A question from a manager
Our recent webinar, When Feedback Feels Bigger: ADHD and Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria at Work, explored how feedback can carry greater emotional significance for some neurodivergent individuals.
One question from a manager who attended was: "How can we ensure feedback is constructive, yet sensitive to the different ways individuals may experience it?"
It's a useful question, and one that goes beyond the individual. It gets to the heart of a wider challenge for organisations: how do we manage performance effectively while recognising that employees may experience and respond to the workplace differently?
Neuroinclusion doesn't mean lowering expectations
It's important to recognise that neuroinclusive performance management does not mean lowering expectations or avoiding difficult conversations. It means thinking about the conditions that enable someone to understand what's expected, make use of feedback and perform at their best.
That could mean:
- Reducing ambiguity by making expectations and feedback clear and specific.
- Understanding the individual, including how they prefer to communicate and receive feedback.
- Considering barriers in the environment, role or way work is structured that may be affecting performance.
- Allowing time to process while keeping expectations and next steps clear.
Better conversations, not avoided ones
The important point is that neuroinclusion and effective performance management aren't competing priorities. Understanding someone's individual experience can help managers have better performance conversations, not avoid them.
Perhaps the question isn't simply, "Have I given feedback?" but "Have I created the conditions that enable this person to receive, process and apply it?"
Building neuroinclusive line management
If you'd like to continue building your knowledge of neuroinclusive line management, consider joining our Neurodiversity Awareness for Line Managers Open Programme.