Early in my management career, I had a brilliant team member. She noticed things nobody else did: a client’s change in tone during a meeting, a subtle shift in team dynamics, a risk buried in a project plan that everyone else had walked straight past. But when we moved to an open-plan office, something changed. She started taking more breaks. She seemed withdrawn. Her work was still excellent, but she was visibly exhausted.
At the time, I did not fully understand what was happening. Looking back now, I can see it clearly. She was highly sensitive, and the environment we had put her in was causing her genuine distress.
If you manage people, there is a very good chance you have someone like her on your team right now. Understanding what high sensitivity actually means, not the watered-down, misunderstood version of it, could completely change how you lead that person.
What Does It Actually Mean to Be Highly Sensitive?
Being highly sensitive has nothing to do with being weak, overly emotional, or unable to cope. Around 15 to 20 per cent of people have an innate, partly genetic trait called sensory processing sensitivity, which is the foundation of what researchers refer to as a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP). (Source: hspjourney.com)
Their nervous systems process information more deeply than others. They absorb more sensory input, reflect on it more thoroughly, and notice subtleties that most people miss entirely.
Think about that for a moment. One in five people on your team could be experiencing their work environment in a fundamentally different way than everyone else.
Dr Elaine Aron, who pioneered research into high sensitivity, identifies depth of processing as the core characteristic. HSPs are not just noticing more. They are analysing what they notice on multiple levels, often without even realising they are doing it.
So while you are focused on the meeting agenda, your highly sensitive team member is simultaneously tracking the conversation, picking up on the tension between two colleagues, noticing the flickering light overhead, registering the emotional undertone in the email they read that morning, and processing it all at once.
This is every single day. Is it any wonder they are exhausted by mid-afternoon?
The Strengths You Might Be Overlooking in Your Highly Sensitive Team Member.
What frustrates me about how highly sensitive people are often perceived in workplaces is this: managers see the challenges, such as the need for quiet time, the sensitivity to criticism, and the preference for working alone, and miss the extraordinary strengths sitting right in front of them.
I have worked with managers who described their HSP team members as difficult or high-maintenance, only to realise later that they were among their strongest performers. Research backs this up. Whilst HSPs report feeling more stressed by their work environment, their managers consistently rate them as top performers.
Take a moment to sit with that. The person you might be viewing as overly sensitive could be your most valuable team member.
Here is what highly sensitive people typically bring to a team.
They notice what others miss. Shifts in client mood, early warning signs in projects, subtle changes in team dynamics. Your HSP team member is picking this up before anyone else even realises something is happening.
They think deeply about problems.
When you ask an HSP to solve something, you are not getting a surface-level answer. They have considered multiple angles, thought through the implications, and often arrive at creative approaches because they have processed the problem more thoroughly than most.
They genuinely understand people. Their empathy is not performative. They naturally pick up on others’ emotions and motivations, which makes them exceptional at resolving conflict, understanding what clients actually need, and holding teams together.
They care about quality. HSPs are conscientious by nature. They do not just want to finish tasks; they want to do them well. That attention to detail often sets the standard for the whole team.
They bring creativity and fresh insight. Because they process more data points than most people, they often spot creative solutions and perspectives that others have not considered.
Recognising High Sensitivity in Your Team
The tricky thing is that many highly sensitive people do not realise they have this trait themselves. And there is an added layer of complexity: around 30 per cent of HSPs are actually extroverts.
So you might have someone on your team who is enthusiastic in meetings, loves collaborative work, thrives on social interaction, and still becomes stressed and withdrawn when there is too much going on. That is not a contradiction. That is high sensitivity combined with extroversion.
Watch for these patterns.
Sensitivity to the physical environment. Loud offices, bright lighting, strong smells, and temperature changes. These are not minor irritations for HSPs. They are genuine sources of distress that directly affect performance.
Discomfort when being observed. If someone performs brilliantly when working independently but seems uncomfortable with close oversight or frequent check-ins, high sensitivity could be the reason.
Needing recovery time after group activities. The team member who is fully engaged during collaborative sessions but then needs quiet time afterwards is not being antisocial. They are processing and recharging.
Absorbing the emotional atmosphere. If someone on your team responds strongly to tension or conflict, even when they are not directly involved, high sensitivity could well be the reason.
The Real Cost of Getting This Wrong with Highly Sensitive People
I have watched talented, dedicated people leave organisations because their managers could not see past surface-level differences in how they worked. These were individuals who consistently delivered exceptional results but felt unsupported and misunderstood, exhausted by work environments that were not designed with their needs in mind.
The frustrating part? These were entirely preventable losses.
Simple adjustments, such as a quieter workspace, advance notice of changes, or a bit of flexibility in how and where work gets done, would have made a significant difference. Instead, those businesses lost institutional knowledge, client relationships, and high performers.
And even when they stay, when your highly sensitive team member is operating in a constant state of overwhelm, the very strengths that make them valuable start to suffer. The attention to detail, the deep thinking, the awareness: all of it declines. You end up with a stressed, withdrawn team member who is performing at only a fraction of their potential.
What You Can Actually Do Differently with Highly Sensitive People
The first thing, and I cannot stress this enough, is to stop trying to fix them.
High sensitivity is not a weakness to overcome. It is a trait with specific strengths and specific needs. When you approach it with acceptance rather than correction, everything shifts.
Have an honest conversation about their needs. Ask directly what overwhelms or drains them. Do not dismiss what they tell you. If someone says the background noise is affecting their concentration, or that long days back-to-back are depleting them, take it seriously and look at what you can do about it.
Give them options for focused work. This might mean occasional home working, access to a quiet space in the office, or simply letting them start early before the noise kicks in. The productivity gains from giving HSPs the environment they need far outweigh any inconvenience.
Give advance notice when you can. Highly sensitive people manage stress by planning and preparing. Last-minute changes hit them harder. When you can give a heads-up about meetings, schedule shifts, or new initiatives, do it.
Think carefully about how you deliver feedback. HSPs care deeply about their work. Constructive feedback is absolutely fine; it just needs to be delivered thoughtfully. Balance it with recognition of what is going well, be specific and clear, and give them time to process rather than expecting an immediate response.
Respect their need for solo working time. Many HSPs do their best work alone. That is not a lack of team spirit. Let them have that space and allow regular breaks during collaborative work so they can recharge.
Back off on the micromanagement. HSPs are acutely aware of being watched and tend to perform poorly when they feel constantly monitored. Trust them to do their work. Make yourself available for support, but do not hover.
What About the Rest of Your Team and Highly Sensitive People?
This question comes up every time I discuss this with managers. “If I let one person work from home or use the quiet room, everyone will want the same treatment. Won’t it cause problems?”
You are already treating people differently. You just have not named it.
Think about your team right now. Someone thrives with regular check-ins; someone else finds that suffocating.
One person does their best thinking in a group brainstorm; another needs quiet time to process before they can contribute anything meaningful.
You are already adapting your management style to what each person needs. You are just doing it instinctively rather than explicitly.
Supporting your highly sensitive team member is exactly the same thing. You are creating the conditions for them to do their best work, just as you do for everyone else.
And if someone does ask why their colleague gets flexibility, you can be straightforward with them: “I am trying to help everyone on this team work in the way that suits them best. What would help you perform better?”
You will be surprised by how varied the answers are.
Understanding and working with different needs benefits everyone, not just your highly sensitive team members.
How Highly Sensitive People Experience Rejection and Negative Feedback
There is one more aspect of supporting HSPs that managers often overlook: how they respond to rejection and negative experiences.
For an HSP, hearing no or experiencing rejection at work is not just disappointing. It can feel devastating. They might interpret a straightforward “that idea will not work” as confirmation that they are not good enough.
This is not about being dramatic. It is about how their brains process negative experiences more deeply than others do.
When you need to say no to an idea or a request, explain your reasoning clearly. Help them understand that you are rejecting the idea, not them as a person.
And when they are visibly overwhelmed, give them space to process. Do not push them to just calm down or minimise how they feel. Acknowledge it. If you can, give them time to recover their composure before continuing.
Creating a Culture Where Different Strengths Are Valued
Supporting highly sensitive people is not just about individual adjustments. It is about the broader culture you are creating as a manager.
That means questioning the assumption that the person who speaks fastest or loudest has the best ideas. It means creating space for reflection and thoughtful analysis, not just rapid-fire responses. It means recognising that needing quiet time to recharge is not a character flaw. It is a way of looking after your mental resources.
When you build that kind of environment, you do not just support your highly sensitive team members. You create conditions where everyone has permission to work in the way that suits them best.
Finally…
Supporting highly sensitive people does not have to be complicated.
It does not require expensive interventions or a complete office redesign. Most of the time it is about small adjustments that cost very little but make an enormous difference: a quieter corner to work in, advance notice when you can give it, thoughtful feedback delivery, and the understanding that needing recovery time after meetings is not laziness.
The managers I work with who get this right do not do it because they are unusually enlightened. They do it because they have realised that losing a talented person over something entirely preventable is just poor management.
Your highly sensitive team members probably will not announce themselves. They might not even recognise the trait in themselves. But when you stop assuming there is one right way to work effectively, when depth of processing gets the same respect as speed, and when quiet focus is valued alongside vocal participation, you will notice the shift.
Not just in your HSPs, in everyone.
Start paying attention to who needs what. Have those conversations. Make those small adjustments.
The people who have been quietly struggling while delivering excellent work will finally have the space to thrive. And you will wonder why you did not do this sooner.
If this resonates with you and you are managing someone you think might be highly sensitive, I would love to hear what challenges you are facing. Drop me a message. This is exactly the kind of thing I help managers work through.
Come and join me at my Facebook group.
If you’re not sure how to have that conversation with a sensitive team member, that’s exactly what I help with. Get in touch. Or pop to the Conversations Catalyst page here.