuing all of the initiatives started previously

VP of Engineering for Global Markets and New Models

Schibsted Media Group

After an internal reorganisation, Growth Markets became Global Markets, with the addition of all small to medium sized markets across the Schibsted portfolio. This included Italy, Hungary, Austria and Colombia.

With the increase in size and the portfolio I started to scale up a team of experts reporting directly to me to support me run some key initiatives around the following areas:

* Tech Maturity: We developed, deployed and managed a framework aimed at assessing the maturity of each one of our assets. This was heavily influenced by the work done by the DORA institute and the Accelerate books around key tech metrics. The program was extremely successful in creating awareness around the need to invest in technology and engineering capabilities in most of our markets, with some of them - namely Subito.it in Italy and Willhaben.at in Austria - making significant improvements towards becoming High Performing organisations

* Data Convergence: we led a program so start collecting data from all our assets in a central platform that served multiple purposes, ranging from executive reporting to providing a data platform to small markets to easing the integration with smart components built centrally that needed to leverage data in order to train customised models

All this with continuing the initiatives that started with Growth Markets

VP of Engineering for Global Markets and New Models at Schibsted Marketplaces

As VP of Engineering for Global Markets and New Models in Adevinta I had focus my energy and contributions around the following areas:

* Supporting the CTOs of all the Growth Markets, which included Mexico, Chile, Morocco, Belarus, Tunisia and Dominican Republic as well as our Shpock app operating across multiple countries in Europe. The support was focused on helping them define a clear direction and strategy as well as supporting them on daily challenges
* Participate in the overall decisions regarding the business direction of the entire portfolio
* Support the New Models branch to run due diligence on prospect investments in the tech / marketplace space

VP of Engineering for Growth Marketplaces and New Models at Schibsted Marketplaces

This has been very much a one of a kind experience.
At the time when I was offered the role Schibsted was heavily investing in building up central product and tech capabilities, in a company that had historically been focused on having local teams only.
The push towards centralisation was driven by a need to increase efficiency, remove duplication of work and provide more sophisticated capabilities that would need teams of deeply specialised talents to be achieved.

During the transition, it was identified the need to setup an internal "DevRel" function to help smoothen the interactions between central teams that were building services and APIs and local teams that were supposed to leverage them within their products and brands. This represented a very unique challenge given that typical DevRel functions are outward facing and interact with the public developer community.

The role has been both challenging and rewarding, despite the fact that it disappeared one year later due to a further reorganisation in Schibsted.

The key achievement during that period was something we called "The Reboarding Program". This is a program I designed, implemented and executed with the support of many members of the organisation as well as external consultants.

The program consisted of a one week of intense sessions held in one of our offices in Barcelona. The target population were all the Engineers, Designers and Product Managers coming from our "Emerging Markets". These markets where the fist wave of companies that were supposed to adopt a new marketplace platform that was being built in our tech hubs across Europe. This represented a total population of about 250 employees and was executed in less than 6 months, leading to great results.

Engagement metrics were super high, and I got plenty of reports from local leaders on the lasting impact that the training had on the people that went through it.

Director of Engineering - Developer Relations

I help companies and individual improving the ROI of their engineering teams.

These are the problems I will help you with:

❌ Lack of strong leadership in the engineering team
❌ Unclear structures and roles in your team
❌ Unclear strategy and direction for your engineering team
❌ Lack of business alignment
❌ Low productivity
❌ High Technical debt 
❌ Lots of incidents and outages
❌ Frictions between the engineering team and other areas
❌ Lack of clear career paths for members of your team
❌ Need for mentoring and coaching of individuals in the management and leadership journey.

As I've been in the tech industry for more than 20+, 15 of which in leadership positions, I've learnt a great deal about how to solve such common problems in engineering teams in both big and small companies.

I offer my services as:

✅ Business minded Technical Advisor 
✅ Consultant on specific projects
✅ Fractional CTO for companies in need for a part-time expert
✅ Coach for individual leaders who want to accelerate their career growth

I can work both with companies that need help to improve the value generated by their engineering teams as well as individuals that want to become better leaders and managers.

📝 I share generously my expertise both via LinkedIn and via my newsletter "Sudo Make Me a CTO" that invite you to join.

📲 If you have problems with your engineering teams, or with your own career journey please reach out.

📅 I'd be delighted to have an initial complimentary 30 minutes call to get a better understanding of your situation and come up with a tailored offer to help you see visible improvements in a reasonable time frame.

🤝 Let's connect!

I finally sat down and tried something I’d been avoiding for far too long: creating my first real 𝗪𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗹𝗲𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗽.

I wasn’t expecting it to teach me so much, not just about the technique, but about my own business. And honestly, if you’ve been curious about 𝗪𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗹𝗲𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 but never dared to start, this might be exactly what you need.

I just published a new article where I share 𝗺𝘆 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽𝘀 into Wardley Mapping, not the polished, theoretical version you see everywhere, but the actual process I followed to understand it, mistakes and all.

👉 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲: https://lnkd.in/dHz4DdRw

This whole journey started thanks to Susanne Kaiser’s latest book, Architecture for Flow, which introduced me to the approach.

From there, I jumped into the work of Simon Wardley, watched his excellent intro videos, and explored the practical angle through Ben Mosior’s “Minimum Viable Map” perspective.

𝗜𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗹𝗲, 𝗜 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻:
 ✨ the resources that genuinely helped me progress
 🛠️ how I moved from “I should try this one day” to actually drawing my first maps
 🔍 why mapping my own business revealed things I didn’t expect
 ➡️ what I’m planning to explore next with this practice

If you're curious about strategy or want a behind-the-scenes look at someone learning in public, this one might resonate with you.

And if you already practice Wardley Mapping, I’d genuinely love your thoughts.

#wardleymaps #strategy #learninginpublic #systemsthinking #productleadership

(Thanks Susanne Kaiser, Simon Wardley, Ben Mosior for the insights and inspiration.)

CTO | Tech Advisor | Mentor | Newsletter Author

Connector of Talent and Success 💼 | Empowering Businesses to Thrive through People | Culture Growth Strategist | Coach | Writer | HR leader | #1 LinkedIn Belgium | Top #150 LinkedIn 🌍

Who I help: Ambitious introverts and people-first companies

Problems: Visibility without burnout, quiet leadership, culture that enables deep work

Outcomes: Promotions, role transitions, retention, high-trust cultures

STRATEGIC HR LEADER AND COACH WITH HANDS-ON APPROACH AIMING FOR THE BEST EMPLOYEE/BUSINESS EXPERIENCE - INTROVERT ADVOCATE

International HR Executive passionate about the link between employee experience and business dynamics. Combining a strong focus on strategic thinking and planning with a structured and factual hands-on approach. A positive well connected team coach with a natural sense of empowering team members in a spirit of challenge, learning and mutual recognition. Sound decision making capabilities based on critical reflections within companies focusing on innovation, change, digital transformation and learning.

A. Group HR Director Alter Pharma (200 FTE - BE/IRL/US) – private equity backed firm defining & implementing HR strategy (from strategy to operations) including definition of mission/vision/strategy & values.
B. Global HR Business Partner BU Kerley international/Tessenderlo Group (+/-300 employees - 11 countries) developing/transforming key HR processes (talent resource planning, talent acquisition, performance management, competency management, learning, reward,..) - HR project lead new factory Rouen, France. 
C. Global HR Executive SWIFT (+/- 3.000 employees in +25 countries) transforming/coaching business and HR into new ways of (digital) working/thinking to improve the employee and business experience 
D. Global Head of Reward Tessenderlo Group (+/- 5.000 employees in +25 countries) - strategic development/transformation reward strategy
E. Development new holistic performance management framework for Tessenderlo Group, including full implementation recognition stream.
F. HR Project Manager : move of the Chiquita EME Headquarters from Belgium to Switzerland (social plan negotiations, c&b setup, recruitment, mobility, new policy/process design,...)

Professional coaching certification Better Minds at Work               2018 - 2019
Centre for Creative Leadership - senior leadership program           Q1-2 2018
Management Development Programme Vlerick (17 days)		  2010 - 2011
Strategic Compensation & Benefits Management, Vlerick 		  2007      
Master degree in Law&Taxation, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven    1997 - 1998

Steven Claes

They told me I was too much.
Turns out they were too small.

I sat with a brilliant CHRO last week who said: "Steven, I've spent 15 years softening my opinions, slowing down, pretending I don't need depth in conversations when that's literally all I want."

I knew exactly what she meant.

I've done it myself.

Edited my directness down to "diplomatic."
Rounded edges to seem "approachable."
Acted like small talk filled me up when I was starving for real conversation.

And I ended up feeling like I didn't belong.

Because I REALLY DIDN'T belong in places where I'd made myself smaller just to fit in.

The pond people have told me I'm:

→ Too quiet (translation: you're hard to read, and that makes me uncomfortable)
→ Too direct (translation: you skip all the performance, and I don't know how to handle that)
→ Too intense (translation: you make me think, and I'd rather not)
→ Too ambitious in the "wrong way" (translation: you want actual impact, not just visibility)

But here's what 20 years as a CHRO taught me: Every time you edit yourself down, you teach people to expect less from you.

When you're constantly shrinking:
→ You attract relationships that need you small
→ You become an expert at being less than you are
→ You build a career that fits everyone except you

I used to think the introvert advantage was learning to network like an extrovert. Speaking up more. Being more visible.

Wrong.

The real advantage? Accepting that your need for substance IS your worth.

When I stopped apologizing for needing substance over surface, everything changed.

1️⃣ You stop dimming yourself to make others comfortable in their mediocrity.

2️⃣ You surround yourself with people who recognize that your intensity is your integrity.

3️⃣ You finally find your tribe. The ones who see thoughtfulness as strength, not something to overcome.

The teams who needed someone to sit with complexity? They leaned on me.
The cultures desperate for real leadership? They sought me out.

But only because I was actually there. At full capacity. Not the edited version.

Not everyone can handle your full capacity.
And that's not your problem to solve.

The people meant for you? They'll charter a boat to meet you in deep water, even if they can't swim.

The rest will stand on the shore telling you the ocean is "too much."

Let them.

If you're an ocean, stop apologizing for not being a pond.

If you're wired for substance, you don't have a career problem.
You have a boundary problem.

The moment you solve that, everything shifts.

♻️ Share if you're an ocean person refusing to be a pond

📩 Follow the A+Introvert Newsletter (link in profile) for more ambitious introvert truth

Last week, my quietest team member apologized for joining our call from her kid's soccer practice.

She'd delivered three brilliant solutions that morning. 
From the sidelines. 
In complete silence.

I had to pause.

Have we really created workplaces where people apologize for living their lives while delivering great work?

What makes a team truly unstoppable?
It's not watching the clock.
It's removing the nonsense that blocks good people from doing their best thinking.

Let me be clear:

• I don't track when you log in
• I don't mind if your kid crashes our video call
• I don't care if you work from a coffee shop

Why?

Because I hired you.
Not your schedule.
Not your location.

Not your ability to sit still for 8 hours.

What I actually care about:

↳ The value you create
↳ The results you deliver
↳ The problems you solve

Traditional leadership still defaults to:
❌ Clock-watching
❌ Demanding face time
❌ Micromanaging every minute

What works better:
✅ Focus on outcomes
✅ Trust from day one
✅ Clear expectations

My 5 rules for high-performance teams:

1/ Hire for attitude
→ Skills can be taught. Character can't.

2/ Trust immediately
→ Do not make people "earn" basic respect.

3/ Protect deep work time
→ Introverts produce their best thinking in uninterrupted focus. That's where real solutions live.

4/ Provide resources
→ Give people the tools and context to win.

5/ Measure impact
→ Obsess over outcomes, not activity.

The reality?

Great work can happen anytime, anywhere.
Especially when introverts get space to think without performative presence.

Leaders do not just create followers.
They create more leaders.

Trust your people.
Give them space.
Watch what happens.

What's your take on trust-first leadership?

Curious to read your view in the comments.
—
♻️ Repost this to inspire better leadership
➕ Follow me (Steven Claes) for more on ambitious introverts

Every setback felt like proof I was too quiet to succeed.
Every win felt like luck.

At 32, my boss pulled me aside.
“You're too quiet for executive leadership.”

I replayed that conversation for months.
Every meeting I stayed quiet.
Every presentation I let others dominate.
Every networking event I left early.

The feedback stung because I believed it.

The lateral moves? I blamed myself for not being louder.
The passed-over promotions? Thought I didn’t sell myself enough.
The struggling projects? Maybe I was too introverted to lead.

I carried those stories for years.
Like stones in my pocket.
Getting heavier with each new challenge.

Then something shifted.

The promotions I didn’t get kept me learning.
Now I lead with knowledge, not just ambition.

The struggling projects taught me to listen for what wasn’t being said.
That skill transformed every team I touched.

What introverts do differently with setbacks:
 • We don’t bounce back. We build back.
 • We don’t forget feedback. We mine it for truth.
 • We don’t perform resilience. We develop it quietly.

What others saw as mistakes:
 → Avoided office politics (built trust through work)
 → Skipped self-promotion (let results speak louder)
 → Stayed in roles too long (mastered depth)
 → Took time to process (while others rushed to respond)

Today I’m CHRO.
Still quiet.
Those “setbacks” were my education.

Every introvert I’ve hired has a similar story.
Told they were too quiet.
Too thoughtful.
Too slow.

Now they’re running divisions.
Transforming cultures.
Leading quietly.

Your setbacks aren’t failures.
They’re data points.
Your quiet processing isn’t weakness.
It’s how you turn feedback into fuel.

That boss who said I was too quiet?
He was half right.
I was quiet.
But I was building.

💬 What feedback once hurt but later helped you grow?

♻️ Repost if you've been underestimated for being quiet
📩 Free Weekly career strategies for Ambitious Introverts -> hit the newsletter button under my profile

She outperformed everyone on her team.
They fired her anyway.

The reason?
"Lacks enthusiasm."

I've been labeled the same.
Quiet. Consistent. Easy to overlook.

After 20 years in leadership, I've decoded what "lacks enthusiasm" really means:

You don't perform your passion.
You just deliver excellence.

Real enthusiasm looks like:
• Showing up consistently
• Delivering work that matters
• Communicating with clarity
• Supporting without fanfare

Companies say they want this.

Then they promote:
• Volume over value
• Speed over strategy
• Visibility over results

I've watched talented introverts pushed out.
Not for missing deadlines. For missing happy hours.
Not for poor performance. For performing quietly.

The coded feedback always sounds reasonable:
"Needs more executive presence."
"Could be more vocal in meetings."
"Should network more actively."

Translation: Be someone else.

Truth is:
Excellence doesn't need to shout.
Impact doesn't chase attention.
Consistency beats charisma.

We lose our best people when we:
• Mislabel quiet as disengaged
• Require extroversion for advancement
• Confuse personality with contribution

Real engagement shows up in:
✓ The bugs you prevent that nobody notices
✓ The systems that run smoothly because of you
✓ The depth of your thinking
✓ The crisis you prevented in silence

Your quiet colleague who ships exceptional work every week?
More engaged than the one dominating every meeting.

The introvert who sends thoughtful follow-ups?
More useful than the one working the room.

Smart companies are catching on.
They measure contribution, not volume.
They value depth over performance.
They recognize different styles of excellence.

Still waiting for yours to catch up?

Your quiet strengths aren't the problem.
The system that can't see them is.

Don't shrink. Don't apologize. Don't fake enthusiasm you don't feel.

Real work doesn't need applause.
It needs respect.

🔁 Repost if you believe quiet excellence deserves recognition

💌 Subscribe to The A+Introvert Newsletter for tools, insights, and proof that quiet impact scales (link in my profile)

Stop trying to fix introverts.

In 20 years as an HR leader, I've seen companies burn millions trying to turn quiet leaders into loud ones.

It doesn't work. And it pushes your best people out the door.

Swipe through for what introverts need vs. what people think we need.

💾 Save/share this before your next 1:1. 

P.S. What would you add to this list?

li_at

JSESSIONID

Talks about #hr, #culture, #strategy, #leadership, and #management

What Workplaces Think Introverts Need vs What We Need

Mya Aung

Some introverts are prisoners of their wiring.
Others are architects of their growth.

I’ve coached enough quiet leaders to see the split happen in real time:

The stuck ones hold on to: "I'm wired this way. I can't change."
The ones who thrive? They know wiring is where you begin, not where you end.

I worked with a senior manager who kept saying:
"I was raised to stay quiet and not make waves."

Fifteen years. That one sentence kept her invisible.
Passed over for promotions.
Watching louder colleagues move ahead.

And yet. In those same fifteen years, she'd:

-Led 3 projects that saved millions
-Built relationships nobody else could unlock
-Spotted problems that stayed invisible to everyone around her

Her quiet upbringing gave her the ability to observe. 
Deep listening became strategy. 
Her stillness earned trust.

The prison wasn't her introversion.
The prison was her story about it.

Evolution for introverts isn't about becoming extroverted.
It's about updating your story.

Instead of avoiding tough conversations 
→ Use email to drive decisions

Instead of dreading all meetings 
→ Own your 1-on-1s where depth wins

Instead of staying silent 
→ Put your thoughts on paper first, then speak

That senior manager I mentioned?
She stopped apologizing for how she works.
Started using her strengths.
Promoted six months later.

Same person. Different story.

Here's what this work taught me:

Your nature doesn't need fixing. 
Your story about it does.

Your past shaped you. 
Your choices reshape your future.

Your quiet traits aren't a limitation. They're data.

Stop waiting for permission to evolve.
Start choosing which parts of your wiring serve you.

Which story kept you quiet this week?

♻️ Share this with introverts ready to rewrite their story

📩 Follow me (Steven Claes) for introvert career strategies

They told us to "speak up more."
Turns out silence was our strategy.

As a CHRO who spent 20 years being called "too quiet," I've lived these traits. 

These are not personality quirks.
They're high-performance systems.

5 Weird Traits That Actually Drive Introvert High Performance:

1. Staying silent in meetings
↳ Builds strategic thinking muscle
↳ Catches critical details others miss
↳ Preserves mental energy for decisions that matter
↳ Creates space for deeper analysis

2. Preferring solo lunch breaks 
↳ Prevents decision fatigue before afternoon meetings
↳ Recharges cognitive batteries
↳ Maintains peak performance levels
↳ Protects creative thinking time

3. Pausing before responding 
↳ Delivers thoughtful responses instead of impulsive reactions
↳ Prevents costly communication mistakes
↳ Signals executive presence naturally
↳ Builds trust through consistency

4. Reviewing work multiple times 
↳ Catches errors before they compound
↳ Creates visible excellence standards
↳ Builds reputation for reliability
↳ Eliminates rework downstream

5. Requiring quiet time daily 
↳ Sparks breakthrough solutions
↳ Processes complex problems effectively
↳ Maintains competitive edge
↳ Protects sustainable performance

The brutal truth?

What they called weaknesses were actually our operating system. 

And once you own that system instead of apologizing for it, everything shifts.

Because here's what most companies miss: introverts are not broken. Extroverts don't need fixing. 

They're different processors who need different conditions.
Give them those conditions and watch what happens.

📩 Get weekly insights via the A+ Introvert Newsletter: https://lnkd.in/e2Yn259g

♻️ Share this for every introvert who's been misunderstood

Most introverts are quietly killing their careers.
By trying to speak like extroverts.

The problem is not how you speak.
It is how you prepare.

I spent years forcing spontaneity. Faking confidence. Every presentation drained me for days afterward.

Then I stopped competing on extroverts' terms.

Instead, I designed public speaking around my energy.

After 20 years as a CHRO, this much is clear:
Introverts can be exceptional speakers - if they use a different playbook.

I've helped many through this shift. The ones who stopped performing and started designing their talks with intention? They speak with more power. Less burnout.

This carousel breaks down 9 strategies introverts use to speak powerfully.

Without burning out.

♻️ Loud isn't the goal. Intentional is. Share if you agree.

💾 Save this for the next time you've got a talk coming up.

Most Introverts Are Quietly Killing Their Careers

Research reveals the introvert paradox: 
More productive. Lower performance ratings. 

A 2024 study by SOAS University of London found: 
"Introverts are more productive despite displaying lower job performance than extroverts." 

I've watched this disconnect destroy careers. 

As a CHRO for 20 years, I saw the pattern repeat itself over and over again. 
Claire outperformed every metric. 
Yet her evaluation said "lacks presence." 

Thomas designed the entire system architecture. 
His review noted "could be more vocal in meetings." 

The quiet frustration builds. 
The talent gets overlooked. 

The problem isn't your output. 
It's the visibility of your output. 

Introverts lose in three predictable scenarios: 

1. The visibility trap 
Your deep work happens in silence. 
Your contributions lack witnesses. 
Your impact goes unrecognized. 

2. The documentation gap 
Your wins stay in your head. 
Your progress lacks a paper trail. 
Your patterns remain invisible. 

3. The credit vacuum 
Your ideas travel. 
Your name gets left behind. 
Your influence goes unmeasured. 

But smart introverts don't try to become extroverts. 
They create systems to show their natural strengths. 

Four systems that actually work: 
1. Create your visibility rhythm 

→ Monday: Share your weekly focus (3 bullet points) 
→ Friday: Send a 5-minute wins report to stakeholders 
→ Monthly: Connect your work to company priorities 

2. Build your evidence file 

→ Capture metrics from your deep work sessions 
→ Save positive feedback verbatim 
→ Track resources saved through your solutions 

3. Set deep work boundaries 

→ Block 90-minute uninterrupted focus blocks 
→ Create canned responses for interruptions 
→ Set "office hours" for questions/collaboration 

4. Use strategic presence 

→ Speak once early in every meeting 
→ Send one thoughtful follow-up after discussions 
→ Ask one question that shows your listening depth 

When I coached Sarah, an introverted finance director, she started sending a weekly "impact email" every Friday at 4pm. 
Five bullet points. 
Three minutes to write. 

Her boss forwarded it to the C-suite every single week. 
She went from "too quiet" to "indispensable strategic partner" in six months. 

The only thing that changed? 
Her system, not her personality. 

Your introversion isn't the problem. 
Your strategic approach is the solution. 

Want to advance without exhaustion? 

Get the exact templates, scripts, and systems that helped thousands of introverts without burning out in the free A+ Introvert Newsletter (link in featured section). 

💾 Save this for when your impact feels invisible.

🔁 Repost if you believe quiet professionals deserve loud recognition.

The loudest voice shaped the room.
The quietest mind shifted the result.

And we still reward noise over what actually matters.

Here's the thing.

It is easy to see who talks the most.
Much harder to see who actually moves things forward.

Fast talkers set the agenda in meetings.
Quiet thinkers change the outcome after.

If you only track who reacts, who comments, who performs on stage...
you miss the people who unblock, refine, solve, ship.

So in your team:

👉 Look at what actually got done, not who kept the mic the longest.

🫶 Start giving credit to the ones who change the game quietly. They will not ask for it. Give it anyway.

♻️ Repost this for the quiet game-changers. They won't promote themselves, so we will.

Introverts don't need fixing.
Your workplace culture does.

I spent 20 years watching companies try to "fix" introverts.

Presentation skills workshops.
Open offices.
Loud happy hours.

Meanwhile, they ignored the real problems:
• Meetings that reward whoever talks most
• Brainstorms that silence deep thinkers
• "Collaboration" that means constant interruption

At 32, a VP told me:
"You need to speak up more. This quiet thing is career suicide."

I tried to be louder.
Until I realized: the mold was broken, not me.

Today I'm CHRO.
Still quiet. Still succeeding.
Because I stopped fixing myself and started fixing the system.

👇 This carousel breaks down what actually works.

♻️ Share if you believe quiet leadership deserves more respect and save for later.

Introverts Don't Need Fixing (Your Workplace Culture Does)

Your star performer left at 5 PM every day.

That wasn't a red flag.
That was a roadmap.

I used to stay until 8.
Sent emails at midnight.
Wore exhaustion like a badge.

Then I noticed something.

Sarah, our top analyst, packed up at 5 PM.
Every. Single. Day.

The execs whispered about her "lack of commitment."
Some people labeled her not a team player.

But six months later?
She delivered more value than our entire always-on team.

What they missed:
She wasn't coasting. She was focused.

• No 47-email chains about nothing
• No staying late just to be seen
• No 3-hour meetings that could've been an email
• No pretending to work while scrolling LinkedIn

Just deep, meaningful work.

After 5?
She recharged. Unplugged. Came back clearer.

While others ran on fumes.

What happened next changed how I led:

• The "lazy" analyst got promoted to Director
• One team member hit a wall and had to step back
• The always-on manager made critical mistakes

I learned something:
8 focused hours beat 12 exhausted ones.
Real productivity happens in bursts, not marathons.
Your best ideas come after rest, not during it.

I started telling my team:
→ Your best work happens when you're fresh
→ Creativity needs room to breathe
→ Burnout helps no one

The outcomes?

The exec who doubted her? Stress leave.
The always-on manager? Critical mistakes cost us a major client.
Sarah? Running the department.

Her worth was never in the hours.
It was in the outcomes.

♻️ Repost if you believe boundaries create better teams
📩 Join thousands of ambitious introverts building sustainable success: https://lnkd.in/e7xQPNtn

Overthinking costs you more than you realize.

Not in time.
In opportunities you never take.

Introverts know this trap better than anyone. Analysis becomes avoidance.

Five ways to close that gap:

1. The 5-Second Rule

Mel Robbins nailed it. You have an instinct to move? Count down 5-4-3-2-1 and go.

Your brain will talk you out of it otherwise.
That window closes fast. Five seconds. Use them.

———

2. The Two-Minute Rule

Takes less than two minutes? Do it now.
Don't add it to a list. Don't schedule it. Don't think about it.

David Allen's point: tracking a small task takes longer than finishing it.
Stop managing. Start finishing.

———

3. Brain Dump Before You Decide

Too much noise in your head? Set a timer for ten minutes. Write it all down.
No filter. No structure. Just out.

Once it's on paper, patterns appear. Priorities get clear.
You can't organize chaos while you're drowning in it.

———

4. Externalize the Problem

Stop saying "I'm an overthinker."
Say "Overthinking is here again."

See the difference? You're not the problem. The thought pattern is.
You're not the storm. You're the one watching it pass through.

———

5. The "If-Then" Plan

Vague intentions don't work. Automatic actions do.

Try this:
"If it's 7am, then I write for 20 minutes."
"If I feel resistance, then I count 5-4-3-2-1 and start."

Peter Gollwitzer's research backs this. It doubles your success rate.
Pre-decide so you don't have to re-decide every time.

———

The truth more introverts need to hear:
Knowing what to do means nothing if you don't do it.

Your move.

♻️ Share this with someone who needs it.
👤 Follow me (Steven Claes) for more on ambitious introverts

A 23-year-old intern dismantled my entire hiring strategy with one question:

"But what if they're not comfortable talking about themselves?"

She was talking about introverts in interviews.

I'd been screening out brilliance for 5 years and had no idea.

I used to defend every view.
Debate every point.
Need to be right.

But that one quiet question changed everything.

It taught me something 10 years as CHRO hadn't:

Wisdom isn't about having the best answers.
It's about hearing the questions you never thought to ask.

Now when someone speaks, whether it's my CEO or my nephew, I do something different.

I pause.

Not to plan my response.
But to understand their world.

The 3-Question Framework I Use to Listen Deeper

1. What am I defending?
Before responding, name the ego or assumption you're protecting.
Then let it go.

2. What's their 10%?
Even if you disagree with 90%, find the 10% that's true.
There's always something. Start there.

3. What would I think if I were them?
Not with your experience. With theirs.
Not with your context. With theirs.
This is where breakthroughs live.

This shift changed how I lead:

→ I stopped mistaking volume for value
→ Started finding insight in silence
→ Learned that understanding > being understood

The data backs it up:

Teams with psychological safety where every voice matters are:

✔️ 76% more likely to engage
✔️ 50% more productive
✔️ 27% less likely to leave their jobs

But we still reward:

❌ Quick answers over thoughtful questions
❌ Confident assertions over curious pauses
❌ Debate winners over bridge builders

Your quietest team member isn't checked out.
They're checking angles you haven't considered.

That junior employee questioning your process?
Might be your next breakthrough.

Growth doesn't come from adding more of what you already know.
It comes from seeing what you've been blind to.

Perspective isn't just power.
It's the only path to wisdom that matters.

Try these 3 questions in your next meeting. Watch what shifts.

And tell me this:

💬 When did listening to someone completely different from you change everything?

♻️ Share this if you believe the quietest voices often hold the deepest insights

54% of employees are quietly breaking down.
You won’t see it until it’s too late.

Your best people aren’t quitting.
They’re not burning out.
They’re breaking. In silence.

And your quietest ones?
They’re drowning.

👉 Swipe to spot the signs before they disappear.

💾 Save this to revisit the warning signs.

♻️ Share it to support someone who's quietly cracking.

Warning Signs Everyone Misses (Means breaking)

They told me I needed to be louder to lead.
"You need to command the room," they said.

They were wrong.

Research shows introverted leaders often outperform extroverts, especially when leading proactive teams.
(Grant et al., 2011)

We've spent decades mistaking confidence for competence.
Promoting the loudest voice instead of the best strategy.

But while others are talking, quiet leaders are doing something rare.
They are actually listening.

Over 20 years, I've seen this play out in boardrooms again and again.
The extrovert projects certainty.
The introvert absorbs complexity.

The visual below breaks down why quiet leadership works.

What they do differently:

1️⃣ Active Listening
Quiet leaders don't just hear words. They hear intent. I've watched a quiet VP catch what three executives missed because she was listening while they were waiting to talk.

2️⃣ Focused Calm
In crisis, calm is contagious. I once saw a soft-spoken CFO steady an entire leadership team during a merger just by not reacting. Everyone else followed his lead.

3️⃣ Deep Trust
Loyalty is built in one-on-one moments, not by working the room. The introverted managers I've coached build teams that stay for years because trust compounds quietly.

And this isn't just theory.

Tim Cook: Led Apple through crisis with methodical focus.
Barack Obama: Built trust by listening first, responding second.
Bill Gates: Scaled Microsoft by going deep, not wide.

None of them fit the loud leader stereotype.
All of them led with impact.

So if you're the quiet one in the meeting today,
Don't try to be louder. Go deeper.

Your silence is not a weakness. It might be your competitive edge.

Which of these traits has helped you lead, even when no one noticed?

I'm partial to Focused Calm. It has saved my sanity more than once.

💾 Save this for the next time you need a reminder that quiet is powerful.

♻️ Repost to show that quiet leadership is powerful leadership.

I'm a CHRO at a public company.
I'm also an introvert - and lots of people think that's impossible.

But after 20 years in the C-suite, I've learned something most leadership books miss:

Introversion isn't one thing.
It's four.

And most of us are a blend of them.

That mix? It gives you advantages most leadership advice never talks about.

Swipe to find your type.⏩
And the edge that comes with it.

Here's what the best leaders figured out:
They don't try to become extroverts.

They protect their energy like CEOs protect capital.

This framework changed how I lead.
Not just my introverted team members, but the extroverted ones too.

Why?

Because once you understand someone's type, you understand what fuels them.
And when you respect that fuel, you get their best work.

Simple as that.

Which type gave you a new lens on someone you lead?

🔁 Share or save this to revisit your type later
📩 Get more frameworks in the A+ Introvert Newsletter (link in carousel)

You're Not Just 'An Introvert' (Most Advice Is Wrong)

Most introverts nail the interview.
Then burn out in 90 days.

After 20 years as a CHRO, I've seen it happen too many times. 

Brilliant introverts accepting roles that drain them because they didn't ask whether the company actually values different working styles.

73% of employees leave due to poor cultural fit. 
Introverts feel this more, scoring 10% lower in workplace well-being.

The interview isn't just them sizing you up. 
It's you sizing up whether this company respects how you work best.

Swipe through for the 9 questions every introvert should ask before saying yes.

Your energy isn't up for negotiation. Neither is your environment.

💾 Save this for your next interview
♻️ Share with an introvert who needs this

Most Introverts Nail The Interview (Then Burn Out)

My first raise request took 45 minutes.
It failed.

My last one took 8 minutes.
It got me $35K more.

What changed?

I stopped trying to sound confident.
I started showing the numbers instead.

Swipe through for the exact 8-minute structure that did it →

Most introverts think a raise conversation means you need to sell yourself.
Walk in. Perform. Be louder.

That's not it.

It means building a case your manager can take upstairs and defend.

Extroverts walk in and improvise.
Introverts prepare a document and present it.

And in raise conversations, the document wins.

I've reviewed hundreds of raise requests as CHRO.
The ones that worked: short meeting, clear data, exact number.
The ones that didn't: long stories about teamwork and going the extra mile.

Your manager doesn't need a performance.
They need ammunition.

Numbers they can repeat.
Wins they can cite.
A case they can defend when you're not in the room.

Your quiet preparation isn't the problem.
It's the solution.

💾 Save this before your next raise conversation

♻️ Repost if you know an introvert who needs to hear this

The 8-Minute Strategy that got me a $35K Raise

Today I turn 52.
At 25, I hid in bathroom stalls before meetings.
Now I lead them as CHRO.

The same traits that made you second‑guess yourself at 25
are the ones that can make you impossible to replace
at 25, 52, or whatever comes next.

But only if you stop apologising for them.

I knew that in my head a long time ago.
I just didn’t have the guts to say it out loud.
That part took years.

I hope you don’t wait as long as I did.

25: The Breaking Point

I was the quiet one faking loud.

Forced networking until 2am. 
Performed enthusiasm I didn't feel. 
Dominated meetings that drained me by noon.

I sat in my car after another leadership summit thinking: 
"I'm in the wrong career."

Then a mentor said eight words that changed everything: 
"Stop playing their game. Start playing yours."

52: The Breakthrough

Today, I lead differently.

I skip 80% of networking events. 
Build five deep relationships instead of fifty shallow ones. 
Speak less but land every word.

Not despite being quiet. Because of it.

This is what I finally understood:

That overthinking? Catches problems before they explode. 
That selective socializing? Builds unbreakable loyalty. 
That need for quiet? Where real strategy happens. 
That careful processing? Why people trust my decisions.

At 25, I thought leadership meant being everywhere. 
At 52, I know it means being fully present where it matters.

I protect my mornings for deep work. 
Take walking meetings when I need to think. 
Leave events before I'm drained, not after.

The same traits that made you doubt yourself at 25 will make you irreplaceable at 52. 
But only if you stop apologizing for them.

You don't rise by volume. 
You rise by depth.

To every introvert who thinks they need to change: The world has enough performers. It needs more thinkers.

What "weakness" from your 20s became your superpower?

♻️ Share this if you're done apologizing for how you're wired. Not as an admission, as a declaration.

PS. Who dares to guess the age at this picture? :)

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