I’ve made a couple of tough decisions:
1. The article that I wrote for World Autism Acceptance Day will be my last. I’ve found that articles don’t get as much engagement as posts, as even long posts get more views. Articles seem to have peaked for me in 2022, with the 2020, 2021 and 2022 articles getting significant engagement. Articles not written specifically for World Autism Acceptance Day have similar results, so I will stick to posts here and on the Leadership and Neurodiversity site going forward.
2. The tougher decision involves my intended doctoral research project.
I’ve determined that it has the best chance of success if one of the following is true:
A. The researcher has a background in Organizational Leadership or Organizational Development.
B. The researcher has leadership experience in the corporate, non-profit, or public sectors.
C. The researcher already has a PhD in Global / Organizational Leadership.
Given that I’ve been seeking a leadership opportunity of some sort for more than 3 1/2 years, and with no opportunities on the horizon, I’ve decided that I will pursue an alternative project. I still want to consider neurodivergent leadership, and I still want to consider people of color, but for some reason, the idea hit me that I could research leaders who are women of color and neurodivergent to gain insights as to the various barriers they have faced and where they have had the most success. I pictured myself coding these interviews and dividing items by race, gender, condition, or a combination of two or all three. I think this will also be a faster project to finish as I would only need one or two rounds of interviews to complete.
The other twist is that I still want to focus on the United Kingdom (this is a Global Leadership program), however, I’m open to changing or expanding it if the interest is there.
As for the leadership development program, assuming the alternative project becomes the actual one, it would become a post-doctoral pursuit as my PhD will bring academic credibility to the project. This could all change, but I don’t see myself getting my foot into the leadership door to make it happen before I earn the PhD.
The Leadership and Neurodiversity project will continue with regular videos, posts, and academic articles that are relevant to the topic.
If you want to see research on neurodivergent leadership done by PhD students / candidates who are better equipped to do this at this time, please check out the following people:
Nikita Williams, M.A. at UNC-Charlotte
Nagapriya Vaidyanathan at Drexel University
Zuzanna Myszko at Montclair State University
Let me know what you think in the comments.
#leadershipdevelopment
#leadershipandneurodiversity
#alternativeproject
#feasibility
#realisticgoals