Showing the way

You may well have resolved to do many exciting things in 2023 – in which case good for you. Suppose you’ve resolved to do a sky dive for charity – as some people do. When it comes to it: what gives you the confidence to actually jump out of the plane? Is it the knowledge of the physics of how the parachute works, the intellectual certainty that you’re deeply unlikely to die doing something that’s become almost common place, or the sight of someone else jumping out successfully first? I’ll bet it’s more seeing someone lead the way (and be fine) than it is the intellectual rationalisation. There’s a world of difference between knowing something’s possible and actually seeing it happen. That could be skydiving or achieving a leadership role or anything intimidating. It makes the world of difference to see someone do what you’re going to do, and particularly to know that they had the same sort of life experiences and difficulties you have.

For these reasons it’s very symbolic when someone from an under-represented group achieves high office – having Rishi Sunak as the first British-Asian UK prime minister may be empowering to other British Asians, for example. Seeing Barack Obama become the first African-American UK president was a very important moment for many people of colour. On a smaller scale, seeing people with various disabilities compete successfully on Strictly Come Dancing makes more things feel possible for disabled people.

So – what have we got in the way of autistic role models? Clearly there are some very important big names – people like Chris Packham, Christine McGuinness, Melanie Sykes, and Anne Hegerty are all well known in UK popular culture. It’s recently been a joy to see Fern Brady on Taskmaster being both autistic and very funny. Many autistic authors are sharing their experiences – from people like Holly Smale who’ve written hugely successfully for young adults, to Pete Wharmby‘s recent ground-breaking memoir about autistic special interests. What there aren’t so many of though is openly autistic role models in business, management and leadership. I happen to know quite a few UK civil servants who are autistic, but the senior ones in particular tend not to want to be open about their diagnosis for fear of what people will think of them. “I don’t mind telling you, but I don’t want my stakeholders to find out” is something I’ve heard more than once.

We need those role models and visible autistic leaders, though. Having them is an important part of making autism more normalised in the world of work. It’s also really empowering for more junior autistic staff to know that autistic seniors exist – I know that because they tell me. More than one autistic colleague has told me that knowing at least one autistic senior civil servant exists (yours truly) opens up a world of things to them that they hadn’t thought were possible. I also remember that being a newly-diagnosed autistic with no role models, as I was five years ago, was a very lonely thing and made me feel that my career progression was over. If I couldn’t see any autistic seniors, that must have been because it wasn’t possible to be an autistic senior?

In the last few years that has started to change, but there’s more to do. “Autism” is not and must not be a dirty word. It is becoming a normal thing to have autistic employees, managers and leaders. We need to be boring, unremarkable and “meh” if we’re to have true equality. On 1 January I talked about the need for reform (the vision) and for the last two days steps of a Plan for Reform. They were: Step 1: Get everyone to realise how common autism is; and Step 2: Get the management basics right.

Step 3: Have visible senior autistic role models might be the most important of all, though.

It’s all very well knowing that the world has a great many autistics in it, but if none of them appear to be succeeding in your profession, you’re not going to see success as a possibility. It’s really important that the management basics are right for everyone – and autistic people more than most – but that’s something that should go without saying. But seeing people like you in positions of power, influence and success – that’s invaluable for raising ambition and challenging stereotypes of failure. If you can see people like you succeeding, that challenges any internal narrative that you’re doomed to be a failure.

So my ask of you for 2023, if you’re an autistic person who has kept quiet about their diagnosis for fear of the stigma and prejudice, is to check in with that decision. If you don’t feel you can or should be open, or if that’s not what’s right for you right now, then of course I completely respect that. If you don’t look after yourself, you can’t help anyone else. But if you’ve been mulling over whether to be a bit more open, now might be the time. You could share myth-busting content on your social media, or amplify the voices of autistics, or even (if you wanted to) begin to talk a bit more about your own experiences. It’s not risk free – you will get judged for your autism sometimes – but more people beginning to open up is part of the journey towards society understanding and accepting us all. Some of us have tried jumping into the sky dive of openness about autism (yes – clumsy link back to the beginning of this post – I know – forgive me) and it can certainly be exhilarating as well as terrifying. Perhaps seeing the increasing number of role models will empower others to join us?

I’ve been doing posts from Advent to Epiphany based on Christian commemorations of the days but there doesn’t appear to be one in the Anglican Church on 4 January. I looked up 4 January on Wikipedia though, and found a rather wonderful anniversary – on this day in 1853 Solomon Northrup (who told his life history in Twelve Years a Slave) regained his freedom. To know that even one person was liberated from such atrocities on this day is encouraging, and the good he did by telling his story incalculable. As we’re still in the twelve days of Christmas I shall venture just the shortest, but hopefully apt, Bible quote to end on:

The truth shall set you free.

John 8:32