Neurodiversity Isn’t a ‘Nice to Have’ - It’s a Competitive Advantage.

Now, my own understanding of neurodiversity hasn't happened overnight.

I've been lucky and blessed enough to work with some neurodivergent people in my own team who are constantly teaching me, and I'm still learning today.

But if I look back at my school days, I remember that neurodiversity wasn't even in our vocabulary.

There was limited to no understanding of it, and I remember a group of kids being put into a separate room because they thought differently to everybody else in the room, and they were often labeled as difficult or not working hard enough, and I think that's pretty sad.

I think that that will have really affected their performance and how they saw themselves and how they saw the world around them.

So for me, this is something that I'm really quite passionate about.

I have seen in my own company how amazing it has been to let people free, to make them feel like they don't have to mask themselves and really get the full potential out of them because I tell you now, they teach me so much.

They think of things in a different way to the way I do, and that brings so much value to our business and to me.

I'm constantly learning.

If we look at where we are today, things look better.

You know, there is more awareness.

These words are in our vocabulary.

We do understand them better, and there are HR policies out there designed to help bringing in more neurodiversity into organizations.

But the question I have is, whilst there is more awareness and there are HR policies, has leadership changed? Have systems changed to really support those people in organizations that work differently, that have different requirements in order to get the best potential out of them? As a leader in my company, this is something I'm really conscious of.

I have absolutely been constantly looking at ways to adapt my style to support the individuals in my team.

I have people that have got ADHD that, you know-- I mean, it's incredible.

They look at problems completely differently.

They hyper-focus on specific things and identify trends that I wouldn't even think to identify.

I have had people in the team that have had autism.

I have had people in the team that have got dyscalculia or dyslexia, and for each one of those, they have some absolute superpowers, and it's just a matter of looking at ways in which I can adapt or support systems that I can put in place to make sure that they feel supported, and they don't feel anxious every time they're given something that perhaps just isn't their way of working.

Adapting my leadership style has never been a compromise or a limitation.

It's actually helped me develop.

And I can tell you now, it's meant that my team have been able to flourish, but in return, they are helping me flourish.

They are teaching me.

I guess the lesson that many organizations haven't yet learnt is that having a neurodiverse team isn't just something that looks different on an org structure.