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Working with highly sensitive people
The more we understand and appreciate the value of multiple types of diversity within a team, the more important it becomes to both recognise and accommodate each of these, so that they can contribute to the team’s cohesion and creativity. A golden rule I have learned (the hard way) is that whenever someone frequently and unintentionally irritates you, there is great potential for co-learning and creativity. Highly Sensitive Persons (HSPs) are exceptionally aware of both their own and other people’s emotions. They are often marginalised in team settings, because of both their own discomfort when other team members do not recognise the emotional signals the HSP observes in themselves and others; and because their own emotional leakage can be discomforting to everyone else. Other team members may avoid them because they feel the emotional entanglement to be stressful and threatening.
It is very easy to dismiss the HSP as too difficult to manage. Yet they have a great deal to offer the team, if their special qualities are viewed as strengths rather than weaknesses. In particular, HSPs are invaluable in:
Identifying “elephants in the room” and subtleties others may miss in situations
Detecting non-verbal clues about other people’s mood, trustworthiness or other factors that affect team dynamics
Addressing other people’s needs for care
Bringing into the team discussions the wider system, including wider social and ecological issues
According to Dr Elaine Aron, author of The Highly Sensitive Person, HSPs also have the following strengths:
They are able to concentrate deeply, especially when there are no distractions
They are highly conscientious
Because they see more subtleties, they are good at detecting errors
They have strong “sematic memory” (long term memory relating to how we create meaning and integrate concepts)
They have high intuition
They are strongly motivated by “making good things happen” both for themselves and for others
They provide a balance to the “here and now” time focus that characterises many teams. They have strong connection with the past, combined with an ability to link the past to the future
