You’re good at what you do. You know how to do your job and can get on and do it to a high standard. The problem isn’t with the work itself, it’s with everything around it. The layers of interaction needed before you can just get on with it. Whether it’s asking someone for information you need to get started, locking down the stakeholder demands or even iterating with feedback, there are very few jobs in this day and age where we can just avoid the peopling demands.

You’ve been promoted as recognition of your skills. You’re highly competent, collaborative and have all the qualities that mean you’re more than capable of succeeding in your new, more senior role. And yet, while on paper you should be thriving, the reality looks a little different. 

As a leader in your area, you’ve learned to put work into relationship navigation. You’ve become adept at building connections, whether that’s through helping others out, being genuinely competent at what you do or purposeful networking to expand your sphere of influence. You’re generally regarded as someone who can get things done and the relationships you’ve built have been a necessary part of that success. So why can’t you get it right with this one person?

When your only options are autistic support that doesn’t meet your level of career or neurotypical leadership training that ignores your autism completely, no wonder you feel stuck and like you’re the only one with these challenges. So in this post we’re going to talk about four challenges autistic leaders face and what to do about them.

This is a question I get asked regularly with my clients. Many are diagnosed later in life and masking has become their normal. It’s a fundamental component to how they’ve managed to build their career so far and whether to even mention their neurodivergence at work is an open question, let alone being their full authentic self. 

You’ve been given the feedback that you’re very direct and you’re not sure whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. You probably are inclined to interpret it as good. It cuts through the noise and gets people the answers they need quickly, saving everyone time, particularly when things are going wrong. 

At the same time, you’re not quite sure that’s what the person meant. And there have been moments in meetings where the room has gone silent at your directness, rather than appreciative. Maybe the word “defensiveness” has even been used. 

Are you guilty of dismissing any achievements or accolades as unimportant or mediocre?

In this post we’ll explore why this is so common for neurodivergent and twice exceptional leaders and look at some strategies for overcoming it.

Do you put off making decisions? Feel like you need to collect every single piece of information and evaluate every possible option before choosing? Do you second guess yourself or just worry that you need to combat your internal impulsivity?

Does all of this drain your energy far too much?

Today, I’m going to give you a simple strategy to stop decision paralysis from undermining your career. 

You likely clicked on this post because you’ve been called overly self-critical. You’ve been told you’re too hard on yourself, that you’re humble, that you don’t give yourself enough credit. You’re probably an amazing person as well, you’re just not seeing it right now. And if you’re anything like me, you may well be neurodivergent as well. 

Did you know that ADHD is so prevalent in software engineers that there’s a whole subreddit dedicated to ADHD programmers? 

According to the Institute of Engineering and Technology survey, nineteen percent of their volunteer community identified as definitely or possibly neurodivergent. In a Stack Overflow blog from 2023, they point out that there’s even enough of an overlap between people with ADHD and coders that there’s an entire subreddit dedicated to ADHD programmers with over 65,000 members. 

So ADHD is a common presence in software engineering, but what could be causing this love affair between ADHD and programming? Let’s dig in. 

Many neurodivergent professionals don’t plan to become leaders. It often happens by accident. They stumble into it when excelling in their work and earning trust suddenly turns into telling people what to do, often without clear communication that that’s what they’re meant to do, and certainly without instructions of how to do it. 

One thing I’ve learned in my years of coaching is just how powerful being seen is. So when I watched the show Severance I was stunned by just how much it made me feel validated.

Support for ADHD is incredibly lacking. Medication often seems to be the only thing available despite psychosocial treatments being recommended alongside medication for ADHD. So what actually are these psychosocial treatments and are they any good?

There’s a huge body of research out there that says ADHDers just aren’t good at making decisions compared to the general populus. We’re more likely to gamble, to abuse substances, to participate in risky sexual behaviour. In this context it can seem like we’re worse leadership candidates due to our suboptimal decision making but in reality, these generalisations miss a huge amount of nuance and even though on average we might be worse decision makers in some contexts, in others it’s a completely different story. So let’s dive in.

You’re smart, but you don’t always feel like it. You feel things deeply and sometimes you really struggle with impostor syndrome. Above all, you clicked on this post because, quite frankly, the title is incredibly interesting and you’re ready to do some deep thinking. Did I get you?

The amount of times people have told me to “just relax”, when I’m stressed, when my cello technique isn’t correct, all sorts of situations throughout life. I’ve always nodded to them because it sounds like reasonable advice, like the right thing to do in this situation. But really I have a secret: I don’t actually know what relaxing is and have no idea how to do it!!

Simone Biles, Noah Lyles, Michael Phelps, Adam Peatty, Louis Smith, Nicola Adams. What do all these people have in common? If you said Olympic athletes, you’re not wrong but that’s not the answer I’m looking for. What’s that? You guessed it. They all have ADHD.

Have you been told that it’s about time you settled down? That the job changes you’re making will make you unemployable? That you need to pick something and stick to it already or you’ll never get anywhere in life? I’m here today to tell you that all of that is wrong.

With more and more celebrities, business leaders and entrepreneurs revealing ADHD diagnoses in recent years, I’d like to think the days of people thinking ADHD is some terrible life sentence that means you will never be successful at anything are long behind us, but in case not, today I’m going to talk about positive traits that make ADHD adults successful.