Employers are increasingly recognizing executive functioning as a critical soft skill, and this is particularly true when it comes to hiring neurodivergent employees. This suite of skills—comprising primarily the ability to organize, plan, and manage tasks—has become a golden key to the workplace for all employees. And here's why.
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Executive functioning: definition and components.
Components are: (1) Working memory; (2) Cognitive flexibility; (3) Inhibition/self-control.
Importance of executive functioning skills for employees in the workplace.
Executive functioning skills are necessary for efficient performance in the modern work environment, which is becoming less structured, more complex, and more dependent on technology.
Why neurodivergent employees can benefit from these skills or from understanding and working with these skills in others.
Many neurodivergent individuals, such as those with ADHD or those on the autism spectrum, face significant challenges in working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibition.
Tips and tricks for enhancing executive functioning skills.
Understanding Executive Functioning: Your New Best Friend
Think of executive functioning as the orchestra conductor of your brain, coordinating the symphony of thoughts and actions. It's crucial for…
Skills in organization and planning enable workers to handle not only timelines but also tasks of many different kinds. They help ensure that nothing goes unattended and that everything gets done, if not in the order one might ideally choose, then in the order necessary for keeping the workplace functioning smoothly.
Workers encounter problems unexpectedly. They must solve by thinking clearly and quickly but also by thinking well. Thinking well means understanding the problem from several different perspectives; imagining several different scenarios, some of which might seem rather far-fetched or even silly, but which are necessary if one is really to come up with robust solutions.
Flexibility is one of those skills that are hard to pin down.
It is essential for adapting to new situations, and in today's fast-paced work environments it's often the case that one must adapt to circumstances that are new within a very short time. But even if we don't pin it down, we can at least name several very good reasons why flexibility is an invaluable workplace skill.
Why Employers Are Hooked on Executive Functioning
Picture a group whose various parts work in perfect harmony, all members doing exactly what they're supposed to, and doing it at exactly the right time. That's strong executive functioning. And we might be hearing more about it these days because there are signs that many of us (maybe all of us) are a bit short on it.
Increased Output: Employees with excellent executive functioning make processes more efficient, thereby multiplying team output.
Better Together: These skills make employees communicate more clearly and directly, which is always an upgrade for team physics.
Pathways to Innovation: They allow employees to leap at thoughts that don’t immediately look logical, which is essential for those moments when creative solutions are needed.
Neurodivergent Employees: A Hidden Asset
The potential of neurodivergent employees is largely undiscovered, but many companies are beginning to explore this talent pool. Organizations often cite the many ways individuals with conditions such as ADHD and dyslexia think differently and solve problems.
Approaches to Problem Solving: Neurodivergent individuals can bring unique perspectives to problem solving, yielding original and innovative solutions. Attention to Detail: Neurodivergent individuals are often very focused on the specifics and minutiae of the problems they are given. This can lead to precision in their work that yields high-quality results. Resilience and Persistence: Neurodivergent individuals often face challenges that require extraordinary levels of persistence to overcome. They simply keep going until they succeed.
Boosting Your Executive Functioning Skills
Consider these abilities as biceps that can be exercised and enhanced. Here’s how you can give them a lift:
Practices of mindfulness: Meditative techniques can heighten concentration and lower anxiety.
Tools for organization: Apps and planners are excellent for giving shape to your assignments and timetable.
Coaching in a professional context: A little coaching can sometimes go a long way toward refining your acts in the appearance of skills.
From my point of view, these are four areas that are fundamentally useful.
Workplace soft skills are receiving a makeover, and executive functioning is at the top of the list. It's too crucial an opportunity to miss, too damaging a potential to overlook. Skill it or see a difference missed.
See too many million dollar opportunities transform into something silly.
Cross this make-or-break item off your career path