Posted on: 21/08/2025

Thought Leadership

Gayle Hudson, WME Associate, explores how neuro-affirming coaching creates safe spaces where neurodivergent colleagues can thrive. Drawing on lived experiences and workplace practice, it challenges leaders to move beyond awareness to action, embedding coaching and inclusive approaches that unlock hidden potential.

By Gayle Hudson, Coach and Consultant & West Midlands Employers Associate

If your neurodivergent colleagues are still masking in meetings, your leadership space isn’t as inclusive as you think. Too many workplaces remain designed for one type of brain. For people with ADHD, autism, dyslexia and other forms of neurodivergence, this can lead to exhaustion, anxiety, and untapped potential. The question for leaders is no longer "Are we aware?" but "What are we doing differently?"

As a coach working across the public sector, I work with many neurodivergent leaders and staff members. Coaching can support building self awareness, confidence, trust, inclusion, and performance, It helps individuals to develop their own personal strategies to succeed and thrive at work.

Coaching is more than a conversation

It’s a mirror, a pause, a challenge. For neurodivergent professionals, it can be the first place they’re invited to stop masking and start asking: what do I need to thrive? One coachee, six months after their programme, reflected:

"I feel armed with some simple but powerful strategies that I can manage or lead on my own and also have a plan to get other people to help me and keep me accountable."

Another coachee with Autism said: "This is the first time I’ve ever felt I didn’t need to mask. Coaching has given me a way to ask for what I need, and to be asked what I need too." Although coaching can support individuals in developing their self-awareness and personal strategies – it is only half of the equation. At West Midlands Employers we also offer Neuro-Inclusion workshop sessions to increase awareness and understanding amongst team members and the wider organisation.

Matching with the right coach matters

We’ve recognised it’s not just the coaching that makes the difference—it’s the connection and fit between coach and coachee. That’s why we transformed our matching hub.

Clients can now filter for coaches with lived or learned experience of neurodiversity, disability, ethnicity, gender, and more. Coaches can also choose to share more about their identity. This isn’t about ability. It’s about visibility. When people see themselves reflected in someone else, they trust more and grow more.

When asked what difference this made, clients told us: "It made all the difference... the process was so much deeper and meaningful." "My coach was a working mum, as I was, and has lived and worked through some similar experiences." "They understand and save trying to explain yourself."

Representation in coaching isn’t optional. It’s foundational.

Leadership through a neurodiverse lens

Recent research shows that close to two-thirds of neurodivergent employees mask their traits at work, and about half feel under-supported or dissatisfied with employer accommodations. This widespread, daily masking and lack of support reflect not just a marginal issue, but a leadership gap in organisations.

This October, we’re calling on senior leaders to do more than nod at inclusion, to champion coaching as a neuro-affirming practice. You don’t need to be an expert in neurodiversity. You need to be courageous enough to create environments where no one has to leave parts of themselves at the door.

Ask yourself: When was the last time someone said they felt truly safe in your space? North Staffs ICB, for example, is embedding inclusive coaching into their development offer through investing in the WME Manager as Coach Programme giving managers the opportunity and time to experiment, reflect, develop and apply coaching skills.

Looking ahead

Coaching is just one part of the inclusion picture. Mentoring, done well, can also be a powerful way to bridge understanding between different lived experiences.

In our next piece, we’ll explore inclusive mentoring in action, including how Oxfordshire County Council’s reciprocal mentoring programme is creating meaningful change. With their next cohort starting in October, it’s the perfect time to spotlight their story.

A closing challenge

Neuro-affirming coaching isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a requirement for effective leadership.

Space to think differently. Space to lead inclusively. Space where no one chooses between being excellent and being themselves. Go beyond coaching. Offer neuro-inclusion workshops for teams and the Manager as Coach Programme to embed a coaching approach and culture within your organisation.

Learn more about the power of our coaching and mentoring services, training and events.