Summary: By reducing avoidable ambiguity, recognising that people do not all arrive with the same reserves of energy and designing teams where different people can contribute their strengths without carrying unnecessary hidden effort, managers can raise the quality of contribution across the whole team.
She takes out the pack of sleeping medication, breaks one pill in half. Her hand pauses in front of her lips. Tomorrow she has to get up earlier because James rescheduled the meeting.
She opens her calendar as she slowly but steadily goes through the calendar of every colleague. One by one, she scans who will be at the office.
As thought after thought rushes in like electricity through a glass fiber cable, the sleeping medication starts to do its job as she thinks about tomorrow.
Her body is drifting into a medicated dream.
“What will happen in the morning? What will happen during the day? What will happen in the week? What about next year? What about?.”
This is a real scenario, written by Joppe Quaedvlieg based on a discussion with ‘Sandra’ about her lived experience. The following leadership analysis was prepared by Lisa Colledge.
If Sandra works in your organisation, what does this mean for outcomes, for leadership and for the way work is designed?
Three practical lessons for managers stand out from Sandra’s experience. Each has direct implications for how we coordinate, how we lead and how much performance we may be unintentionally leaving on the table.
Insight 1: Reduce unnecessary cognitive load
Sandra isn’t resisting work. She’s trying to reduce the unexpected so she can contribute at her best.
She checks calendars, rehearses conversations and models multiple scenarios because uncertainty carries a high cognitive cost for her. Energy that could be invested in creativity, judgement or problem solving is instead diverted into preparing for ambiguity.
Some uncertainty is inevitable. But when expectations, priorities or ways of working remain unnecessarily unclear, organisations create additional cognitive load that affects everyone, while disproportionately affecting people who naturally process uncertainty more intensely.
Reducing avoidable ambiguity allows people to invest more of their thinking in the work itself.
What managers can do:
Reduce unnecessary uncertainty. For example:
- Minimising avoidable last-minute changes
- Sharing agendas and expected contributions before meetings
- Encouraging clarification rather than expecting people to guess.
When expectations, priorities or ways of working remain unnecessarily unclear, organisations create additional cognitive load that affects everyone
Insight 2: Recognise that performance starts before the working day begins
Sandra’s working day begins long before she arrives at the office. Before she gets out of bed, she is already mentally rehearsing the day ahead. The racing thoughts, the need for medication, are signs that her nervous system is already working hard before the day has properly begun.
By the time work begins, part of her cognitive and emotional energy has already been spent. Over time, this shows up as fatigue, reduced concentration, lower tolerance for further interruptions or behaviour that colleagues mistakenly interpret as disengagement.
Sandra’s experience is particularly vivid because it relates to neurodivergence, but many people begin the working day carrying an invisible load. They may be balancing caring responsibilities, navigating a long commute, worrying about a difficult client meeting or recovering from a poor night’s sleep.
Leaders cannot remove all of these pressures, but they can recognise that people do not all arrive with the same reserves of energy.
What managers can do:
Recognise that people work best in different ways. Proactively learn what helps people contribute at their best by asking questions such as:
- When do you find work most draining?
- What conditions help you do your best work?
- Is there a small change that would make it easier for you to contribute consistently?
These conversations often reveal improvements that strengthen the whole team’s performance.
Insight 3: Create conditions for sustainable contribution
Sandra has learned how to cope. She succeeds by constantly adapting, anticipating and often masking her natural way of working. While that approach to performance can be sustained for a time, it usually comes at a cost to energy, creativity, and long-term wellbeing.
Coping is not the same as thriving.
When people spend significant energy masking how they naturally think, communicate or solve problems, organisations lose some of the originality and insight those people were hired to bring.
What managers can do:
As a first step, the goal is to design teams where different people can contribute their strengths without carrying unnecessary hidden effort. Individual reasonable adjustments may still be needed, but they should sit within a wider team culture that already reduces avoidable friction. For example:
- Value thoughtful contributions, not only quick responses
- Offer different ways for people to participate, including written input where appropriate
- Make conversations about how people work best a normal part of leadership, not something reserved for people who are struggling.
The goal is to design teams where different people can contribute their strengths without carrying unnecessary hidden effort
Raising the quality of contribution
Sandra’s story reminds us that inclusion is not only about accommodating individuals. It is about proactively designing work so people can contribute more of what they are capable of.
Sandra’s experience highlights important lessons for neuro-inclusive leadership and how we design team performance systems.
Clearer expectations, more predictable communication and open conversations about how people work best do not lower standards. They raise the quality of contribution across the whole team.
Actionable insights
- Reduce unnecessary uncertainty by sharing agendas in advance, minimising avoidable last-minute changes and encouraging clarification rather than expecting people to guess.
- Recognise that people work best in different ways. Proactively learn which conditions help people contribute at their best and make reasonable efforts to create those conditions.
- Design a team culture that allows people to contribute their strengths in different ways, such as by offering flexible ways to participate and open conversations about ways of working.
If you enjoyed this article, read: Five steps: Your guide for leading with greater clarity
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