Founder and CEO Zoe Rodda reflects on why good leaders ask before they assume.

Some people show stress very clearly.

Some go quiet. Some talk more. Some become very organised. Some can look perfectly calm while internally hosting a fire drill, a committee meeting and a small weather event.

That is why I paid attention to a new Employment Appeal Tribunal judgment published this week.(Mr R Bryce v Coventry City Council: [2026] EAT 153 – GOV.UK)

The case involved an autistic and dyslexic man applying for a management job. The employer did make adjustments. He received the questions before the interview, and the interviewers could prompt or rephrase them.

The tribunal did not find that the employer had failed to make reasonable adjustments.

But another part of the case was sent back to be decided again. The original tribunal had accepted the interviewer’s view that the candidate did not look stressed and seemed confident. The appeal judge said that relied on assumptions about how a neurotypical person might behave, without asking whether an autistic and dyslexic person would show stress in the same way.

That is the bit employers need to sit with.

Looking confident is not proof that somebody understands everything. Staying calm is not proof that a process is accessible. Asking for one adjustment does not mean a person can identify every barrier while they are in the middle of the thing.

This is not about lowering standards or guessing that every difficulty is caused by neurodivergence. It is about separating what we can see from the story we have added to it.

“They looked fine.”
“They seemed confident.”
“They did not say they were struggling.”

Those statements may be true. They are still not the whole truth.

A second major review published this week recommends support based on need before, during and after diagnosis. It says work can support health and wellbeing when it is secure and well supported.

(Independent review into mental health conditions, ADHD and autism: executive summary – GOV.UK)

I agree with that direction, with one important caution. Needs-led support must not become a cheaper way of saying somebody does not need a diagnosis, treatment or specialist help. Sometimes they do. The sensible answer is not diagnosis or support. It is support when it is needed, and diagnosis when it is useful and wanted.

As a neurodivergent founder and leadership student, I am interested in progressive workplaces. Friendly, flexible and less hierarchical can all be good things. But informality has a downside if decisions rely too heavily on who looks confident, who speaks quickly or who appears comfortable.

Good leadership asks:

• What did I actually observe?
• What am I assuming it means?
• What does the person say they experienced?
• What would make this process clearer and fairer?

At Lily’s Social Kitchen CIC, we are developing practical workplace support to help employers make recruitment, communication and manager practice more neuroinclusive. If your organisation wants help creating fairer interviews and better workplace conversations, I would be very happy to talk.