Total Leader and Coach Solutions Australia Blog

Three years ago I was diagnosed with Adult ADHD.  Since the ADHD diagnosis  I have identified that I also meet the criteria for Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), or previously Asperger Syndrome. Essentially, I am neurodivergent. Neurodivergence is a concept originally attributed to the 1990s sociologist Judy Singer, and is a non-medical umbrella term that describes people with variation in their mental functions, and can include conditions such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or other neurological or developmental conditions such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

I write this article to describe my experience of being neurologically diverse, and in particular how I have ‘masked’ my natural and hard-wired behaviours and thinking. Masking is essentially when a person presents to the external world what is socially expected while doing their utmost to manage their internal emotional and cognitive reactions to the world around them.  The evidence suggests that young girls with ASD are most prone to ‘masking’ and in many cases go undiagnosed resulting ultimately in not meeting their potential.

A high performing team or organisation can only occur when we cultivate both a culture of Constructive Accountability and a culture of Psychological Safety.  Accountability without Psychological Safety typically results in toxic fear driven organisational culture resulting in the presence of significant psychosocial risks. Unfortunately, these types of teams and organisations, while toxic and fear driven can actually deliver high performance for a short period of time.  But to reach a sustainable level of high performance we need both Psychological Safety and Constructive Accountability.

In the context of the 2021 World Mental Health day and the increasing importance for organisations and leaders to be leading and managing well-being in the workplace more effectively, there are a couple of statements that I hear leaders use over and over again that completely undermine all the work we are doing around mental well-being.

There is a lot of discussion right now about 'Psychological Safety' - the latest buzz word (again).  Unfortunately, there is significant misunderstanding and misinterpretation of this concept of 'Psychological Safety', which is doing more harm than good.  In particular, there is a misconception that Psychological Safety means that people shouldn't be made to feel uncomfortable and shouldn't experience negative emotions.  As a Psychologist having worked with individuals, teams and organisations for over 20 years, this view of psychological safety in my experience creates significantly more long term distress and negative impact for both the individuals and the organisation.

In this short video Greg discusses how important it is to assess our relationship with feedback i.e. our self-talk about feedback, particularly as a leader.

Greg Bayne talking about how leaders can significantly increase their impact through vulnerability.

An summary of the interview with Greg Bayne about the concept of Allostasis and the rapid adaptation to change.

We need to urgently and proactively enhance well-being.  We need to start with ourselves and our children.  This article outlines 5 steps to cultivate well-being in ourselves and secondly to reflect on how we can better cultivate well-being and resilience in our children.

We have this faulty belief that if I provide positive feedback and encouragement I will be able to shift this person to high performance.  Further, we believe that if we do need to give negative feedback, that we need to sandwich the negative feedback between two sets of positive feedback i.e. the feedback sandwich. Lastly, we believe that if we provide negative feedback that we will reduce motivation and cause poorer performance. We have got feedback completely wrong.  Our beliefs couldn’t be more incorrect.