Practical ideas for neurodivergent inclusion at work

What leaders miss about psychological safety for neurodivergent employees. Psychological safety means being able to speak up, ask questions and challenge ideas without fear. But what if you can do all that and still feel you have to hide parts of yourself to fit in? For many autistic, ADHD and otherwise neurodivergent employees, that’s the reality. You can speak up in a meeting and still feel unsafe working in the way that works for you. The hidden cost of fitting in Workplac

Most workplaces handle neurodivergence the same way. Someone struggles, they work up the courage to say something, and then the organisation starts a process. There's a form, a conversation, maybe a report from a clinician, and eventually an adjustment. By then the person has usually been struggling for months. Sometimes they've already left. The problem with fixing things after the fact Retrofitted adjustment puts the burden on the person who can least afford it. They have t

A UK employment tribunal has just put a £19,141 price tag on ignoring a simple workplace adjustment. Donna Vale, a former victim and witness care officer with Avon and Somerset Police, was awarded £19,141.45, roughly AUD $36,000, after her employer failed to provide noise-cancelling headphones she had asked for, and after her manager questioned whether her ADHD diagnosis was even real. If you lead teams in Australia, this case is not a UK curiosity. It is a preview. The probl

I see the same tension from both sides of the coaching room, almost every week. On one side, there is an autistic or ADHD professional who feels like the goalposts keep moving. Their manager seems overly critical, feedback feels like a moving target rather than useful direction, and they start to brace for every one-to-one. On the other side is a leader who has managed people successfully for fifteen or twenty years. They built a management style that worked. It got them prom

"My door is always open." It's one of the most common things a leader can say. It's meant to signal approachability, trust, no barriers to access. And for a lot of people, it works exactly as intended. But an open door doesn't automatically mean everyone feels able to walk through it. For some employees, it's a genuine obstacle, and most leaders have no idea it's happening. The assumption behind it The logic feels sound: if I'm available, people will come to me. Accessibility

We tell leaders to give more feedback. Check in more. Coach in the moment. Don't let things go unsaid. And mostly, that's good advice. But somewhere along the way, we stopped questioning whether more feedback was always better feedback. And that's where it starts to break down. The assumption Frequent check-ins feel like support. If you're commenting often, correcting quickly, and recognising progress promptly, you're engaged. You're present. You care. Most leadership advice