Sensitivity – A Virtue to Pursue
I vividly remember the day when I was chased (read that as forced) by my friends to have a profile on matrimonial site. This happens to the girls who are thirty and oh God, still single. After several rounds of convincing, I reluctantly agreed. The toughest part was writing about myself. No, writing bug had not bit me then, and I was kind of internet shy, I guess I still am. The easiest way was, to be honest, and spontaneous.
I started with I am a very sensitive person... My friend almost jumped on me, “Why do you want to scare the guys?”. She was married (experienced) and I believed every word she uttered. She explained to me on how guys would want to be with rather a cool, chilled out girl. I tried to explain that my understanding of sensitive is that I care and would like to be taken care. But that wasn’t very popular opinion, sensitive was dubbed as a crybaby.
Do you too believe that sensitive people just get hurt easily and you should keep a good long distance from them? Is there more to sensitivity than crying? Let’s take a look at a dictionary.
sensitive
2. readily or excessively affected by external agencies or influences.
3.having acute mental or emotional sensibility; aware of
and responsive to the feelings of others.
4. easily pained, annoyed, etc.
Oops, yes it does mean easily hurt, but that comes much later. A sensitive mind is responsive to the feeling of others, shouldn’t that count as must have? Don’t we all want the world where people care about each other?
We love Lady Diana for being the most sensitive and caring princess. She really loved people. Unlike the royalty, which teaches you to hide all your emotions and face the world as a stone-faced aristocrat with a plastic smile. But has it worked ever? Her sensitive soul made her go the extra mile and today, even after 20 years, we miss her.
It gets very confusing in the corporate world. We are trained not to mix emotions with business. But customers love the team who care for them, understand their needs, and own their problems. If you want to build such a strong team, it’s easy. Take good care of your own team, and they will surprise you. Customers will call you for an appreciation rather than escalation. Win-win? My personal experience backs me here, I am known to be very “lucky” to get the best teams.
During 2014 elections, a group of people was discussing Sushma Swaraj’s ability to become prime minister (yeah coffee breaks makes you a senior advisor). She has experience, she is articulate and talented. But at the end, someone (a lady) said she might be too sensitive, won’t fit as hard task master.
What do we really want in a political leader? Ruthless or sensitive and sensible? Yes, they are not mutually exclusive. Thankfully, over the last 3 years, she has proved that her sensitivity has helped the nation. People in distress, feel that she takes care of them like a family. I hope political leaders like her will be able to glamorize sensitivity in modern times.
We are moving towards more practical, aggressive, success obsessed times. This is my feeble attempt to show how being sensitive too can help in making you successful, and you will feel more content. I hope that while running the race for success, sensitivity will be a virtue to pursue.
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For a politician, I'd say, sensible. But honestly, I don't get the true meaning of sensitive. When people do hurtful things, we say, 'they're insensitive.' And, those get easily hurt, we say, 'They're too sensitive.' :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading. For me, being aware of and responsive to the feelings of others is important. And though it is ridiculed, it helps you to succeed.
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