Hey,

This is Neuro Diverse Diary. The weekly Newsletter for professionals with Neuro Differences. It’s that time for another insight into our 'different' world.

‘ADHD Exec’ for President

Man, I f*cking hate office politics, they don't teach stuff like that in school.

Politics is everywhere… work, family, friendships, and for a neurodivergent, this can be tricky to navigate.

My Story and Struggle

In my first graduate job, I was someone’s lunch, I thought everyone was nice.

As I progressed through my career, I learned how to 'fight' for my job even when it was on the brink of redundancy which I spoke about here

For context, I grew up in similar social economic conditions to the legend Jay-Z. So you can imagine how much learning I had to do.

Another challenge is my personality style:

• Quite reserved

• Conflict avoidant

• I'm an avoidant person

• I stay away from 'drama', gossip

• Live a 'straight and narrow' life

I've been like that for most of my life; at the same time, my temper could go from ‘0 to 100 real quick’.

As they say "You can take a boy outta the hood, but you can't take the hood outta him" This makes me more susceptible to being a ‘sitting duck’

Nevertheless, I can proudly say for over a decade in the corporate game I've kept:

• Cool

• Calm

• Collective

How?

I have to be super careful about how I come across especially if my professional colleagues act like backstabbing vipers.

It used to upset and trigger me. Then I understood that it's 'never personal' Some people are out for themselves.

Office politics is knowing how to get what you want, although sometimes at the expense of others.

So,

MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION

How does a neurodivergent play the game of office politics, especially if they find it harder to:

• Regulate their emotions

• Read the social cues

MY MILLION DOLLAR RESPONSE: 

Play to your strengths; below are my go tos

• We're funny: Use humour to navigate any tricky conversations

• Divergent/Out-of-the-box thinkers: This helps me make strategic moves

• We can HYPER FOCUS: Ignore the noise, and gossip and lock in, allowing your work to do the talking.

• We are competitive: Winning gives us more dopamine

One of my ADHD strengths is my ability for divergent/out-of-the-box thinking.

I think I have a 'sick' memory and recall system that lets me connect the dots and reference ideas from different things I've read or learned.

My brain and intuition help me pull information from various sources and apply it to new situations in ways that often surprise me.

I've consumed a ton of self-help books, one of them I find myself going back to is The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Green.

I bought the book during University, as I knew I would someday need to learn how to survive the corporate world.

Some of the laws have served me well. For example: Law one "Never outshine the master" If you've worked or currently work for insecure bosses that's a chapter you wanna read.

RECAP

1. Navigating office politics is tough for anyone

2. You've got unique strengths that neurotypicals may not have.

3. Even if you have a poor start you can still do it 💪

MEME OF THE WEEK

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