--- title: 'Neurodivergence is not a superpower' url: 'https://tonypiper.coach/neurodivergence-is-not-a-superpower' updated: '2026-04-22' description: "Neurodivergence isn't a superpower — and it isn't a deficit. A neurodivergent leadership coach's case for dropping the superpower framing, and what to replace it with." --- # Neurodivergence is not a superpower **Neurodivergence is not a superpower. It is also not a deficit. It is how some brains work — with real capacities and real costs, neither of which benefits from being dressed up in cape-and-tights language.** I’m [Tony Piper](https://tonypiper.coach/about-tony-piper) — a neurodivergent leadership coach (ADHD, autistic, diagnosed as an adult) based in Canary Wharf, London. I coach tech leaders, many of them neurodivergent, and I don’t use the superpower frame. This page explains why, what I say instead, and how that plays out in coaching. ## Why “superpower” is the wrong word The *neurodivergence-as-superpower* framing sounds kind. It usually isn’t, once you’re inside it. Three problems, in roughly the order they hurt: 1. **It sets a performance bar you can’t always clear.** On the days you’re late, distractable, overstimulated, or flat, the superpower narrative quietly becomes: *so where’s yours?* The frame that was supposed to validate you ends up accusing you. 2. **It hides the cost.** Hyperfocus, pattern recognition, rapid synthesis — these show up for many ND people. So do sensory overload, executive-function friction, and exhaustion from masking. The superpower story leaves out half the data. Any leader running on half the data makes bad decisions. 3. **It serves the employer, not the person.** The superpower frame is easy to put on a careers page. It repositions a costly difference as a productivity asset. That’s useful to a company; it’s often unhelpful to the human doing the masking to sustain the role. ## And calling it a deficit is worse The superpower frame is well-intended. The deficit frame usually isn’t, or at least stops being so once it’s been absorbed for a few decades: - *Disorder*, *condition*, *problem to manage* — fine as clinical language, corrosive as identity. - Pathologising how you think doesn’t produce better leaders; it produces self-surveilling ones. - Most of the exhaustion in neurodivergent leaders isn’t the neurodivergence. It’s the effort of performing a neurotypical version of themselves on top of it. Both framings — superpower and deficit — try to squash a complex difference into a simple story. That’s what simple stories do; they simplify. And they get in the way of actually working with the person in front of you. ## What I say instead Neurodivergence is how some brains work. Different defaults for attention, sensory processing, pattern recognition, emotional timing, and social inference. Those defaults produce real capacities — often deep ones. They also produce real costs, most of which compound under the modern office. The job of coaching, from my angle, isn’t to relabel the neurodivergence as a virtue or a flaw. It’s to remove what’s in the way of the leader the person already is. That’s the [subtractive coaching](https://tonypiper.coach/subtractive-coaching) stance. ## What’s actually exhausting In working with neurodivergent tech leaders, the pattern I see repeatedly isn’t *neurodivergence is tiring*. It’s *masking is tiring*: - Slowing your speech down to neurotypical cadence. - Rehearsing contributions before meetings so they come out “right.” - Suppressing movement, fidgeting, or stimming to look composed. - Translating your pattern-recognition into bullet points that feel acceptable. - Performing calm while the room is sensorily loud. Drop the masking — in the right environment, with the right relationships — and a lot of what was getting labelled *deficit* turns out to be *translation tax*, and a lot of what was getting labelled *superpower* turns out to be how the person has always thought when they weren’t being watched. ## How this plays out in coaching Concretely, what changes when the coach doesn’t buy either framing: Common framingWhat it leads the coach to doWhat I do insteadND is a superpowerPump up the “strengths,” build a personal-brand narrativeStop narrating. Notice what the person actually does when they’re not masking.ND is a deficitTeach coping strategies, compensating frameworksExamine what’s being compensated *for*, and whether the cost is necessary.ND is a labelCoach the labelCoach the person; use the label when it clarifies, drop it when it doesn’t.I’m [neurodivergent myself](https://tonypiper.coach/neurodivergent-leaders) — ADHD and autistic. That doesn’t make me better than a neurotypical coach at everything. It does mean I don’t need a client to explain why masking is tiring, or why the superpower framing can feel a little cruel on a bad day. Related pages: [coaching for neurodivergent tech leaders](https://tonypiper.coach/neurodivergent-leaders), [what is subtractive coaching?](https://tonypiper.coach/subtractive-coaching), [CTO coaching](https://tonypiper.coach/cto-coaching), [engineering leadership coaching](https://tonypiper.coach/engineering-leadership-coaching). ## Questions people ask about the “superpower” framing ### Is neurodivergence a superpower? No. Neurodivergence is how some brains work — with real strengths and real costs, neither helped by superhero language. Calling it a superpower sets a performance expectation, hides the cost of masking, and often serves the employer more than the person. ### Is ADHD a superpower? No. ADHD brains have real strengths — fast pattern recognition, nonlinear thinking, hyperfocus on high-interest work — and real costs: executive-function friction, time blindness, emotional intensity, exhaustion from masking. Calling ADHD a superpower flattens the costs into a marketing slogan. ### Is autism a superpower? No. Autism includes real capacities — deep focus, systems thinking, pattern sensitivity, intellectual honesty — and real costs: sensory overload, social-inference fatigue, masking exhaustion. Superpower framing over-sells the capacities and erases the costs. ### Isn’t calling neurodivergence a superpower at least positive? It’s well-intended. In practice it often backfires: it sets a performance bar the person can’t always clear, it erases the cost of masking, and it can make struggles feel like personal failure. “It’s how your brain works” holds the capacities and the costs in the same sentence without inflating either. ### Why do companies use the superpower framing? Because it’s useful to them. It repositions a costly cognitive difference as a productivity asset and makes hiring ND people feel like an upgrade. That’s fine for a careers page. It’s not a good model for the person actually doing the work. ### What should we call neurodivergence instead? “Neurodivergence” or “a different way my brain works” or just the specific experience (“I think in patterns,” “I process sensory input differently,” “I hyperfocus on interesting problems”). Descriptive beats branded. Specific beats generic. ### What if I sometimes genuinely feel like my neurodivergence is a superpower? Fine — experience it however feels true on the day. The problem isn’t occasional personal use of the word. It’s the institutional framing that bakes it into coaching programmes, leadership narratives, and HR decks, where it quietly turns into pressure and erases the cost of masking. ### How do you coach neurodivergent leaders without the superpower framing? By not narrating the neurodivergence as either a gift or a problem. I use a [subtractive approach](https://tonypiper.coach/subtractive-coaching) — removing masking, inherited rules, and performance pressure — so the person’s natural leadership (whatever it turns out to look like) becomes visible. No label has to do the heavy lifting. ### Is this an anti-strengths stance? No. Strengths are real. I work with them constantly. The difference is: I don’t pre-brand them as superpowers, and I don’t pretend the costs aren’t there. Strengths hold up better when they’re not being marketed. ## You don't need a cape. If you've had enough of being told your neurodivergence is either a gift to package or a problem to fix — and you want a coach who treats it as neither — we should talk. Book a free 45-minute Introductory Call. [ Book Your Introductory Call ](https://tonypiper.coach/introductory-call) Last updated: April 22, 2026