3 Key Areas of Advice for Line Managers

Line managers play a critical role in how neurodivergent employees experience work. You are often the first point of contact for performance, wellbeing and day to day problem solving, while also balancing business demands, team expectations and limited time. It is normal to feel unsure about the best approach, particularly when guidance feels abstract or legal obligations are unclear.

At Genius Within we have made guidance for line managers a key part of our offering with eLearning, coaching and our complex case service all available to help you feel confident in a wide variety of scenarios. In this blog we spoke with Genius Within Business Psychologist Lauren Connelly to discuss some of the key areas where thoughtful line management can make the greatest difference and get her advice.

Communication is one of the most common areas of difficulty for line managers and neurodivergent employees alike. Managers often worry about being too blunt or not supportive enough. It is an area where our own sensitivities and lived experience can cloud our perception and cause unnecessary conflict. There are a number of ways you can avoid this pitfall. Lauren suggests:

“Consider the way that you currently communicate and acknowledge that everyone is different in the way they learn, perceive and process information, whether it be instructions, feedback or everyday conversations.

Exploring and understanding how your line reports communicate at their best is an effective way to avoid this pitfall.

It is also helpful to avoid ambiguous language that is open to interpretation, therefore instead of asking for a “proactive or positive approach”, offer examples of what you would see and hear if this was happening, whether this is in general communication or feedback.

The feedback intervention theory (Kluger & De Nisi, 1996) says that the effectiveness of feedback depends on where it directs a person’s attention within a hierarchy of goals. For example, feedback that focuses on task details is most effective, rather than feedback that focuses on the self which can reduce performance by triggering emotional responses or defensiveness.

There are tools and resources which can support managers to give feedback in this way such as Clean Feedback which helps keep attention focused on the task rather than the self. Clean Feedback uses three questions ‘what worked well?’, ‘what didn’t work well?’ and ‘what would work better?’ exploring the evidence (what was observed), inference (the meaning or interpretation from this evidence) and the impact (how this interpretation has an effect).

The value of using a clean feedback approach is that it supports the reduction of ambiguous language as well as offering a next steps approach and ways to effectively contribute what is working well and what the individual may do differently in the future which can avoid people feeling unsure and in a limbo-like state.

Feedback also works best when it is two-way, therefore inviting employees to reflect on what support they need, what feedback format works best for them, and how progress should be reviewed helps shift feedback from something that is done to someone into a collaborative process.

For some neurodivergent employees, feedback can trigger a strong emotional or cognitive response that makes it difficult to process information in the moment. Allowing time, offering written follow-ups, or signalling feedback topics in advance can help reduce overwhelm and support more constructive engagement.

Being consistent and predictable overtime is also helpful. Clear structures, repeated formats, and agreed approaches to communication and feedback can create psychological safety, particularly for employees who find uncertainty or mixed messages difficult to navigate.

To support, asking for clarification should be normalised and treated as a strength. Managers can model this by checking their own understanding and explicitly inviting questions to create a culture where clarification is routine rather than perceived as a sign of difficulty or disengagement.”

Ultimately, effective communication and feedback require clarity, specificity and an appreciation that individuals perceive and process information differently. By focusing on observable behaviours, reducing ambiguity and creating consistent, collaborative feedback structures, managers can foster psychological safety and enable every employee to perform at their best.

Many line managers find themselves supporting neurodivergent employees with planning, prioritisation or workload management, often without formal training in these areas. This can feel like stepping outside your role, especially when you are under pressure yourself. It can also result in ‘rescuing’ behaviours that mean your direct report is left floundering when you inevitably take time off or move to a different role.

Lauren’s advice is:

“Well-intentioned support can sometimes drift into dependency if it is not reviewed. A helpful check for managers is to ask whether their involvement is building capability or temporarily compensating for difficulty. Sustainable support should reduce reliance over time, not increase it, even if progress feels slower initially. While managers often support in ways that they would wish to be supported, recognising that it is not one-size-fits-all is also important. When you feel that you may be falling into this ‘rescuing’ role, notice if you have been invited to support and instead move to coach the individual to consider what they need to manage their own time, prioritisation and planning.

To do this, you might collaboratively consider with the employee what is not working well and what they would like to have happen to support their own planning and prioritisation. For example, you might prompt employees to consider their environment and resources (e.g., sensory input and equipment) or a need for upskilling or self-development through processes such as coaching whether this be self-coaching tools like the Genius Finder or facilitated by a coach in a 1:1 setting.

Also working with the employee to consider the implementation of tools and software’s focused on time management and self-organising such as AI platforms or project management software.

Much like the way we communicate, taking time to understand how your employees work best can ensure an effective translation of information to support their own self-organising, with the understanding that this is a skill that can be developed rather than simply being something that an individual cannot do. However, skill development is rarely linear, and individuals may have periods of improvement followed by setbacks, particularly during times of stress, change, or increased workload. This does not mean support has failed but often signals the need to revisit expectations, tools, or pacing rather than withdrawing support altogether.

Many workplace expectations around prioritisation and planning are implicit rather than explicit, for example, how priorities are set, how competing deadlines should be escalated, or what to do when workload exceeds capacity which can for some increase unnecessary guesswork and cognitive load. As a manager you can also support by doing things like setting explicit expectations around the workload, informing them of the impact this can have on the wider picture if not effectively managed and considering any unwritten rules that might exist and present a barrier for employees.”

Effective support around time management and organisation is not about stepping in to fix, but about building capability, clarity and confidence over time. By making expectations explicit, reducing guesswork and coaching employees to develop tools and strategies that work for them, managers can create sustainable independence rather than short-term rescue.

Flexibility is often discussed as a solution, but line managers are left to work out what that means in practice. You may worry about fairness, setting precedents, or how adjustments will affect the wider team. These concerns are valid and should not be dismissed.

Flexibility should be purposeful and proportionate. Adjustments are not about removing accountability, but about enabling performance. This might include flexible hours, hybrid working, changes to how tasks are allocated, or the use of assistive tools. What matters is agreeing what success looks like and reviewing arrangements regularly.

Lauren says:

“Flexibility may look different for different individuals and may not always look ‘equal’ and instead means responding appropriately to individual circumstances while remaining consistent in your decision-making approach.

Line managers can and should still apply the same principles discussed throughout this blog recognising the importance of review as while an individual employee may have a specific support in place at one time, life and work circumstances can change and therefore so may support, for example, if an employee has recently taken on caring responsibilities and needs flexibility in their routine where they may not have needed this before. Therefore, documenting decisions and the rationale behind them can help managers feel more confident and supported, as flexibility works best when it is treated as an ongoing conversation rather than a one-off agreement.

Regular, informal check-ins allow managers and employees to notice early when something is no longer working and make small adjustments before issues escalate or impact performance.

Trial periods can also create an opportunity to review and learn what works in practice, aiming to reduce fears or concerns about getting it wrong, and making it easier to revisit decisions with evidence rather than assumptions.

Further, when flexibility is framed around output rather than inputs, it can become easier to manage. Agreeing how performance will be measured, how communication will be maintained, and how impact on the wider team will be monitored helps ensure that flexibility supports delivery rather than undermines it. This keeps the focus on contribution, not presence.”

When flexibility is purposeful, reviewed regularly and anchored in clear outcomes rather than assumptions about fairness or presence, it becomes a practical tool for enabling performance while maintaining accountability and consistency across the team.

Line managing neurodivergent employees involves navigating uncertainty, competing needs and limited guidance. You are not expected to be a legal expert or a clinician. What matters is acting in good faith, seeking advice when needed, and maintaining open communication.

When organisations equip line managers with expert insight, practical tools and permission to learn, inclusive management becomes more achievable. Small, thoughtful changes in feedback, organisation and flexibility can have a meaningful impact, not only for neurodivergent employees, but for teams and performance as a whole.

Perhaps most importantly, line managers need permission to be human. You can care about doing the right thing and still feel unsure. Creating a psychologically safe environment applies to managers too. Seek advice, share responsibility with HR, and be honest when you do not know the answer. Phrases like “Let me check that” or “Can we review how this is working?” are signs of responsible leadership, not weakness.

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