Tech Leadership Unplugged: Managing Neurodivergent Talent

How can Engineering teams ensure hiring processes and management practices are designed with neurodiverse talent and considerations in mind?

Traditional management frameworks and hiring processes often fail to account for the diverse ways people think, work, and communicate. The latest event in our Tech Leadership Unplugged series brought together senior engineering leaders to discuss practical strategies for creating more inclusive environments that enable neurodivergent team members to thrive.

Core Principles for Inclusive Management

Lead with compassion, but establish clear frameworks. While empathy is essential, successful neurodiversity management requires structured approaches rather than purely instinct-driven leadership.

Abandon the one-size-fits-all mentality. Standard company growth frameworks and policies rarely translate well to engineering contexts, particularly for neurodivergent individuals who may excel in technical work while struggling with traditional performance metrics.

Focus on outcomes over process. Judge success by results and impact rather than adherence to conventional working styles or communication patterns.

Practical Management Strategies

Understanding Individual Needs

• Recognise diverse behavioural presentations. Neurodivergent behaviours and traits manifest differently across individuals, invest time in understanding each team member's specific traits and working preferences.
• Create post-meeting debriefs. For team members who struggle with reading social cues, one-on-one sessions to dissect meeting dynamics and clarify next steps can be transformative.
• Accommodate working preferences. Make cameras optional, reduce emphasis on non-essential formalities, and allow for individual quirks that don't impact team outcomes.

Advocacy and Support

• Champion quiet performers. Introverted team members often get overlooked for promotions despite strong technical contributions. Actively advocate for these individuals in performance discussions.
• Provide practical assistance. If someone loses track of time while coding, give meeting reminders. Small interventions can have significant impact.
• Address promotion barriers. Neurodivergent traits like difficulty reading social situations or challenges with stakeholder communication can hinder career advancement. As a manager, actively work to mitigate these barriers.

Team-Wide Approaches

• Normalise diversity discussions. Rather than singling out individuals, facilitate team-wide conversations about learning styles, feedback preferences, and optimal working conditions.
• Build internal communities. Create spaces where neurodivergent employees can connect and support each other.
• Practice radical candor. Clear, direct communication benefits everyone but is particularly crucial for team members who struggle with implicit social cues.

Balancing Support with Accountability

Neurodiversity is not an excuse for harmful behaviour. Being neurodivergent doesn't justify unkindness, bullying, or consistently poor performance that impacts the team negatively.

Distinguish between adjustment needs and underperformance. Learn to identify when discomfort signals growth opportunity versus when it indicates a poor fit that could become toxic for the team.

Maintain business needs. Support must be balanced with delivering results and maintaining team dynamics.

Transforming Hiring Processes

Process Design

Ask candidates about their needs upfront. Simple question: "What do you need to do your best work in this process?" This small change can dramatically improve candidate experience.

Redesign assessments around actual job requirements. If the role doesn't require system design skills, eliminate that component. Focus on competencies that directly relate to day-to-day responsibilities.

Provide preparation materials. Give candidates problems, context, or discussion topics in advance. This levels the playing field for those who need processing time.

Alternative Assessment Methods

• Problem-solving demonstrations instead of abstract technical questions
• Mini projects that reflect real work scenarios
• System design with advance preparation and context
• Role-play scenarios based on actual team situations
• Ask interviewees to submit questions and answers in advance. Neurodivergent people can struggle with on-the-spot recall, making it difficult to provide structured STAR responses.

Interview Best Practices

Train all interviewers consistently. Use structured rubrics focusing on specific signals rather than general impressions or "cultural fit."

Include diverse perspectives. Panel interviews with "bar raisers" - trained, unbiased observers from different teams to create more robust hiring decisions.

Debrief thoroughly. Discuss all aspects of the interview, including initial small talk (or 'bla bla' talk), to identify bias and ensure fair evaluation.

Address unconscious bias directly. End assessment discussions by explicitly asking: "Did you like this person?" This brings subconscious preferences into conscious awareness.

Feedback and Continuous Improvement

For Candidates

Always provide specific feedback. "No feedback" policies are particularly harmful in engineering hiring. Candidates invest significant time and deserve actionable insights.

Focus on growth opportunities. Frame feedback constructively, highlighting both strengths and development areas. A good interview process is one where the candidate learns something new about themselves. Providing a great candidate experience sticks in people's minds and will help build brand loyalty and affinity, increasing the chances of them applying in the future or recommending your company to others.

For Teams

Map team working styles. Use exercises to understand each member's risk tolerance, learning preferences, and problem-solving approaches.

Hire complementary strengths. Build teams that balance different thinking styles and capabilities rather than hiring people similar to existing team members.

Regularly assess team dynamics. Particularly important during team changes or restructuring, when neurodivergent team members may experience heightened stress.

Implementation Considerations

Start with manager training. Equip leaders with practical skills for recognising and supporting neurodivergent team members.

Create psychological safety. Establish environments where team members feel comfortable discussing their needs and working styles.

Monitor return-to-office impacts. As remote work policies change, traits that were less visible during distributed work may become more apparent, requiring adjusted support strategies.

Establish senior leadership accountability. Ensure neurodiversity initiatives have executive sponsorship and clear success metrics.

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Key Questions for Leaders

• How well do you understand each team member's optimal working conditions?
• What barriers in your current processes might be excluding talented neurodivergent candidates?
• How do you balance individual accommodations with team cohesion and business objectives?
• What training do your managers need to effectively support neurodivergent team members?

The most successful engineering teams leverage cognitive diversity as a competitive advantage. By implementing these strategies, leaders can create environments where all team members can contribute their best work.

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If you're an engineering leader interested in hearing more about the Leadership community we’re building or have a challenge you’d love to explore with a peer group then reach out to Grace at grace@burnssheehan.co.uk.