In a workplace that glorifies strength and power, highly sensitive people like you may falsely assume the ability to experience things more intensely is a weakness or personal failing.
On the contrary, you might be surprised to know that recent workplace performance research confirms what psychologists have known for years: managers consistently rate people with higher sensitivity as the best performers in their organizations.
As our society becomes more automated, the need for workers with intuition, creativity, and empathy becomes even greater. The abilities of sensitive people can never be reproduced by technology. They continue to excel at everything from job interviews to leading teams and most everything in between.
If you’re a highly sensitive person and decide to fully leverage your unique gifts, you’ll bring a refreshing set of valuable contributions to the table.
5 Ways to Use Your Sensitivity as Your Greatest Strength in the Workplace
Have confidence in your communication skills.
Most highly sensitive people display rare strengths in key areas of emotional intelligence, also known as emotional quotient (EQ)–the ability to recognize and understand emotions in themselves and others. These strengths including self-awareness and social awareness.
Because you can become easily overstimulated, you may need help in the areas of self-management and relationship management. Your hyper-awareness of emotions might mean you need help acting on those emotions in constructive ways.
But whether you’re leading a team, motivating your colleagues or providing a sounding board for others, at the end of the day your sensitivity is a gift for communication that can help your workplace run smoothly and make your career blossom.
Highly sensitive people experience strong emotions that are easy to identify. They communicate so effectively because they don’t just hear the words coming out of other people’s mouths—they’re also attuned to subtle gestures and tone.
Speak up if others have missed something.
It’s another asset you have: you’re attuned not only to feel but also to those tiny details others may have missed. You’re the one who spots something that doesn’t quite add up before your company hires a new candidate or who sees the perfect place to move funds around when it’s time for budgets cuts.
You aren’t satisfied until every detail has been worked out and every contingency has been planned for. In the workplace—especially if it’s fast-paced with lots of moving parts—this strength for keeping track of the details is invaluable.
Jump into teamwork.
If you or someone you know is highly sensitive, you likely make an exceptional team member. You have a rare ability to take people’s feelings into account and think through different parts of complex decisions.
For example, when your colleagues on your team are scrutinizing how a new policy might affect each department in your organization, you can spot the hidden benefits and downsides.
You also thrive in and contribute to supportive, collaborative atmospheres. Keep in mind, though, that this can all go wrong if you’re the one left making final decisions. Use your gifts of assembling input and analysis, then consider gathering others’ opinions as you bring your teammates into the fold for the final call.
Use your creativity to solve problems.
While it can sometimes feel like a huge burden to be so profoundly affected by what’s going on around you, your intuitive nature also let’s you tap into your creativity.
You might be the person who’s always carrying a notebook around. Or maybe you’d benefit from having a whiteboard in your office to capture and brainstorm ideas.
As a creative person, you’re deeply in tune with your inner world and this can lead to fascinating breakthroughs, innovative solutions to problems and a unique sense of clarity most of your coworkers don’t get to experience. Once you feel comfortable accessing your creative side, more colleagues will turn to you for inspiration when they feel stuck.
Prepare for stimulating situations.
Most highly sensitive people don’t fare well when caught off guard in meetings or presentations. When high-stakes interactions send your emotions off the charts you might feel a discomforting loss of control. The best antidote is preparation—the right way.
To the extent possible, try to anticipate questions and think through your best responses ahead of time while keeping in mind that over-preparation can be a crutch as well. You don’t want to become rigid and unable to respond if something unexpected should occur.
Especially in the case of negotiations or job interviews, consider creating an outline with the “high points” you’ll most want to cover. Just make sure you don’t wing it—if you’re flustered, your memory will fade quickly.
As a highly sensitive person who experiences strong emotions, you might feel like you’re carrying a heavy load at times, especially at work. But the truth is you likely have a huge amount of untapped value to share with your co-workers, clients and in your career as a whole.
It’s time to start viewing your sensitivity for what it is: your greatest strength.
