Silent Partners How to help your office wallflowers blossom

Are you writing off your shy employees? That woman who talliesnumbers like a pro, but never speaks . . . the IT guy who can fixany computer snafu but who avoids other workers like the plague? Ifyou are, you may be losing a great resource.

"Don't confuse a shy person with someone who'sdisgruntled or who just doesn't want to participate," saysChere Estrin, CEO of Los Angeles-based Estrin Organization, aprofessional legal and financial staffing firm. Estrin points outhow to spot a shy worker: "Shyness is a form of socialanxiety, and shy people find it hard to make eye contact. Theyspeak in low voices and often blush and can have sweatyhands."

But with sensitivity from management, shy people can blossom.Bernardo J. Carducci, director of the Shyness Research Institute atIndiana University Southeast in New Albany, advises employers toencourage shy employees to speak up in meetings and give them extratime to do so. "Never ask them to go first, don't expect arapid response, and don't move on too quickly or talk overthem," says Carducci.