In this episode, I am joined by a self-confessed fellow 'nerd' to explore a topic that has hardly ever been discussed in relation to vertical development: adult giftedness and neurodivergence.

Tracy Winter (PhD) is an expert in human development and an ICF-certified executive coach (PCC). She earned her Doctorate studying the development of self-concept in gifted adults and founded Nerd Coach - a coaching practice dedicated to neurodivergent (particularly gifted and ADHD) clients. She also facilitates increased team communication and effectiveness and consults on organizational development projects.

Here are a few of the things Tracy has learnt in her work and which we explore in our dialogue together:

• Many neurodivergent adults (particularly gifted ones) don't self-identify as such
• Neurodivergent people often have different social-emotional needs that go unnoticed.
• Development in neurodivergent people is by excellence asynchronous - with some exceptionally developed capacities in some areas and limitations in others. That holds true of vertical development more broadly - where lines of development rarely, if ever, evolve at the same pace.
• People often have the solutions within them; they just need the right questions to find them - so that's why coaching can be an extremely powerful tool for neurodivergent people.
• Being and feeling truly seen can make an incredibly positive difference to someone's long-term development and yet is an experience neurodivergent people are most often deprived of.

This has been both an intellectually stimulating and enlightening conversation and a very personal one. Tracy and I dove into some of our lived experiences of neurodivergence and the gifts and challenges that come with that and explore why leaning in with curiosity towards the 'different other' might be the smallest most transformative thing we could do in families, teams and society to help harness the huge (and often untapped into) potential of the neurodivergent among us.