On Authentic Leadership, Neurodivergence, HR and the Human Work

Let’s talk about hearts, minds, impression management in our public persona and authentic leadership, personal branding, social media and neurodivergence. Oh and about Human Debt and the Human Work we need and how to help HR help us all, while we’re at it. All the things.

Today’s article is more of a re-teaming one. The type that would have been a back-from-vacation one in September in the old world. I haven’t been on vacation or away, I’ve just launched two new podcasts and this meant I was hyper-focused on finding the best ways for my team to automate some actions, we have had to do big brand Come-to-Jesus(es) and think big ideas and the only way I could sustainably do that was by giving our workflows more grace than usual and the newsletter would have been a push too far hence the (blessed for some!) silence. That’s part of the beauty of WFAA (working from anywhere anytime) in a start-up - we get to find ways that everyone in the team can follow their own rhythm and give back, we obsess with doing so in structured ways we could distil the knowledge to pass to other teams.

For those of us who have been working remotely for years before the pandemic, in particular, if that remote work was entrepreneurial and you happen to also be neurodiverse, we had to quickly comprehend effective time management from anywhere. Not only as an exercise in autonomy and adulting but also because we all came equipped with a host of arguably maladaptive mechanisms towards our work that allowed us to overcome negative thought patterns or even debilitating mental health challenges that we had to repackage and communicate. Whether we’ve put a name to it or not, advocating for yourself so that work fits neatly into your productivity spurs or inspiration waves, is an act of self-awareness and self-compassion and it’s something the ADHD community calls “radical acceptance” and for many of us, not having that flexibility and empathy in place may well mean we can’t keep the job.

We understand how we function and instead of trying to mask more efficiently to try and fit in with the neurotypical world, we make allowances for ourselves where we can and we -sometimes but not enough!- ask for our right to function as our brains allow and contribute when they’re at their best. (This is incidentally a supremely juicy D&I topic as the more I research the less I see in terms of genuine “How do we cater to AuADHD valuable humans?” workplace policies I find so you can expect I’ll be vociferous about it from my platforms.)

While I think we ought to create a Neurodivergence FTW community where we as relatively accomplished professionals -we would have to have a LinkedIn profile and read this- will describe “How I survived and thrived in a Neurotypical workplace” so we can start documenting the human experience on the topic. I too should describe out-of-the-box hacks or strategies that worked for neurospicy me, but I don’t expect them to work for others because everyone’s work circumstances, pressures and fears are so immensely different so instead, I always try and acknowledge my privilege of being in charge of my own schedule. So yes, granted when you “work for the man as just a cog” it’s harder but the demands of what you need to work at your best should still be put forward which is partly why I insist that every employee should be empowered, encouraged and supported to build a personal brand too.