The Neurodivergent Leader

This chapter examines the lived realities of neurodivergent leadership within social work, focussing on what happens when those holding organisational power are also navigating systems shaped by neuronormative expectations. It explores how recruitment, progression, and managerial cultures privilege particular styles of communication, emotional regulation, and executive functioning, often rendering leadership implicitly neurotypical. Drawing on disability studies and neurodiversity theory, the chapter interrogates why neurodivergent leaders remain under-recognised and under-researched, and how organisational norms can produce additional strain, moral tension, and visibility burdens for those in senior roles. Moving beyond deficit narratives, the chapter reframes leadership as relational, embodied, and values-led practice. It considers the distinct strengths neurodivergent leaders may bring, including reflexivity, ethical clarity, and the capacity to cultivate psychological safety, while also addressing the risks of over-responsibility, masking, and self-erasure. Through a series of structured reflective activities, readers are invited to examine sustainability, energy, moral strain, self-advocacy, and competing access needs within teams. The chapter ultimately positions neurodivergent leadership not as an anomaly, but as a critical lens through which organisational culture, power, and inclusion can be reimagined in more humane and sustainable ways.