Neurodiversity 101: Steps to neuroinclusive leadership

The pathway to the top is not even one with steps of all the same size.

We sometimes say that if the only leaders you see are the ones who look, dress, and speak in a certain way then it makes it hard to progress up the ladder if there are not the role models to show it’s possible. I partly agree with this. ?I think it’s important that we know the organization is a safe space to have a voice. If our earlier experiences have been challenging when we have spoken up it may make us fearful of repercussions again. You need to be tough and resilient to withstand verbal bashing especially if it has happened more than once and especially if you are climbing a corporate ladder.

The challenge is when you are moving 'up a system' you don't always have the PA support you need until you get to a higher position.

The difficulty is also managing up and down and with peers and managing your own organisational skills.This is where understanding support/training gaps are is important.

The benefits of neuroinclusive leadership in your boardroom in 2024

When thinking about the rationale for having neurodiverse leadership I read an excellent article in Harvard Business Review reflecting on what good leadership needs to look like and the need to reinvent our leadership teams.

In the article, they talk about the paradox of leadership and the need for leaders to have 6 different areas of strength which are often actually at odds with each other. ( I have added my descriptors to this).

· Strategic executor- big ideas person listening to others voices

· Tech-savvy humanist- understands tech but remembers people are using it always

· High integrity politician- can navigate the politics of the team and sustain the values of the company in a changing setting

· Humble hero – makes decisions when they must be made but has empathy

· Globally minded localist – has an outward vision but retains a local feel

· Traditional innovator- looks to past successes but encourages innovation and growth

But an important point in the article in terms of the need for collaboration:

“Companies have to switch from competing with rivals to cooperating with partners in networks and ecosystems to create value in ways that no single organisation can manage alone.”

No one person can be all these things.

No man is an island,

Entire of itself;

Every man is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

John Donne

Look like a leader... act like a leader!

'Fit with' group personalities and demographics predicts who emerges as leader, and those who fit the cultural images of “what leadership looks like” are more likely to be seen as leaders by potential followers, and to themselves develop their own leader identity.

As social learners, we unconsciously absorb images of leadership from our culture along with other values and elements, for example through depictions of people we have already seen as leaders. These become our models of what a 'typical leader' is.

In the C-Suite each person comes with different roles,skills and responsibilities. As leaders, we are allowed to be specialists. We usually also have support at this stage and can pass on to others the tasks we are not so good at doing.

Today, more than ever leadership teams need not follow a set formula in their make-up. They also certainly need to be able to change and adapt to meet the needs and demands of the organisation and the world around them.

New roles have emerged in the C-Suite in the past 5 years such as:

• Chief Growth Officer (CGO): This role focuses on driving growth through various strategies, including mergers and acquisitions, strategic partnerships, and organic expansion. The CGO is particularly common in sectors like technology, software, and private markets (Sheffield Haworth) (Hunt Scanlon Media).
• Chief Culture Officer (CCO): As companies recognize the importance of a positive workplace culture for attracting and retaining top talent, the role of the CCO has become more prominent. This role is responsible for aligning the company’s culture with its values and mission, fostering a supportive and engaging work environment (Sheffield Haworth) (Senior Executive).
• Chief AI Officer (CAIO): With the rise of artificial intelligence, the CAIO oversees the integration and strategic use of AI technologies to enhance business operations and drive innovation. This role is critical in industries heavily reliant on data and AI, such as fintech and tech (Sheffield Haworth) (Hunt Scanlon Media).
• Chief Data Officer (CDO): Initially focused on regulatory compliance, the CDO role has expanded to ensure the effective use of data across the organization to improve business outcomes. The CDO helps in leveraging data for innovation, customer satisfaction, and operational efficiency (DigiConAsia).
• Chief Experience Officer (CXO): This role focuses on ensuring a seamless and positive experience for customers and employees alike. The CXO plays a crucial role in maintaining brand loyalty and satisfaction through effective engagement strategies (DigiConAsia).
• Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) / Chief Integrity Officer: As compliance becomes more complex, new titles like Chief Integrity Officer have emerged. These roles are crucial for maintaining ethical standards and regulatory compliance across the organization (Senior Executive).
• Chief Product Officer (CPO): Responsible for the overall product strategy, the CPO ensures that the company’s offerings meet market demands and drive innovation. This role is especially important in industries where product development is key to competitiveness (Hunt Scanlon Media).

Roles that did not even exist a few years ago and new skills sets.

It starts at the top

When it comes to neurodiversity, we start to hear from a few leaders telling their stories and describing their strengths. For example, ?Vice Admiral Nick Hine, The Second Sea Lord, from the Royal Navy was only diagnosed with Autism in 2009. He highlights his leadership strengths as:

“I am extremely focused; I love solving problems and finding the most efficient way to do things. I am excellent at making rational decisions based on data. I don’t ‘trust my gut’ – I need evidence before I make any decision.”

I am interested in how he thinks he made it to the top. We also need more people at all levels in organisations telling us what they consider are their barriers to progress.

Cracking the code

Hiring and promoting talent should be about recognising the actual ability of the person to do the job. However, we still see inequity in doing so.

I have often seen people get jobs because someone close to them 'knows the system' or they do. They have learned about Applicant Tracking Systems for example and how to use them to their advantage. A parent/friendship group knows someone in the business who gives them work experience or tells them about a job and that gets them through the door.

For someone neurodivergent, the lack of a mentor or ally can lead to less opportunity to be successful, despite having the skills for the job because they can't permeate the traditional recruitment routes. We need to ensure there are opportunities to showcase talents in different ways. Can we offering leadership mentoring programmes?Do let me know as I want to gather this information.

More than a token

You need critical mass to move the needle. E.g. Rocio Lorenzo showed that you need more than 20% of women to create a real impact in leadership.

The next step in 2024 is proactively working to learn more about how neurodiverse teams can fit together so that we can improve outcomes at all levels of all organizations. We need to set goals rather than waiting for neuroinclusion to happen.

• This requires us not to rush it but to build trust.
• It means learning how we solve problems together.
• It means feeling committed to other people’s successes and not just our own.
• We need to map and utilize the different spikes we have more effectively to ensure leadership is truly diverse.

This stuff is not easy!Rewriting the playbook again and again....

Perhaps it is time to rewrite the playbook for leadership and splice roles in different ways and understand it is more about the outputs required than cutting to the same cloth again and again.

If we really want to grow, attract and retain neurodiverse leaders at all levels, we need to change our expectations and our hiring processes.

As Simon Fanshawe says in his excellent book 'The Power of Difference" we need to think about diversity in that it: "is not the clashing of two opposing sides".

If creating diverse teams and leaders is seen as something we have to do to make the optics look right this only leads to resentment on all parts. Don't we want to be at the table because of our skills and not because I have ADHD or because of gender or sexuality. However diverse teams bring different thinking.Only when we see the true value of diversity as an essential part of being innovative and better working for all do we get true buy-in.

Different people may need different settings too

We are all neurodiverse. We are different. But sometimes we favour a room full of people who look, think, and sound more like us and have the 'corporate speak'. It may seem easier, and less effortful and so we avoid change.

We keep recruiting a lot of blue triangles (see below) that fit with our fixed expectations of what leaders should be instead of recognising the different shapes that could add value to how we operate.

Our view of the attributes of leaders means we can filter out people without us even thinking about it. I was told this week by someone about a person in their organization: "they won't go far with the way they speak. I can' understand them half the time! They speak so quietly"

Biases remain.

Change needs to happen. It can. Neurodiverse leaders can be at the table but it means not being tokenistic in our actions.

Who gets stuck in the middle?

Who are people with talent get stuck in middle management?

Are they the ones who are more empathic and not hard-hitting enough? Could we be missing an asset to the leadership team? I have shown with colleagues that we see higher rates of empathy for example in people with Developmental Coordination Disorder ( also known as Dyspraxia). Who has told you they have DCD in your leadership teams?

One article by Kasey Champion interestingly challenges the framing of: ‘you cannot be what you cannot see”. One point made in this article was that representation matters and it makes it easier for those that come next if we make space for them now. But importantly challenges tokenistic actions. I have seen this where one person becomes the ‘poster-boy/person’ for neurodiversity. You see the story and the organisation says to themselves and others they embrace diversity.. but in reality, carries on with the rest of the organisation conforming to past patterns of behavior and remaining an exclusive setting.

Neurodiverse leaders listening to all voices

Listening to all members of our teams and ensuring that each person has an opportunity to communicate is important. Otherwise, they have no chance of progressing. The quiet ones in the room can be the ones with great ideas but can be dominated by the louder voices. We need to respect that some people need time to process what has been said and need time to answer. A rapid-fire meeting works wonderfully for some but can be intimidating and close some people down. I know that being 'put on the spot' usually doesn't bring out the best in me. I need time to reflect. It can feel gladiatorial in some ways that if you don't survive competing in this combative style you can't be a leader.

In a previous blog, I also spoke of compassionate leadership.

Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking wrote:

“Society favors a man of actions versus a man of contemplation.”

This means we need to create places for our teams at all levels to be able to voice their views (in the way that works best for them) without fear of repercussion. That means considering accessible ways to do so.

As ?Ernest Hemingway said.

“When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen”.

Skilful listening means also skilful observation. It takes practice to notice everyone in the room.

Knowledge diversity

Amy Edmonson wrote a great book about "Teaming to innovate".Teaming and re-teaming may need to be an actively engaged process that is regularly reviewed in a fast-moving, and uncertain world.

She talks in an article about:

"Cross-boundary teaming, within and across organizations, is an increasingly popular strategy for innovation. In a growing number of cases, teams span organizational boundaries, not just functional ones, to pursue innovation".

Edmondson goes onto say:

"Most people take the norms and values within their own professions, organizations, or industries for granted, sharing largely unquestioned assumptions that can thwart communication across boundaries "

Lack of diverse leadership

Currently across the globe, there remains a lack of diverse leadership at top levels. Do we have to ask why this is this? One article in the Times highlighted the lack of diversity in terms of gender and ethnicity. Power and status can also cause divisions. ( We have certainly seen this with gender pay gaps!)

Barriers to achieving diverse organisations can result in not considering and respecting there are differing opinions, beliefs, values, attitudes as well as our content expertise, background experiences, network ties, and industry experience.

VUCA 1.0

VUCA was first introduced to describe the global multilateral situation after the Cold War. It has been widely used in business management and strategic leadership led by Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus?.

?VUCA 1.0 ?stood for ?

VOLATILITY?is a situation with unstable changes and unexpected challenges that could last for an unknown duration.

UNCERTAINTY?is a situation where there is a lack of predictability, even though the basic cause and effect might be known.

COMPLEXITY?is a situation with countless interlinked variables and factors, with some or all of the information available or predicted, but the sheer scale of it makes it challenging to process.

AMBIGUITY?is a situation where cause and effect are not so clear, there is no prior experience to fall back on, and the management faces an unclear reality or future filled with countless unknowns.

VUCA 2.0

Bill George, a senior fellow at Harvard Business School coined VUCA 2.0 ?because of the global changes that were starting to take place in the past few years and he talks about the need for:

Vision?-is the ability to see through the fog and have a vision ahead for your organisation.

Understanding?-is where leaders first have to truly understand their organisation’s strengths and potential blind spots, in order to pick the best strategies that play to their advantages.

Courage-?is the willingness to be courageous in difficult and in the rapidly changing world of today. Agility and ingenuity may be a survival technique now more than ever.

Adaptability-?is essentially the need for organisations to be flexible to change and fit today’s ever-changing world. We have seen the flip actually happing (and we can't turn back time) to working from home and virtual hiring taking place in months instead of taking years of deliberation.

VUCA 3.0 and neuroinclusion

Let's look at VUCA 3.0 as an opportunity not to turn the clock back but ensure a more equitable, inclusive, and celebrate the diversity of our world to build back better and create the leaders of tomorrow.

Vision – seeing the world from diverse minds and perspectives. We need this to drive new solutions and to see from different perspectives.

Understanding – empathy, taking different viewpoints and working together will be important than ever. Moving from active listening to active questioning. We need to not ask Why but instead ask What, Who, When, Where, How — focusing on answers that trigger discussion and curiosity and problem solving.

Courage – many neurodivergent people have had to become resilient and been courageous to be who they are and stand for what they believe in. This requires creating settings where people feel safe enough to offer their ideas.

Adaptable – Neurodivergent people have to constantly adapt to a neurotypical world.. perhaps we can learn a lot from experiences of what has helped people to thrive or not!

Good leaders of today and in the future

Goodall and Baker’s Theory of Expert Leadership provides a theoretical basis for the relationship between leaders who have outstanding expertise in the core business of their organisation.

The spiky neurodivergent profile if tapped into can certainly provide deep skills that are needed in the C-suite of tomorrow.Simon Sinek talks about how great leaders know about the 'why' they run their organisations and how they believe in what they do. The passion about the work they do can drive growth.

Ari Wallach a futurist talks about Telos thinking. Telos comes from Greek, and it means “ultimate aim” or “ultimate purpose.” "This entails asking yourself one question: “To what end?” As we try to solve a particular problem, we also should think about what will come after we solve it.

Physicist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn, who created the term “paradigm shift,” said, “People don’t shift unless they have a vision of what it is they’re shifting to.”

That was the power of what Martin Luther King, Jr., did in his “I Have a Dream” speech. He went through the list of contemporary problems and issues, but then he gave a strong understanding of what his dream was and what would come after."

Growing leaders

When considering how we grow our future leaders, we need to create a system that has doors are open for all to enter and not only those who can crack the code. This includes both people with and without formal diagnoses of conditions associated with neurodivergent traits and also for those who don’t want to be labeled or choose not to want to share this information. Don't assume everyone knows they are neurodivergent and tell you what they need for support. Organisations need to move to design universally and not try to retrofit each time.

Are you a neurodivergent leader? What has/have been YOUR X factor(s)?

·?????Did you have a mentor or ally that supported you along the way? When did this happen?

·?????Do you work in a team with a shared purpose that embraces different views and ensures everyone has a ‘voice’ including the quieter ones?

·?????Was/is family support an important factor in your development and feeling safe to take risks?

·?????Has success been related to having adjustments/support put in place and in a timely manner?

·?????Are you an entrepreneur and have you had varying successes ( and failures) and you learned from this?

·?????What strengths do you think have helped you the most? What new skills have you had to learn?

·?????Are you a leap-frogger and have jumped up the leadership pathway and if so, how did that happen?

(Share your stories)

Measure progress... but plan and consider what you measure

Bill Gates said:

" I have been struck again and again by how important measurement is to improving the human condition."

Think about what you are measuring and if it has any real meaning. If you focus this year too much on metrics without meaning (e.g., how many people are disabled/have dyslexia for example) in order to showcase these numbers you may think your job is done.

Our processes (which are usually well-meaning) may not actually be opening the door to new talents, new ideas, new ways of thinking.

What do you think we can do more of or better to be able to create truly neurodiverse leadership?

References:

Diverse, Ethical, Collaborativenbsp;Leadershipnbsp;Through Revitalized Cultural Archetype: The Mary Alternative.Rothausen, Teresa J.Dordrecht: Springer NetherlandsJournal of business ethics, 2023-10, Vol.187 (3), p.627-644.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeroenkraaijenbrink/2018/12/19/what-does-vuca-really-mean/

https://hbr.org/2023/09/how-to-be-a-better-leader-amid-volatility-uncertainty-complexity-and-ambiguity?utm_medium=paidsearch&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=intlcontent_leadership&utm_term=Non-Brand&tpcc=intlcontent_leadership&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwwO20BhCJARIsAAnTIVQUvkNNmUkNiY3MAmMM_hyTaFUY-bUm2Q18uXIRH7508VzpG1o9e1QaAuaqEALw_wcB

Blog Author

I am Amanda Kirby, CEO of Do-IT Solutions a tech-for-good company that delivers consultancy and guidance, consultancy, training and web-based screening tools that have helped 10s of 1000s of people.

Contact us and we can discuss how we can help.

We strive to deliver person-centered solutions relating to neurodiversity and wellbeing.I am a mixed bag of experiences and skills and have 25+ years of working in the field of neurodiversity.

I am a medical doctor, Professor, and have a Ph.D. in the field of neurodiversity; most important of all I am a parent and grandparent to neurodivergent wonderful kids and am neurodivergent myself.

I have written 10 books so far.Theo Smith and I wrote the UK award-winning book?Neurodiversity at Work Drive Innovation, Performance, and Productivity with a Neurodiverse Workforce. My 11th book came out in 2023 Neurodiversity and Education. Theo and I are writing a new book this year about parenting and neurodiversity!