Neuroinclusion Before the Request

"Just ask."

In corporate America, it sounds like a low bar. For a lot of neurodivergent professionals, it's an enormous request.

Many of us, especially high performers, have spent years proving one thing: I can do this. To get support, we're suddenly asked to prove the opposite: This is difficult for me.

The fear usually isn't "What if they say no?" It's "What if they never see me the same way again?"

For most of my career, I didn't ask for anything. I built my own workarounds and called it figuring things out. The work got done. The systems I built stayed invisible, to the organizations I worked for and often to me.

So when neuroinclusion is built around the moment someone discloses and asks, the system has already failed most of the people it was meant to serve.

In my new article with Influential Women, I share a four-part framework I call the Before-the-Request Model:

1. Validate. Believe the experience before you demand the proof.

2. Locate. Find the functional need beneath the request.

3. Sort. Know which conversation you're having: a preference, a strategy, ordinary flexibility, or a formal accommodation.

4. Protect. Guard privacy, and guard the person from their label.

One question I'd ask every leader this ADHD Awareness Month: What happened to the last person on your team who asked for something different, and who saw it?

The policy tells employees what the organization says. Behavior tells them what it means.

Validation first. Then the work. That order matters.

Which everyday practice on your team would make a formal request unnecessary?

Links in the first comment.

#leadership #neuroinclusion #adhdawarenessmonth