Sensitive: The Hidden Power of the Highly Sensitive Person in a Loud, Fast, Too-Much World
Jenn Granneman & Andre Sólo
Harmony (February 2023)
How and why highly sensitive people are so valuable…and under-appreciated
Here’s a paradox: emotions tend to have a greater impact on decisions than reason does. Here’s another: EQ (i.e. emotional intelligence) tends to be more important to effective leadership than IQ does.
According to Jenn Granneman and Andre Sólo, “This book is written for three types of people. The first is the reader who already knows they’re sensitive, and perhaps even identifies as a [begin italics] highly sensitive person [end italics]. If this is you, we hope everything in the book will be of value to you and that you will learn something new…The second is the person who may never have thought of themselves as sensitive but who is starting to wonder. Perhaps you’ve always known you’re different in how you think and react to situations…The third person is our treasured guest. It’s the reader who was handed this book by a friend or spouse, a child, or an employee.”
These are among the passages of greatest interest and value to me, also listed to suggest the scope of Granneman and Sólo’s coverage:
o The Stigma of Being Sensitive (Pages 12-13)
o Are You a Sensitive Person? 17-22)
o What Sensitivity Is Not (28-31)
o The Three Types of Sensitivity (42-44)
o Jane Goodall (57-60)
o Empathy (59-66 and 101-119)
o Creativity (66-69)
o Sensory Intelligence (69-72)
o Depth of Processing (72-74)
o Depth of Emotion (74-78)
o Your Body’s Eight Sensory Systems (86-87)
o Rachel Horne (101-103 and 118-119)
o Understanding Empathy vs. Compassion (111)
o How to Make Your Relationships More Meaningful (130-117)
o Sensitive children (143-145 and 147-179)
o The Dangers of Dismissing Emotions (164-168)
o Job crafters/crafting (184-190)
o Sensitive Workers: Physical and emotional issues in the workplace environment (173-184)
o Empowering sensitive leaders (193-198)
o The Sensitive Revolution Benefits Everyone (209-211)
Jenn Grannaman and Andre Sólo also include a number of contributions from those who share their thoughts and feelings (“In Their Own Words”) that are relevant to the context within which they are inserted in the given chapter. For example, “What Does Being Sensitive Mean to You?” (Chapter 1, Pages 16-17), “What Is Your Greatest Strength as a Sensitive Person?” (Chapter 3, 68-69), and “What Are Some of Your Strengths — and Stressors — at Work?” (Chapter 8, 171-173). I am deeply grateful to the contributors for anchoring insights within a real-world frame of reference.
Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out three others: Granneman’s The Secret Lives of Introverts: Inside Our Hidden World (2017), Susan Cain’s Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking (2012), and Adam Grant’s Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (2018).