There are two vital things I learned (among others) in my year working for Autistica, the UK’s leading autism research charity. First, ‘neurodiversity’ should be used as a blanket term for all of us. Second is that I’m non-autistic neurodivergent.
Recognising, embracing and taking advantage of neurodiversity should be a fundamental part of any organisation’s people strategy. We all bring different things to the table. Full stop.
Being diagnosed as bipolar was an important step for me. Recognising how our brains work and how that affects our personal and professional lives makes an enormous difference.
It also helped me put more effort into understanding how I create the right conditions for me to thrive and do my best work.
That means trying to put meetings into the afternoon because I do my most focused work in the mornings.
It means being confident enough to ask to do audio-only Teams calls when I’m not feeling up to being on camera.
It means being comfortable enough that I can step away from my desk when I need to after those kind of meetings, even if that means telling someone I’ll be late for the next meeting.
It means that my mind is more open to the best way for me to succeed and, at the same time, more open to exploring and accepting how other people’s brains work, too. But more on that tomorrow.
This post first appeared on my Linkedin profile.