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Workplaces Need To Do a Better Job of Embracing Neurodiversity
In a work world dominated by automation, digitalization, and increasing incivility, the need for the particular strengths of sensitive strivers has never been greater.
A sensitive striver is an employee who is both highly sensitive and high-achieving. Their empathy, emotional intelligence, and superior level of perception and insight offer an undeniable competitive advantage in the future workforce. In fact, the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report says that by 2025, the skills that sensitive strivers exemplify — such as critical thinking, problem-solving, self-management, working well with people, and communication — will be most in-demand.
The Business Value of Sensitive Strivers
One in five people has inherited a special set of genes that leads to having a highly attuned central nervous system. Psychologist Dr. Elaine Aron, who first discovered the trait of high sensitivity has suggested that it evolved as an “innate survival strategy,” to stay free from harm in prehistoric times. Pausing and observing — a hallmark of high sensitivity — helped these individuals make wiser decisions by picking up on environmental cues and recognizing things that less-sensitive people didn’t.
