Seek the good of others

Colleagues sometimes ask me if they should tell their manager and colleagues about the fact that they’re autistic. I tend to say that if you’re going to be open you should be aware in advance that while most people’s response will be positive, not everyone’s will be. Some people will regard you as weird, scary or mentally ill (not even slightly true that last one) if you’re autistic. That’s unfortunate but it’s how the world is at present. But the world won’t change unless more people are open. The only way to de-stigmatise autism is to get society used to it – for it to become boring, and “meh”.

We’re beginning to get more openly autistic public figures, but we need them from all areas of life too. 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 opens up a world of things to them that they hadn’t thought were possible.

I 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?

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.

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. To help the leaders who are starting their careers now, we autistic leaders need to be prepared to show ourselves, if our personal circumstances permit it. I see that as part of servant leadership, which seems a very timely subject for the Easter season.

This post has been brought to you by the Collect for the Third Sunday of Easter:

Risen Christ, for whom no door is locked, no entrance barred: open the doors of our hearts, that we may seek the good of others and walk the joyful road of sacrifice and peace, to the praise of God the Father. Amen

PS If you’re in the UK and autistic you will almost certainly jump out of your skin today at 3pm today, Sunday 23 April when they test the National Emergency Alert by sending a message to everyone’s mobile phone. It’ll probably be loud. Details here.