We talk a lot to neurodivergent people who aren’t sure what reasonable adjustments to ask for at work, and also to leaders who don’t know where to start with the whole process. It can seem like a really big and daunting thing if you haven’t thought about it before.
You might be thinking … ‘What is reasonable?’ ‘What can I offer?’ And your team member might have good ideas about what they need. Or they could be thinking … ‘What do I need?’ ‘What if I ask for too much…or too little?’
I think that also the fact that there are actual laws about it, can seem a bit scary. We really don’t want to get this stuff wrong as leaders, partly because we like to operate within the law (!) and partly because we care about our staff and want to make work as fulfilling for them as possible.
So, we have a set of rules, and we have your good intentions as a leader (which is a great place to start)!
And, I think it can help if we can just start to simplify this problem a little by saying that these adjustments don’t need to be big at all. A tiny and very cheap adjustment might be just as significant to a neurodivergent person as a large and very expensive one (and a less costly adjustment is more likely to be considered ‘reasonable’ in a legal sense).
I’ll tell you a story to illustrate this.
I went out for dinner with a friend recently. This friend is a person that I know very well, and that knows me very well. She understands neurodiversity and ADHD and how my neurodivergent traits show up. She gets it! And this is mostly because we’ve talked A LOT and she listens. Listening is a whole other topic in itself, and I could write endless blogs on it. It is an extremely valuable leadership skill and one which we often don’t pay enough attention to. Anyway, my friend has listened to me chat about my ADHD over the years and knows how I operate.
We were planning to go to dinner in a new place. She had found this amazing tapas restaurant and wanted me to try it. Now, I love tapas so I was absolutely game. But there was one thing that she did when we were planning the evening that was tiny and cost free but it made a HUGE difference to how I felt about going.
She told me where to park.
She found a car park, near the restaurant which she knew would have space.
And that’s a simple thing, but it meant that I didn’t have to worry about parking in a new place. This friend knows that I like to know where I’m going to park when I’m going to a new place. And she’d been to the restaurant before so she told me. (We had a great time by the way!!)
And that’s a great example of how a simple adjustment can make a huge difference to a neurodivergent person.
But here’s the thing. I was telling this story to a neurotypical person today and they could identify with it too! It turns out that they also can worry about where to park and that they too would have benefitted from knowing where the car park was. And that also happens in the workplace. If you can listen to your neurodivergent team members (and I mean REALLY listen) and find out what they struggle with, and adjust accordingly, it’s extremely likely that you’re actually helping your WHOLE TEAM!
So my advice is this…
1. Listen (properly)
2. Start small
3. Check in and tweak as necessary
If you would like any more information on leadership for neurodivergent staff, or active listening, or employing a coaching mindset as a leader, or anything else that seems relevant, head over to our website at www.thevetproject.co.uk or drop me an email at helen@thevetproject.co.uk
We also have an online CPD course – Neurodiversity Training for Veterinary Leaders. It next runs on 10th March 2025 and you can book on our website www.thevetproject.co.uk/ndleadershiptraining
#neurodiversity #neurodivergence #adhd #reasonableadjustments #leadership #veterinaryleadership #coaching #training #cpd #activelistening #coaching #startsmall
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