‘We need more role models’: why now is the time for neurodiverse leaders to speak out

From a young age, Char­lotte Valeur was aware she was dif­fer­ent from oth­er chil­dren. “I was very qui­et and vir­tu­al­ly didn’t speak until I was about 12,” she recalls. “I enjoyed writ­ing down the num­ber plates of cars in books because I liked the way the rows of num­bers looked on the paper.”

Although doc­tors today may have quick­ly deter­mined Valeur was autis­tic, she wasn’t med­ical­ly diag­nosed until she was 51 and only decid­ed to reveal her con­di­tion pub­licly last year, while chair of the Insti­tute of Direc­tors.

“It was obvi­ous­ly a bit scary because you nev­er know how peo­ple are going to react and how peo­ple’s bias­es might play out,” the for­mer invest­ment banker says. “But sub­se­quent­ly, hun­dreds of peo­ple con­tact­ed me, includ­ing oth­er busi­ness direc­tors, to say they are also neu­ro­di­ver­gent but did­n’t have the courage to talk about it pub­licly.”

In a bid to encour­age more busi­ness lead­ers to speak open­ly about the sub­ject, Valeur has found­ed the Insti­tute of Neu­ro­di­ver­si­ty (IoN). She hopes that the insti­tute can help pro­vide the sup­port that she felt was lack­ing when she was diag­nosed with autism as an adult.

She says: “When I realised I was autis­tic there was no organ­i­sa­tion to turn to as every­thing is focused on chil­dren. It’s as if peo­ple think you’re only neu­ro­di­verse when you’re a child, and then you grow out of it.”

As a cham­pi­on of board diver­si­ty — Valeur found­ed the social fran­chise Board Appren­tice in order to improve access for under­rep­re­sent­ed groups — one of the main objec­tives of IoN will be to lob­by indus­try to improve rep­re­sen­ta­tion and inclu­sion. But it will also reach out to wider soci­ety to devel­op aware­ness and under­stand­ing.

To this end, Valeur hopes that IoN can be a net­work for the neu­ro­di­verse – a term which refers to peo­ple with con­di­tions that cause vari­a­tions in brain func­tion and behav­iour­al traits. Neu­ro­di­verse con­di­tions include dys­prax­ia, dyslex­ia, Tourette’s syn­drome, atten­tion deficit hyper­ac­tiv­i­ty dis­or­der (ADHD) and Asperger’s Syn­drome.

“I felt we were miss­ing a col­lec­tive voice for neu­ro­di­verse peo­ple and our allies to try and push the agen­da for­ward,” she says. “When you come togeth­er it cre­ates more of a pow­er­ful coali­tion that can push for change.”

Neurodiversity in the workplace 

Despite receiv­ing many sup­port­ive mes­sages since open­ing up about her autism, Valeur con­tin­ued to expe­ri­ence inci­dences of dis­crim­i­na­tion in the work­place. On one occa­sion, while being inter­viewed for a board posi­tion, she was asked: “How do you deal with empa­thy?”

“I don’t think this is a ques­tion any­one ever gets asked in an inter­view, “ Valeur says. “My answer was just that I deal with it very well but I could have called it out.“

She was­n’t offered the posi­tion, with the rea­son giv­en that she “scared the life out of the oth­er board mem­bers“. “I thought, ‘What does that even mean?’ But I think it’s the hon­esty and the direct­ness that made them feel so uncom­fort­able,” she adds.

Valuer’s expe­ri­ences are not uncom­mon. Recent figures from the Office for Nation­al Sta­tis­tics show that only 22% of peo­ple with autism in the UK are cur­rent­ly in full- or part-time work and insti­tu­tion­al dis­crim­i­na­tion is con­sid­ered a sig­nif­i­cant con­trib­u­tor. 

“Many busi­ness­es are still unsure how to incor­po­rate neu­ro­di­ver­gent indi­vid­u­als in the work­place,” Valeur says. “If you sim­ply hire with­out any inclu­sion behind it, it rarely works. Sim­i­lar­ly if employ­ers don’t embrace dif­fer­ences, it becomes very dif­fi­cult. You have to be will­ing to move away from a set cul­ture.”

This is one area where Valeur hopes IoN can make a dif­fer­ence. Although the insti­tute will help those with neu­ro­di­verse con­di­tions through­out soci­ety – with plans to cam­paign for changes to the edu­ca­tion and jus­tice sys­tems – pro­vid­ing sup­port for neu­ro­di­ver­gent peo­ple in their pro­fes­sion­al lives will be a key focus. 

Jacobs Engi­neer­ing is among the found­ing cor­po­rate mem­bers of IoN and there are a grow­ing num­ber of organ­i­sa­tions look­ing to improve their hir­ing prac­tices in this area. These include, Microsoft, IBM, SAP and JP Mor­gan, with some even describ­ing it as a com­pet­i­tive advan­tage. 

“Busi­ness­es are start­ing to recog­nise the tal­ent we can bring to the table,” Valeur says. “But it’s not just enough to hire neu­ro­di­ver­gent indi­vid­u­als, there needs to be some kind of frame­work around how they han­dle dif­fer­ences in the work­place and we [IoN] would like to help busi­ness­es do that.”

Driving inclusion

Valeur advis­es that any busi­ness look­ing to hire neu­ro­di­verse employ­ees should set up an employ­ee resource group and “inclu­sion agents” to help indi­vid­u­als set­tle in and offer sup­port. How­ev­er, she is keen to stress that any adjust­ments to employ­ee well­be­ing and inclu­sion should be made through­out organ­i­sa­tions and can often pro­vide pro­duc­tiv­i­ty ben­e­fits for the entire busi­ness.

“I’m not look­ing for neu­ro­di­ver­gent indi­vid­u­als to be treat­ed sep­a­rate­ly from so-called neu­rotyp­i­cals, we need to be treat­ed in a way that’s inclu­sive for all,” she says. 

Improv­ing aware­ness at the top of organ­i­sa­tions will also be impor­tant for dri­ving change. Valeur believes there are many oth­ers in her posi­tion who either aren’t aware of their neu­ro­di­ver­si­ty or are too afraid to come for­ward and speak about it pub­licly.

“Once you’ve climbed the very greasy cor­po­rate lad­der, then you can become con­cerned about los­ing the gains you’ve made,” Valeur adds. “It was a con­cern for me when I opened up about it.

“But it’s some­thing I’d like to see more of my peers to do. We need more senior exec­u­tives to be role mod­els and show courage, to help lead the way.”