On 21st July, Exceptional Individuals joined Stockport NHS Foundation Trust’s Neurodiversity Staff Network online to talk about career development and progression for neurodivergent employees.
Exceptional Individuals is a social enterprise that has spent over a decade helping neurodivergent people into work and helping employers build genuinely inclusive workplaces. In the session, the organisation shared practical strategies for navigating applications, interviews and promotion processes, and talked about building the confidence to go for progression rather than assuming a diagnosis has to hold anyone back.
More people than ever are being diagnosed later in life, often after years of masking difficulties or putting their challenges down to something else. Recognising your traits early, and understanding what kind of support might help, can make a real difference, both for individuals and for the organisations that employ them.
If any of this has got you curious about your own traits, there are a few things you can do. Exceptional Individuals has a couple of free characteristics tests on its website worth a look, both reviewed by its Clinical Advisor Dr Natalie Cawley, a Counselling Psychologist. The dyslexia characteristics test takes you through some quick questions on traits commonly linked to dyslexia, and the autism characteristics test does the same for traits linked to autism. Neither one is a diagnosis, but they’re a good way to get a feel for whether it’s worth speaking to your GP or looking into a formal assessment.
The Stockport Neurodiversity Network continues to go from strength to strength, with around 60 members and strong attendance at every meeting. Sessions like this one are part of the Trust’s wider commitment to supporting neurodivergent staff, alongside its Access to Work referral processes, its reasonable adjustments policy and staff awareness workshops.
Exceptional Individuals thanked Victoria Rankin, Lucy Rowe and the wider Network for the invitation.
“It was a pleasure to join the Stockport Neurodiversity Staff Network and speak with such an engaged group. Career progression is something we hear so much self-doubt around in our coaching work, and it was great to be able to unpick some of that with the Network directly,” said Matt Boyd, founder and CEO of Exceptional Individuals.
Exceptional Individuals is a social enterprise specialising in employment support and workplace consultancy for people with non-visible disabilities. Find out more, including free neurodiversity characteristics tests, at exceptionalindividuals.com.