As a neurodivergent leader, I’m used to navigating systems that were not built with my brain in mind. However, Work Friend’s response reminded me: Empathy is a necessary but insufficient condition for true inclusion. To build inclusive spaces, we must commit to intentional design. And for organizations struggling with talent retention and innovation, how we develop neurodiverse leadership talent may be an untapped competitive edge.
Too often, leadership development and coaching rely on unspoken norms: fast processing, abstract strategy and assumptions about emotional expression and interpersonal boundaries. Coaching jumps to “mindset” before clarifying observable behaviors. For neurodivergent professionals like myself, this is disorienting, and it contributes to the neurodivergent glass ceiling by creating barriers to advancement that have nothing to do with our leadership capacity.
We can do better. And Universal Design for Learning, a framework grounded in cognitive neuroscience, gives us a path forward.
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