I’m autistic – can I be a leader? (part 2)

If about 1 in 100 people is autistic, and if the UK civil service reflects the population it serves, then there may be enough autistic civil servants to make up a medium-sized department. But what jobs are they doing? They’re probably all doing the filing and/or data entry, right? Well no, some of us are doing leadership roles, but autistic leaders may tend to keep quiet about their autism because of the fear of stigma. Part of the role of a senior civil servant is to be able to advise Ministers and speak authoritatively about government policy with people outside government. To do that we need to be able to have credibility, and many of us fear that if our stakeholders knew about our autism, they might not trust us.

Stereotypes

The stereotypical images of an autistic person in work are doing academic physics (thank you Sheldon Cooper!), working in IT (Moss in The IT Crowd for example) or someone a bit awkward doing something menial. But an autistic leader? What can that be like? I’ve heard civil service leaders described as “on the spectrum” but the term wasn’t being used to indicate a diagnosis but as an insult. The leaders in question were thought to be inhuman, to lack people skills, to be “cold fish” and uncaring, possibly only interested in budgets and spreadsheets. If that’s what you think an autistic leader’s like, no wonder you don’t want one! But really we’re not like that at all, or certainly needn’t be.

[If you’re interested in the stereotypes of autism in the media, some researchers such as Tia Shafee have done work in this area.]

Sensitivity

As an autistic leader I find I’m hyperaware of the emotions of people around me – I’ve learned to pay a lot of attention to small signs about how people are reacting so I tend to spot small changes in behaviour. If someone is quieter than usual, or more distracted, or flushed, I will probably notice it. On the other hand, I don’t necessarily know the right words to use in a new situation, so I fall back on phrases that I’ve learned are usually OK. I also tend to listen as much as possible to give myself as much information as possible about what’s going on, and also because listening to someone can be the most supportive thing you can do.

Vision

In terms of setting a vision, autism may actually be an advantage because my first thought is the desired outcome, rather than how to get there (as I wrote here). Not having preconceptions about the “right” way to get to that outcome can also open up possibilities that others might not have thought of. My observation is that most neurotypical people have a kind of box of what’s normal and acceptable that they generate ideas in, whereas I think of all the ways to achieve the possible outcome and only then screen out the ones that aren’t acceptable. That tends to give me a wider range of options.

The elephant in the room

Probably both the most useful and the most dangerous thing about an autistic leader is that we will say the “unsayable” and name the elephant in the room. That’s a very useful thing when there’s a potential problem or issue that no-one else quite wants to say because it feels uncomfortable. We autistic people are used to uncomfortable and frequently have a strong sense of mission so will just go for it. On the other hand, when everyone has taken a tacit decision not to tackle a particular big issue today then the autistic person is much less likely to have picked that up and may go charging in. We’re also less likely to be able to just let things go (as I touched on here).

An autistic leader

So – what does an autistic leader look like? Obviously we are all different and there are no strict rules about what any “type” of person will do, but if you have an autistic leader you might reasonably expect:

• A clear vision of what you’re trying to achieve
• Sensitivity to the team’s emotions
• Blunt statements of the problems the team is dealing with, including the ones it doesn’t want to mention
• Clumsiness about choice of language some of the time
• A passion for justice and fairness.

That’s not perfect, but it’s probably an OK starting point for a leader isn’t it?