Management of Neurodiverse Employees

Glen Ruane, Manager Campus Technology at Murdoch University

Leading with Empathy

Covid-19 undoubtedly has wrought many changes throughout global society, from the proliferation of working from home and its enabling technologies to exposing the paper thin contingencies that global supply chains operate on, one particularly unexpected area has been the increasing general consciousness of and caring for our own psychological situation and the psychological state of those we interact with on a daily basis. The mass embrasure of remote work has at once shortened the distance between leaders and employees while depersonalizing further our methods of communication.

The common axiom that non-verbal and postural communication making up the bulk of information transmission in interpersonal communications has, for me in particular, been highlighted, confounded, exacerbated by these post Covid-19 trend accelerations. I have found it particularly relevant when dealing with my reports who live with one, or more, neurodiversity challenges.  Remote work, particularly the degree of control over social or interpersonal interactions given to workers greatly benefits members of my team that struggle with such things, however it presents challenges in connecting with, leading, managing and developing these people, and that, I have found is the most important fact in building a successful team in the challenging labour environments post Covid. In the end, regardless of status, identification, and diagnosis or otherwise the people in my team are just that, people.

“I have identified open communication, honest communication and most importantly complete communication, verbal, nonverbal, postural an otherwise, the key to managing and leading my people, particularly those with neurodiversity.”

People as people has been my motto for 2024, and through this mantra in my one to ones with my people I’ve sought to do all the things a good leader can do for the people they lead. In particular empathising with the challenges my people face, whether they come from life circumstances, medical circumstances, psychological situations or any other trial and tribulation that life and living throws in their way. My people, at the core of their experience, have wanted, and some undoubtedly would say needed, three key concepts and through enabling them to engage with these ideas, internalize them, and leverage their own weaknesses and strengths in pursuing these ideas burnout has decreased, productivity has increased and most importantly for me my people are excited at the idea of coming into work and contributing to an enterprise that changes people’s lives.

Foremostly, autonomy is essential, particularly for neurodiverse workers. Their manager, their leader, instructor or otherwise will never know the depth and extent of the working of their worker’s mind. Imposing an alien to them pattern of work, thought or otherwise only invited a Sisyphean power struggle against the fundamental nature of the worker. All of which can neatly be side stepped by positioning yourself beside your worker and pointing to the top of the hill and asking them “This stone needs to be at the top of this hill, how do we get this stone up there?” and genuinely listening to your worker when they answer, they will speak to their strengths and minimise their weaknesses, unless of course they believe that the task you have laid before them is impossible. Inviting them to engage with their experience, excellence and autonomy and propose the “How” of achieving the goal you share starts the journey towards trust.

Whenever I onboard a new hire, there are always two questions I ask them in our first one to one. “What do you want your next job to be?” and “I want you to understand that I don’t want to micromanage you, I want to trust you to do the job you have been hired for. Does that make sense?” Operating from a place of trust, inviting your workers to invest in that relationship via the application of their autonomy through their strengths experience, and excellence, then standing beside them when facing down goals, deadlines and deliverables creates a relationship of confidence and trust and based upon that trust you as the leader can begin to work with your worker on their weaknesses. I want to stress that the goal should never be to eliminate weaknesses, that is just adding another Sisyphean rock to everything else you will be juggling.  Weaknesses can be leveraged to deliver outcomes just as effectively as strengths can and in particular with neurodiverse employees leading and inviting them to apply the things that challenge them as tools in their problem solving arsenal rather than shackles or chains allows you as a leader to make full use of their particular skillsets as affected, amplified or otherwise by their psychological state.

Take for example, one of my people who under my watch received a late diagnosis of Autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (AuDHD in common internet parlance). They had always been strong willed and wielding a sharp sense of justice with a lens of hyperfocus that allowed them to excel in problem solving. However between this sense of justice and their overactive internal monologue they regularly formed sets of expectations of themselves and their coworkers that created conflict in the workplace. I had a number of conversations with them arising from their concern that other team members were not performing up to their expectations and after the third such conversation I was able to hit the lynchpin, I asked them “Have you communicated these expectations to your coworkers?”
The answer was no, of course. There existed in this employee the fundamental assumption that their standards of and for work were universal and of course, this set them up for failure in their relationships with their coworkers. After all, how can someone at all consider a set of expectations they have not been informed about and exist exclusively in the mind of their coworker. The answer then, and thirdly in my trio of ideas is transparency. Decisions, revelations, expectations, ideas and any other fruit of consciousness left uncommunicated, left obfuscated or opaque are worse than useless inside a team setting, the inequality of information breeds conflict and suffering. Thus, transparency in decision making, in expectations and in the exercise of autonomy and as a basis for trust becomes paramount.

Open communication, honest communication and most importantly complete communication, verbal, nonverbal, postural an otherwise I have found is the key to managing and leading my people, particularly those with neurodiversity. Creating an environment where ideas, even if irreverent or mildly inappropriate, where honest thought and expression become the basis for understanding not only benefits an employee in terms of mental health and burnout, but benefits the employer by building trust, loyalty and the oft surprising capability of people who diverge from the average.