Hello Dear Friends,

I hope you're well.

Happy New Year and welcome to this New Year! 🙌🏾🎉

I wanted to say, thank you for being in this community, where I share insights on neurodiversity, well-being, leadership and thoughts on how to create a more inclusive work culture and place.

In this newsletter I want to focus on being an inclusive leader, manager or colleague. At the start of the New Year I believe that it's an emotional time, when we're setting new goals, considering our opportunities as individuals and in our teams.

It's been a common narrative that emotional intelligence in the workplace is a good thing and offers the opportunity for us to be empathetic and inclusive in order to build work cultures and teams that can embrace diversity, equity and inclusion.

One of the challenges facing neurodiverse people with ADHD and Autism is how they experience emotions and emotional regulation differently. In the case of ADHD typically they experience emotions intensely in terms of the highs and lows. In the case of Autism typically they may not be as emotional or are perceived to be "blunt" and lacking in social social skills.

There is room for the emotional intelligence narrative to become more inclusive and to consider that neurodiverse people have a different perspective, and are no less capable of personal development and growth. They may be different, but they should not be regarded as not having the capacity to increase their potential. It is important to remember that neurodiversity is a spectrum where needs can be from high to low.

These 3 articles below share some great insights on the EQ and Neurodiversity which I think will support to help you build a more inclusive culture in your organisation.

The EQ Obsession: Does it help or harm neurodivergent workers - Read the article: HERE

Emotional Intelligence and Neurodiversity - Read the article: HERE

Emotional Regulation and ADHD: What you need to know - Read the article: HERE

Hit reply and let me know, do you use EQ scores as part of your performance rating for individuals and is your system fair and inclusive?

Have a great day ahead.

Warm Regard,

Ekua