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Do you have to be a people person to succeed in the workplace? Like do you have to be able to manage teams, etc to get promoted generally speaking?

Assume the roles are technical in nature. So if you don't want to manage people, is it possible to succeed/get promoted?

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    Hello, you need to specify you goal with more details. There are various type of promotion, generally, one going towards management, the other one going for expert on technical fields.
    – Walfrat
    Commented Dec 7, 2021 at 16:21
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    What is « the workplace »? A building site, brain surgeon? Programmer / coder? Plasterer?
    – Solar Mike
    Commented Dec 7, 2021 at 17:06
  • Adding to previous comments, the term "success" is not defined so well too :-) What is success? Be promoted every now and then? Or just have work to do that you like and you are good in and you are paid well for it?
    – puck
    Commented Dec 7, 2021 at 17:22
  • I'm voting to close since the question is just a generalization. If the OP has a specific situation he/she is in, then we'd be better able to help. Otherwise it's just an opinion and my first guess is yes, you need to build a rapport with your managers and team that says you're a dependable and reliable person. However, not everyone got to their position based on qualifications alone.
    – Dan
    Commented Dec 7, 2021 at 18:02
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    Working with and through others successfully does not depend on your personality type. It depends on your commitment to doing so.
    – Jon Custer
    Commented Dec 7, 2021 at 20:13

2 Answers 2

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No, but it will be more difficult

There are millions of examples of non-people-persons being successful. Steve Jobs stands out.

Being able to get along sure does make things easier though. These are skills that can be learned. Start with Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and influence People.

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  • Actually, if you read up on Steve Jobs a lot, he was a very good "people person" he just wasn't a very good person to have someone else's interests in heart. A master manipulator who worked people far beyond their pay, and then persuaded them to not quit after they decided to do the jobs "reality distortion field"
    – Edwin Buck
    Commented Dec 8, 2021 at 3:25
  • @EdwinBuck he was an AH. Being a psychopathic manipulator doesn't make you a people person, it makes you an AH.
    – Tiger Guy
    Commented Dec 8, 2021 at 5:16
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Yes

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I'm not saying you need to do people management, but anyways, you need to be able to

  • Lead a team and be part of one
  • Understand the challenges and provide help to solve them

Now, you can either be in a very technical-oriented role, or a solely people-management role, either way you need to do these. Based on your role, the activities will change, but no matter what you need to be able to collaborate, lead and manage.

So if you don't want to manage people, is it possible to succeed/get promoted?

Well, if you're having a technical role, it's generally not needed to manage people (ex: managing timesheet. leave, performance appraisal etc.), but unless you can handle a team (ex: roadmap, architecture, problem solving, learning), it's not possible to succeed. Note: promotion != success.

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