Written by: Susanne de Munck Mortier, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
The profound processing skills of highly sensitive leaders flash beyond the mesmerizing mechanism of a high-quality Swiss watch.
In this article series, you will become a privileged fly on the wall behind the scenes of the inner world of highly sensitive men in leadership.
A highly sensitive leader processes even more profoundly than the various miniscule wheels‒pivots and balance wheel in a high-quality Swiss watch.
When looking at your wrist you might wonder how it’s possible to create this precise microcosmos and marvel about the delicate art of mechanics, logistics, and thoughtful process behind the manufacturing.
As any dedicated horologist knows, in order to have all the components function smoothly there must be a relentless focus, balancing the mechanical parts, assembling, dismantling, and oiling at times, and of course, perseverance is a must.
A highly sensitive leader considers the above essential skills to be the end result of the horologist, and potentially the basic starting point of his own processing.
It might seem that the processing skills are the same, but the processing journey will never develop in the same way.
Let me clarify this and simultaneously take a look at the following sensitive key precursor to modernism. The French painter Claude Monet initially didn't know what the outcome would be when he started the novel painting process that eventually led to the art style of impressionism.
When you're truly connected to your internal and external senses (as highly sensitive people are) it’s evident that your project can turn into something even more genius with surprising key turning points along the way.
Therefore ‘painting’ (leading) things as you perceive it to be and not how other people see it, can lead to a whole new method that maximizes the leadership outcome in the very first place.
That’s how you capture change, together with your team, because then there is a place for the unknown that brings people in a different dimension of processing what they perceive.
Now let’s lean back into my intro and let’s take this reasoning a step further, because as a highly sensitive leader you don’t want to keep playing in the sandbox with the term of high sensitivity, and of course, there are nuances.
The scientific term for the innate trait of high sensitivity is sensory processing sensitivity.
I want to emphasize that it's not to be confused with the term ’sensory processing disorder’.
Dr. Elaine N. Aron ‒ https://hsperson.com/ made this innate temperament trait world known in the mid 90’s and she found that 1 out of 5 people is in fact highly sensitive.
She introduced the acronym of D.O.E.S and a great body of work evolved from her scientific research, because of the 4 characteristics we can now clarify what it actually entails to be a highly sensitive person.
D ‒ Depth of processing
A fundamental part of this innate character trait is that you process information more deeply than other people do, which results in a profoundly rich inner life.
Isn’t it interesting to know that due to more brain activation in the prefrontal cortex, highly sensitive people show more activity in the insula brain area which is connected to profound processing of information from the internal and external senses?
You simply pick up more information along the way and therefore you can come up with numerous options of connections between things. Other people in your environment might probably name it ‘dissecting’ information, when noticing you analyzing and processing. Just like Monet meticulously focussed on forms, positioning, rhythm, and even the spaces between the various and maybe even connecting past and present experiences whilst integrating it into the future.
You look beyond things in a flash and therefore as a leader, you will probably know how you can manifest dormant projects or let teams jump to life. Highly sensitive leaders often seek more demanding subjects when they feel the need to turn the world upside down.
The pitfall of a highly sensitive leader could be thinking that the job is never done because throughout the process you continually tend to pick up more information. Therefore you might still feel lazy at times, even while others might describe you as a high performer. The tendency to work until things are ‘perfected’ might not be unknown to you, unlike the engineering of a Swiss watch which has an endpoint.
O ‒ Overstimulation
Overstimulation is a logical consequence when noticing many things in your daily leadership environment. Being a highly sensitive person is more than just being easily overstimulated.
Your nervous system might be on overdrive when you notice that your team asks many random questions during the day or the TL ‒ lighting in the building bothers your team’s eyes in a different way than it does with other non highly sensitive colleagues. You might also automatically suggest a different seating place to a team member when sitting in front of a window during a meeting which requires focus. From prior experiences you know that your colleague will get a headache from the bright lights or feel tired easily, especially if they haven't eaten yet. Not to mention the constant movement of people passing by their office during the day. Therefore you know how to wrap up meetings in 15 minutes instead of 2 hours when done by others, because all of this can take an unnecessary investment on the team’s sensitive nervous system.
You have the advanced skill set of noticing upfront when your people might get overstimulated and take precautions from getting them being easily worn out in the workplace.
The pitfall of a highly sensitive leader is often not noticing the boundaries their own physical body is setting for them, because of their dedication to their craftsmanship, feeling of immense responsibility while acting on making a difference in the world. Advisable to practise distancing from your creations, just like Monet it can hit you in a certain way that you were first oblivious to.
E ‒ Emotional intensity, Empathy, Reactivity and Responsiveness
Highly sensitive people are excellent ‘feelers’, they have the ability to feel profoundly deep through their internal and external senses. It can vary from the deep lows to the ecstatic highs, this is felt with a deeper palette of intense emotions. When a highly sensitive leader is extremely proud of someone's accomplishments or the way they handled things, it can feel like all their cells are celebrating that intense moment together with them. The energy within their physical body can go through the roof.
The lesser happy emotions are often not shared in the leadership world. In fact, some statements from others can feel like somebody just threw a brick at your core.
Sometimes you might think that suppressing your emotions is best at that moment. I am delighted that more and more highly sensitive leaders are becoming more vulnerable in modeling the intensity of their emotions, also as a true example of self-expression, liberation, and long-term mental- and physical health benefits for their own people.
The pitfall of a highly sensitive leader is thinking that you don't need to grant yourself time to feel through the emotional awareness and therefore separate head and heart matters in order to continue work and meet a goal. remarkably you do advise others to feel through their emotions.
S ‒ Sensitive to subtleties
Being sensitive to subtleties allows a highly sensitive person to be highly aware of the many nuances in their environment, for example, those little subtle details that other people often miss and catching the subtle meaning of words. Also, picking up on nonverbal cues can be used as a way to think about your response ahead of things, because you've already gathered more information from the initiation of a conversation. Highly sensitive leaders can synthesize these subtle details with past and present information, and that can be an advantage when it comes to strategies used to inspire or respond to situations.
Sensitive leaders can preventively 'read the room', which comes in handy when you are having challenging conversations in a leadership environment.
The pitfall of a highly sensitive leader is often setting aside your own self-care while noticing subtleties in others and then continuing to tend and focus on others 'for the greater good'.
Evidently, the end result of a manufactured mesmerizing high-quality Swiss watch can’t be compared to the outcome when a highly sensitive leader's art of deep finessed processing, thinking skills, and the ability to make genius connections out of the gathered information comes to the surface.
Now that you are aware of the 4 main characteristics of a highly sensitive person I am inviting you to read my next article in which a male sensitive leader will share his perspective on leadership.
Susanne de Munck Mortier, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Susanne de Munck Mortier, is a Legacy Leader for deeply driven sensitive people in leadership, personal development, and education. For more self-expression, emotional leadership, and liberation at home and work. Her meaningful life's work makes a difference simply by helping others learn TO BE the difference with their own uniqueness and sensitivity in the world.
