Organisations are coming to recognise what makes a neurodiverse employee different can give them a competitive edge. That is a tendency to be very focused, an enthusiasm for efficiency, excellent problem solving skills and a different way of looking at things which can offer new insights.
The negative stereotype is of a Gike or Nerd someone on the autism spectrum who is socially uncomfortable, finds it difficult to relate to people, can’t read people very well but has exceptional technical skills in their chosen feel. Which is why they are often found in soft wear development or finance. But not in leadership positions.
True such an individual may be in a supervisory or first line management post where their technical knowledge and skills are more important than a perceived lack of people skills. However the increased emphasis on companionate management and leaders who demonstrate Emotional Intelligence has led to the assumption that such individuals don’t make good leaders.
Despite this recognition of the importance of EI and people management skills in leadership posts their is still plenty of employee feedback that organisations continue to appoint over confident, opinionated individuals with little insight into how their behaviour affects others into senior management posts. So you might have thought that the directness, the let’s cut through the crap bluntness characteristic of those with exceptional skills and superior knowledge would make the individual a shoein for a senior management post. Not so.
