You’re likely hearing more and more about Neurodiversity in the workplace - in particular about the benefits it can bring to your organisation. But how do you really unleash those benefits?
Enter Neurodivergent Coaching.
Neurodivergent Coaching is a specific form of coaching that is slightly more structured than traditional methods. It focuses on helping Neurodivergent individuals understand their traits, strengths, sensory profile, and so much more - with the goal of empowering them to learn new ways of doing things that actually work for their brain. This is in contrast to struggling against their Neurodivergent traits by doing things the ‘normal’ way that often just is not going to work.
It can lead to the individual becoming happier, healthier, and more confident. Below are a few areas it will also help you as an employer.
Individual Wellbeing
Many Neurodivergent people also have cPTSD or trauma, particularly when late diagnosed. This often comes from a lifetime of societal messaging telling them there is something wrong with them. Through coaching, they can finally fully understand that there is nothing wrong with them, they simply need to find environments and ways of working that support the way their brain functions.
This can lead to developing self confidence for the first time, and overall improved self worth. As more and more companies are focusing on workplace wellbeing as a priority, tailoring your support in the form of tools like Coaching that are known to have real positive effects in the case of Neurodivergent employees is a must.
Employee relations
Psychological safety is created in teams where individuals are aligned on goals and ways of collaborating, and there is structure and clarity on expectations and responsibilities. If a Neurodivergent individual is masking their needs and traits to accommodate and be accepted by the others in the team, that psychologically safe space will continue to be elusive.
Masking is an incredibly draining coping mechanism which has long term negative consequences on Neurodivergent individuals and almost inevitably leads to burnout in the long run. Yet until a Neurodivergent individual understands their strengths, sensory profile, motivators, goals and ways that they may be self sabotaging - unmasking in the workplace will be all but impossible. Understanding and creating a plan to work with these things rather than fight in vain against them is what Neurodivergent Coaching is all about.
Its important to note here that a holistic approach is necessary for creating psychological safety - coaching alone is not enough because the entire burden of collaborating and communicating across neurotypes cannot successfully lie with an individual Neurodivergent person. Training the team on Neurodiversity is vital in building psychological safety.
Performance
Coaching designed for Neurodivergent people is all about helping them to understand and embrace their unique brain, and therefore create ways of working that actually help them (even if this doesn’t look like what society expects it to). Only once a Neurodivergent person has this understanding can they unlock the incredible strengths that come with their neurotype in a sustainable way.
Before an ADHD person understands how to manage their traits, a common scenario is that they essentially get their work done through hyperfocus. When an ADHD brain is interested in something (often due to novelty or urgency), we find it very difficult to stop until the thing is finished. However, this can also lead us to jumping from emergency to emergency because our brains thrive on it, living our lives in a constant state of high adrenaline - which can also lead to burnout in the long run. It can also leave us to entirely neglect tasks which we are unable to hyperfocus on.
After Coaching, we can recognise these patterns and implement tools to help ourselves work in more sustainable patterns - harnessing the hyperfocus when we need it but also looking after ourselves. This can improve performance dramatically, because we’re able to show up more consistently and allow our other natural ADHD traits (like creativity) to shine through.
If you’re ready to reap these benefits and invest in coaching for your employees, get in touch with New Deal for Neurodiversity.
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