Neurodiversity, Good leadership, and Being Different

I’ve been communicating with a deaf friend more recently, and I also gleaned a few tweets and LinkedIn posts that really resonated with me. All these made me want to capture them in this blog post.

First, about being different. I’ve been fortunate during my formative years to be placed in a school where we were encouraged to be self-directed and excel in whatever we do. But coming over to the USA, I have found that being different in schools and workplaces is not something that is always accepted and supported. Just as Dr. Kaufman wrote, I observed that in some organizations/institutions, leaders want to ‘calibrate, regulate and standardize’ their staff/students and their output. Such environments will not foster creativity and will not allow their staff to flourish; I for one can’t excel in that sort of setting because I wasn’t raised to be a “cookie,” as the tweeter @Mr_Inquisitr wrote. I was raised to be a snowflake.

Update Dec 7, 2021: In that sort of regulatory environment, the assumption is that some staff are doing below average and need to be pulled up to meet the mark. But what about those who perform above-average and do good work? Being held back is highly vexing for them. There needs to be spaces for these high performers to innovate and be trail-blazers.

Kaufman, S. B. [@sbkaufman]. (2021, Nov 25). Funny thing: It’s the kids with the most different minds- who are wired differently, who can’t sit still, who don’t fit in-[Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/sbkaufman/status/1464081669883793409?s=20

Second, I read in LinkedIn about great leadership. He nailed it.

“Great leaders focus on others’ intentions, not their actions alone. Leaders that are able to not get offended so quickly and focus on why people do things they do, really help organizations.”

Krutz, A. (2021, Nov 22). Is Ted Lasso the leader we need? I have watched the seasons of Ted Lasso and find the themes of the show- [LinkedIn post]. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/alexkrutz_ted-lasso-is-reinventing-leadership-and-proving-activity-6869052107996180480-SKRZ

Third, a young deaf friend of mine wrote to tell me how angry she was at being told that she would not be able to work in the field of digital marketing. She was told that oral communication would be a required skill. How? Why? I cannot imagine how someone can say such things to her?

Some of you may be aware that my doctoral dissertation focused on improving access to health care for deaf people. That was some eight years ago. To hear my deaf friend relating such an ignorant comment from the career counselor angers not just her, but me as well.

Come on, world, we need to do better.