when neurotype = 'sensitive'

What sensitive instruments teach us about sensitive people

Why is it that some of the most creative, insightful, and effective professionals can also be the most anxious, burnt out, and overwhelmed?

The answer is sensitivity, and whether or not you’re (like me¹) part of the 15-20% of the population that’s highly sensitive, understanding the strengths of this neurotype will make you a better coworker, manager, and professional.

What is sensitivity?

In psychology, sensitivity is defined as a heightened reaction to stimuli. My first introduction to the topic was actually instrument specifications², which provide us this complementary definition:

Sensitivity is the ability to detect small differences.

Consider this: Finance and Sales both pitch an idea for measuring sales volume for the month, and both groups think they’re on the same page. The more sensitive you are, the sooner you’ll detect the tiny differences between what Finance and Sales are actually saying.

Those tiny differences compound over time. If not detected early, they lead to wasted effort, disappointment, frustration.

Sensitive people have an uncanny knack for nipping misalignments in the bud.

In the right place at a right time, a sensitive person can spend five minutes to avert a crisis that (theoretically) would take five months to untangle. But since it’s impossible to quantify what didn’t happen, sensitive people (and their managers) may under-value their impact.

In order to reap the benefits of sensitivity, you’ll need to understand the necessary accommodations, be thoughtful about capacity, mitigate overcommitment, measure impact over hours, and embrace sensitivity as a valid (and unchangeable) neurotype.

accommodating sensitivity

When I worked as a chemist, I used balances (aka scales) that were so sensitive that they could detect the force of air currents, vibrations from footsteps, static electricity on the plastic measuring tray, and more.

To ensure that I was measuring the mass of the reagent and not other random forces in the room, I followed a specific procedure to discharge static electricity, tare the balance, close its protective shield, and wait for the reading to stabilize.

Once accommodated and insulated from outside turbulence, the balance could deliver the incredibly sensitive reading that I needed.

Likewise, sensitive humans work best when insulated from irrelevant outside turbulence.

This is not a weakness—it’s simply the other side of the coin. Accommodation is essential to reaping the unique benefits of sensitivity.

This irrelevant turbulence can be environmental (distracting noises), emotional (a critical client or boss), logistical (unplanned interruptions), or conceptual (too much truly irrelevant information).

There are three key strategies to reducing the negative effects of turbulence, in order of least to most drastic:

• Insulate/buffer - noise-canceling headphones, mute notifications, route interrupts through a manager, trusted coworker curates information, etc

• Reduce exposure - only receive interruptions at certain times, take more breaks, partial work-from-home, etc

• Removal - reassign a problem client, employee changes role/team/company, etc

sensitivity and capacity

Sensitive instruments also have limited capacities.

The same delicate and carefully calibrated parts that enable such exact measurements will warp and break under heavy loads.

And when loads are larger, sensitivity matters less—1 gram is a hundred percent of a paperclip, but it’s only a tenth of a percent of a kilogram.

The same is true in work: where volume is high and mistakes are tolerable, low-sensitivity people will out-perform with their higher capacity and resilience to stress.

On the flip side, where mistakes have serious consequences and nuance is vital, sufficiently accommodated high-sensitivity people will shine with their deep understanding and creative solutions.

Consider how this can look on an account team:

• Experienced, sensitive account managers own a small number of high-value accounts and provide proactive, catered support

• Newer account managers own a larger number of low-value accounts and provide responsive, standardized support

the overcommitment problem

Despite having a lower baseline capacity (for good reason), sensitive people seem determined to over-commit³—and there’s a good reason for it.

Sensitive people notice more problems to solve. They feel the business pain more acutely and, being generally empathetic, are reluctant to leave that business pain unaddressed.

Therefore, sensitive people will also take on disproportionate shares of glue work, the essential but often unrecognized activities that hold a business together.

The more a sensitive person has received the message to “suck it up”, “focus on the positives”, “just don’t worry so much”, the more likely they are to ignore the warning signs of burnout, then “power through” the burnout when it happens.

The consequences are anxiety, depression, and physical illness.

measure impact, not hours

Despite not necessarily actually being less “productive”⁴ than their counterparts, sensitive people tend to worry about their productivity more. And when sensitive people appear to be carrying the same (or greater) capacity, they are likely straining more in a hidden way, quietly warping and breaking under the load.

Measuring impact instead of hours helps take the burden off of sensitive people and is a vital step to mitigating burnout.

Three key concepts will help you set a sustainable, appropriate pace of work: urgency bias, effort density, and leverage.

urgency bias

Humans have a natural bias towards the obvious, so recognition can be tied to the urgency that sensitive people so diligently avoid with their faster reaction time.

Are you rewarding people for fighting fires of their own creation, while ignoring the sensitive people diligently preventing those fires from happening in the first place?

If you’re a sensitive person, give yourself credit for the steps you’ve taken to reduce urgency and share these accomplishments with your peers and manager.

effort density

Since sensitive people are processing so much more information, they consume more energy per minute of working. As with the idea of deep work, this high-density effort is extremely valuable, but also especially tiring.

Appropriately accommodated sensitive people will deliver more value per minute worked—but this feature doesn’t have an ‘off’ switch. So, their higher effort density needs to be understood and recognized. This looks like more breaks, shorter work hours, and more days off.

leverage

Sensitive people are more likely to accurately select high-leverage activities, where the effort-to-impact ratio is especially high.

Effort density + leverage is a formidable combination. This is how we get to scenarios where a single well-timed discussion averts months of wasted effort⁵.

A sensitive person may take longer to make a decision, but they’re not necessarily procrastinating—they may be synthesizing diverse inputs into a particularly effective, high-leverage decision.

If you value speed over leverage, you’re missing out on the huge efficiency gains that sensitivity can provide.

recognizing impact

What makes recognizing impact so hard, and therefore measuring hours so tempting?

To measure impact, you need a clear mission.

Consider a customer support team:

• Without a clear mission, the team doesn’t know how to demonstrate value except by volume of work with metrics like count of tickets resolved and speed-to-first-reply.

• With a mission of ‘delight customers and advocate for their pains’, the same team instead sets goals to increase customer satisfaction survey score and decrease ticket-to-customer ratio.

In the latter example, the impact of writing excellent support documentation is recognized, even when the hours of ticket resolution are lesser.

Likewise, consider praising, recognizing, and rewarding employees for the time between critsits⁶ instead of time spent reacting to critsits.

embracing sensitivity

Sensitivity is a fundamental trait, largely influenced by genetics⁷. Think of it like height—it cannot be changed, but it can be accommodated. Just like a lab tech chooses the right instrument for the job, understanding sensitivity will help you make better choices about who does what work.

Sensitive people are deep processors and experience the stresses, trials, triumphs, and successes of their work and life in high fidelity. They tend to be excellent creative problem solvers, likely to come up with solutions that others wouldn’t have thought of.

However, these may be the same folks irritated by the flickering of the fluorescent lights, distracted by the TV left on in the next room over, easily ruffled or discouraged by downturns in morale.

Sensitive individuals are the canaries in the coal mine, suffering first and worst when things go awry.

As such, embracing sensitivity and supporting sensitive people helps everyone.

Here are some practical ways to embrace sensitivity as a manager or as a sensitive person yourself.

If you manage a sensitive person:

• Take soft pushback seriously. Sensitive people often find it difficult to be assertive, and they may be struggling more than they let on.

• Do your best to keep tabs on overall team morale and burnout. Remember that sensitive people suffer first and worst from morale problems, even if they hide it.

• If they’re doing great work, be conscious of whether you’re “rewarding” that with more work and accelerating burnout.

• When helping them prioritize, be sure to set aside some room for the creative or qualitative areas that they’re raising. Leverage their sensitivity to improve processes or environments for the entire team, even before other people sense the friction.

• (As long as you’re being honest) make it clear that you value them as a human more than as an employee. Sensitive people do particularly well in warm environments, where their creative abilities can shine.

• Don’t conflate hours worked with value—long hours are a problem to be solved, not an accomplishment to praise. Make sure the team’s mission is clear, and emphasize impact over hours.

If you’re a sensitive person:

• Try to be aware of areas where you’re overcommitting out of a sense of guilt/obligation. It’s okay for your capacity to be different than your peers, and it’s okay to leave some problems unsolved for now.

• As much as you’re able, ask for the things that help you work better (transferring to a quieter section of the office, working from home, turning off the office TV during work hours, etc). If you get pushback or questions, explain how the change will help you do your best work. If you still get pushback, consider looking for a different employer that values your unique contributions.

• Just because you’re the only person sensing something or bothered by something doesn’t mean you’re crazy. Comparing notes with other sensitive people can be very assuring!

• When you notice a problem or opportunity that others don’t, simply reporting it may not be enough to get others bought in. You’re sensing something they can’t sense yet, and that’s good! Instead of just reporting the issue, form an opinion and pitch an idea for a solution.

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There’s so much more to embracing sensitivity⁸, but even a little understanding goes a long way.

Does this understanding resonate with you personally? Or explain a coworker or friend?

Have you ever judged a sensitive person (including yourself) too harshly? Would you think differently now?

What does embracing sensitivity look like in your role or org?

1. Unless otherwise cited, the trends and traits of sensitivity described herein are based on my own experiences and observations as a highly sensitive person. If you know of any research that supports (or contradicts) a claim, please share!

2. In measurement, “sensitivity” is the smallest unit that an instrument can measure, “precision” is how consistent the measurement is for the same sample, and “accuracy” is how closely the measurement matches a reference standard. (Here’s a white paper on the topic.)

3. The opposite can also be true, where sensitive employees seem cagey and reluctant to take on more since they already feel overwhelmed and under-supported. If this sounds like you or a coworker of yours, consider what accommodations might decrease distracting turbulence.

4. For an overview of how “productivity” obsession is deeply damaging, read Christine Lorelie’s article Hustle Culture: Why Is Everyone Working Too Hard?

5. The more complex and dynamic your organization, the more important these timely meetings are. For example, I’ve seen a product team spend weeks on a feature just to have it vetoed by Legal last-minute—and I’ve prevented that from happening again with accurate instincts on when we ought to raise ideas with Legal sooner rather than later.

6. Critical Situation, i.e. crisis, i.e. shit hitting the fan

7. Here’s a literature review on the topic: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2943341/

8. Divergent Mind by Jenara Nerenberg is a great overview of how the sensitivity trait relates to ADHD, autism spectrum, and other neurotypes. I also recommend this article on hypersensitivity and how it relates to ADHD.