#NDVoices: How my autism helps me in my social enterprise managerial role

Author: Sofie Day?

How my Autism helps me in my social enterprise managerial role??

I’m an autistic profesional, holding a managerial role within a UK national ‘social enterprise’. The industry I work in focuses on addiction and homelessness. In this article, I highlight how my autism gives me a set of people-oriented strengths that help me be a better manager and serve those in need.? When detailing my personal, professional strengths, I have focussed on strengths identified to me through the work I do and underlined by various colleagues, from line-management to people reporting to me. I also highlight instances where research into autistic strengths resonates with the strengths I have identified.??

In the past, research into autism has focused on savant abilities such as the ability to perform swift mental mathematical calculations, as seen in the 1998 film Rain Man (1). However, autistics have so much more to offer. When talking about my strengths with fellow professionals I noted that the frontline workers, dealing with our client-group directly, mainly cited person-centred strengths of mine.??

A key autistic strength identified in the literature (2) and that resonates with my experience is the strong moral code and sense of fairness and social justice that my autism gives me. Not only does this help me to be a strong advocate for the margenlised communities I serve, it also brings integrity to my work as a manager. For example, I am consistently fair with investigations. Leveraging my keen sense of justice and fairness means I don’t allow a biased or preconceived narrative to influence my findings. This also means I am adept at detailing everyone’s perspective and allowing people to highlight mitigating factors and ultimately drafting investigative reports which offer a comprehensive and balanced view.??

Another people-oriented strength that I draw from in my role is the empathy and understanding of the fundamental desire to be accepted and included which autistic people have.?

Research notes autistics have an undeniable ability to draw on personal experiences to help others (2). This includes the understanding of how tough it is to be discriminated against, to empathising by being able to put themselves in another person’s shoes based on their own difficult experiences. Not fitting in is familiar to autistics; and together with their empathy, this can enable them to do exceptionally well helping others who identify as misfits.??

In my current role I combine my high empathy levels with my strong sense of justice to connect with and advocate for the people I work with; and help the teams I manage do so as well.??

Clients facing challenges due to addiction are often marginalised due to their reduced education-levels, poor communication strategies, which is compounded by being homeless, not having access to adequate hygiene facilities and presenting with antisocial behaviour and legal issues often due to an underlying mental health diagnosis.?

I am often able to consciously draw on my personal experience of childhood trauma, eating disorders and autism, and my own experience of being judged due to my communication differences, to empathise with our client-group. This results in me being very effective at any communications which focus on highlighting the clients’ needs and identifying what more could be done by the professionals around them to help clients move forward within their objectives.??

Moving beyond a deficits-based view of autism?

Studies indicate evidence that deficit-based views of autistic people limit their potential within workplace and educational environments (3). I hope my reflections on how my autistic, people-oriented strengths help to demonstrate just how wrong and narrow these deficit-based viewpoints of autistic people are.?

On a more personal note, I would like to thank NiB for giving me this writing assignment, as I most definitely do not spend enough time celebrating my professional strengths. Writing this article gave me the permission to do exactly that, acknowledge that I am a talented autistic professional.???

References:?

1. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095953/?
2. Cope, R., & Remington, A. (2022). The strengths and abilities of autistic people in the workplace. Autism in Adulthood, 4(1), 22-31.?
3. Carter, E. W., Boehm, T. L., Biggs, E. E., Annandale, N. H., Taylor, C. E., Loock, A. K., & Liu, R. Y. (2015). Known for my strengths: Positive traits of transition-age youth with intellectual disability and/or autism. Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities, 40(2), 101-119. Carter, E. W., Boehm, T. L., Biggs, E. E., Annandale, N. H., Taylor, C. E., Loock, A. K., & Liu, R. Y. (2015). Known for my strengths: Positive traits of transition-age youth with intellectual disability and/or autism. Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities, 40(2), 101-119.?