Coping with Dyslexia in the corporate workplace

Hi, my name is Andy and I’m a dyslexic. 

I thought it appropriate to start this blog like this to firstly set the scene and excuse any spelling or grammatical errors that might appear, but also to force myself to do something which I’ve avoiding doing throughout my career to date and throw this out there for everyone to know rather than keeping things hidden because of not wanting to be treated differently.

Why I hear you ask do you think you would be treated differently? Well thankfully society has changed over the past 25 - 30 years since I was first diagnosed as having Dyslexia, but growing up as a child of the 80’s there was a certain degree of stigma surrounding Dyslexia that has stuck with me until today. Back then going through education and growing up in the middle of England there was a popular misconception that someone suffering from Dyslexia was simply stupid and someone that was not worth try to educate above and beyond the bare minimum required of a state funded school.

Fast forward and I find myself writing this blog now primarily as a way of understanding how my own career has developed to date, but also as a way of hopefully helping other Dyslexic suffers in progressing their own careers.

The most important thing I’ve realised is the importance of developing a close support network. This support network should obviously include trusted colleagues and friends, but I’ve also found it massively beneficial to find trusted people in leadership roles outside of your direct reporting line who you can use as a sounding board from time to time to understand how things will be perceived by your own management chain. Be mindful though not to burden others by over analysing every little detail or approaching them every five minutes, pick your content and time wisely but don’t be afraid to ask and gauge other people’s opinion as it can often give you a different understanding of things and remove potential flash points with your own direct managers who obviously are in control of decisions that directly affect you and your career progression.

Understand your own strengths and weaknesses and be comfortable with yourself. We each have our own abilities that we excel at and other areas that if we don’t acknowledge can quickly undo any good work done or achievements reached. Work with your strengths and allow others to promote these for you, once you understand and admit your weaknesses find a way that works for you to put a safety net around these weaknesses to avoid them damaging the positive impact your strengths have on the perception others have of you.

I’ve included a video link below that really spoke to me about this and made me finally feel comfortable about accepting my own strengths and not worrying quite so much about what I perceive to be my weaknesses.

For me my natural strengths are presenting and taking something really complex, understanding it and explaining it to others in a way that’s pertinent to them and the role they are in. My weakness is that I get nervous about reading things out loud and that I look for more recognition than a none dyslexic suffer would from my line managers. 

To overcome my weakness I’ve learnt to prepare myself for presentations by knowing the contents completely which means I don’t need to read things off the screen and allows me to come across as someone that knows their subject matter, who’s natural and passionate about the role they do. The desire for recognition by my line managers has been a real challenge for me to overcome personally and something that doesn’t fit into the corporate workplace very well and I will discuss this later on in this blog.

Know your own brand and remain true to yourself at all times despite the influence others might have on your way of thinking. As we travel through our careers colleagues come and go, it’s part of the natural order of change within modern day organisations. Be mindful not to let other people’s own potential challenges impact on your own work and reputation.

Change is something that we all have to face now as modern day organisations strive to become more agile in the way they operate and bring their core products and services to market. As a dyslexic it can sometimes be overwhelming to try and keep up with all the changes that are taking place. Take the time to find your own way to handle changes to processes and find a way that works for you and position things with others as you will often find that they are also struggling to come to terms with changes as well.

When delivering potentially difficult messages to a manager, colleague or end customer remove all emotion and deal in facts that can be backed by proof if required. From a career progression point of view when it comes to having those discussions with you line manager have clear and realistic goals. Understand the steps it takes not only for you but for your managers to take you from where you are today to where you want to be tomorrow and do this before sitting down with them to avoid any potential conflicts during those importance 1-2-1 meetings. 

Be prepared to put yourself forward for things that take you out of your comfort zone but ensure you let others know this is what you are doing so that they can help put a safety net around things with you.

Finally but most importantly of all, ensure you find the right work-life balance for you. As people we each have our own level of tolerance to the different stresses and distractions of modern life. Try to understand your own tolerance level and be strict with yourself to take a break from things before they get on top of you. I’ve personally found this to be key because once your tolerance level becomes stretched it impacts on how you find yourself to interact with others. A bad interaction with someone that doesn’t know you fully quickly gives that person the wrong perception of you and that is a hard thing to change.

Interestingly before posting this blog I shared a draft version with a few close colleagues and managers to gauge their thoughts and opinions. Their feedback has been massively positive and that not only does it help them understand how to work with and manage someone with Dyslexia, but that a lot of the advice contained above also gives a good framework for others who might also find themselves misunderstood within the corporate environment to work to as well.

Hopefully you have found the contents of this blog useful, informative and thought provoking for your own careers.