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How to help your office wallflowers blossom
Are you writing off your shy employees? That woman who tallies
numbers like a pro, but never speaks . . . the IT guy who can fix
any computer snafu but who avoids other workers like the plague? If
you are, you may be losing a great resource.
"Don't confuse a shy person with someone who's
disgruntled or who just doesn't want to participate," says
Chere Estrin, CEO of Los Angeles-based Estrin Organization, a
professional legal and financial staffing firm. Estrin points out
how to spot a shy worker: "Shyness is a form of social
anxiety, and shy people find it hard to make eye contact. They
speak in low voices and often blush and can have sweaty
hands."
But with sensitivity from management, shy people can blossom.
Bernardo J. Carducci, director of the Shyness Research Institute at
Indiana University Southeast in New Albany, advises employers to
encourage shy employees to speak up in meetings and give them extra
time to do so. "Never ask them to go first, don't expect a
rapid response, and don't move on too quickly or talk over
them," says Carducci.
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Estrin also suggests briefing shy workers in advance about
agendas so they feel more secure about speaking out.
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learn more about shyness, read Shyness: A Bold New Approach (Harper
Perennial) by Bernardo J. Carducci. The chapter "The
Successfully Shy Worker" talks about encouraging shy workers
and helping them deal effectively with authority
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Ellen Paris is a Washington, DC, writer and former Forbes
magazine staff writer.
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