Leading While Neurodivergent
Supporting and empowering neurodivergent student leaders. For SU and institutional staff who line manage, support, or work alongside elected neurodivergent student leaders.
The problem this course addresses
The sabbatical officer who resigns in week ten did not usually arrive in post struggling. They arrived highly capable, highly motivated, and highly practiced at managing the gap between how they work and what the environment expects of them.
Masking is not a choice so much as a survival strategy, and it is exhausting in a way that does not show until it suddenly does. The people supporting them often sensed something was wrong without having the language or the framework to respond usefully.
Most training on neurodivergence in the workplace sits at the awareness level. This course goes further. It is designed for the people who need to act on what they are seeing, not just recognise it.
If you have ever had a sabbatical officer resign unexpectedly, struggled to support an elected student who seemed fine until they were not, or wondered whether your development offer works equally well for everyone who takes up a role, this course is built for that gap.
What the course covers
Across one day, participants work through:
What masking actually costs a student leader over time, and how to recognise when it is happening before it becomes a crisis
Why burnout in neurodivergent officers so often arrives without warning, and what the early signs actually look like in practice
How rejection sensitive dysphoria affects the way feedback lands, and what that means for how you give it
What you can do structurally, in how you run meetings, brief roles, and have difficult conversations, to create conditions where neurodivergent leaders can work in ways that suit them
Applied scenario work: real situations, practical responses, space to reflect on your own practice
Who is this for?
This course is for you if:
You line manage, support, or work regularly alongside elected neurodivergent student leaders, and you want practical tools rather than awareness-level training.
You work in a students’ union or HE institution in a staff role, and you have noticed that your current development offer does not always work equally well for every officer who takes up a role.
You have managed a situation with a neurodivergent student leader that did not go as well as you would have liked, and you want to understand why, and what you would do differently.
How it works
This course is available for in-house delivery at your institution or students’ union, online or in person. It is designed as a practitioner development experience, not a compliance exercise: small groups, facilitated discussion, applied scenario work, and genuine reflection time.
Pricing is available on request. If you want to talk through whether this course fits your current priorities, or whether a bespoke version makes sense for your context, get in touch and we will have a straightforward conversation before you commit to anything.
Register your interest
Dates and pricing available on request. Email us to find out more or to register your interest for in-house delivery.
Email ollie@alkhemy.org.uk