By Teresa Peters, Executive Coach and Founder of Accelerator Coaching Ltd
What six months of training in neurodivergent inclusive coaching has taught me about myself, and the leaders I work with.
“What version of yourself do you want to greet on the other side of the choices you make?”
Here is a fact that stopped me in my tracks. Around one in seven people in the UK, more than ten million of us, are thought to be neurodivergent. One widely cited 2025 survey suggested that nearly half of executives and business owners identify as neurodivergent themselves. Whatever the precise figure, it makes you think! Many of the people driving our organisations think and process the world differently to the systemic norms they work within.
When most of us hear the word neurodivergent, our minds jump straight to ADHD, autism or dyslexia. But the picture is wider than that. It also includes dyspraxia, Tourette’s syndrome, OCD and giftedness, and many other ways of thinking and experiencing the world. None of these are flaws to fix. They are simply different operating systems.
I am not jumping on a bandwagon here. Anyone who knows my work knows I coach every person and team uniquely, drawing on empathy and intuition before reaching for any model. But over the last six months, training with In Good Company in neurodivergent inclusive coaching, something has struck me, and changed how I show up.
Central to this programme is the Executive Function Wheel, adapted from the work of Dr Thomas Brown. It maps eight functions, impulse control, emotional regulation, self monitoring, working memory, planning, organisation, task initiation and flexible thinking, that shape how we think, feel and act. Two of these sit close together for me, both under emotional regulation. Impulse control is the pause before I speak or act. Self monitoring is what happens afterwards, when I replay and assess it.
This is where it got personal. Before I say or do something, impulse control is quietly weighing it up. Afterwards, self monitoring takes over, and I am back analysing it, replaying the conversation, checking how I landed. Constantly. On one hand, sharp self awareness. On the other, left unchecked, exhausting over monitoring.
That coaching question at the top of this page has become a daily anchor. I have it as a reminder on my phone every morning. It is a simple nudge that every choice takes me one step closer to, or further from, the person I want to be. For me, that future self is authentic, creative, compassionate, in service of my clients, over delivers, puts family first, prioritises health, and has vitality with glows of yellow of course, along the way.
And yet I am also, by nature, gregarious and free. Some might say a little unorthodox. I act quickly, speak honestly, and trust my instincts. For years I saw that as something to manage. Now I see it as a genuine strength, bringing warmth, energy and authenticity into a room. The goal is not to silence either side of me. It is to know when each is useful, and when it is running the show without my permission.
This is exactly what I bring into my coaching now. When a client tells me they cannot stop replaying a conversation, or that they spoke before they thought it through, I have a deeper lens. Is this impulse control, self monitoring, or both, working together or against each other? Are these aligning with sought after values or compromising values? And what future self are they trying to greet?
Inclusive leadership is not about new policies or ticking a box. It begins with leaders understanding their own minds first, with curiosity rather than judgement.
Accelerator Coaching Ltd helps leaders and teams across the UK build self awareness, communicate with confidence and perform with purpose, using a blend of coaching psychology, profiling tools and emotional intelligence frameworks.
To find out more, get in touch at ignite@acceleratorcoaching.co.uk or visit acceleratorcoaching.co.uk
