When I'm Asking Questions, It Just Comes Off as Being Competitive or Being Defensive

"ADHD is never an excuse; it's an explanation." Listen as your host, Eric Tivers, and his guest Angela Pieper discuss how companies can have more empathy around neurodiverse people while still holding them to the same standards as neurotypical employees, plus much more on this episode of .  Angela has worked in the alcoholic beverage industry for over fifteen years in roles ranging from waiting tables to managing multi-million dollar portfolios. She hopes to affect change in diversity and inclusion initiatives for people with neurodiverse conditions. Angela is a mom to a brilliant seventeen-year-old daughter and loves to travel with her husband. Listen as Angela discusses the company she works for and how the culture is important for her, what she would like her company to do to educate the leadership team around the struggles of neurodiverse employees, and how these same people can add value to the organization. Angela shares some strategies and tools she uses in the workplace that have helped her and helped some of her neurotypical colleagues. Angela speaks about what her ideal workplace would look like and how she would change the world if she could to help neurodiverse people in the workplace. Angela believes that if companies and leadership teams educated themselves about these issues, they could retain employees, which would help their bottom line. You'll learn: [02:36] Welcome to the show, Angela! [03:27] Angela explains why she wanted to come on the podcast. [05:26] Angela speaks about having the MTHFR gene mutation and how it affects people. [08:23] Angela shares how she felt when she realized she appeared combative or defensive when being curious. [10:07] Did you change the way you asked questions or change your tone? [12:18] Angela talks about being on a performance improvement plan and how her 90-day review went. [15:04] Angela speaks about where she wants to be in the next year. [18:51] Angela discusses the company culture she works in and how important it is for her to work for a company that talks the talk and walks the walk. [27:31] Angela shares what she wants to see companies do around neurodiversity and her company specifically. [29:52] How does this understanding of neurodiverse people add value to an organization? [31:08] Angela describes some tools and strategies she uses. [34:16] Eric believes that we should be curious about how people do and think differently. [36:55] By the age of 12, children with ADHD have five times a day more corrections than children without ADHD do. [39:26] Angela's ultimate goal is to say let's work together to figure out how we can fix this instead of being shoved into the neurotypical box. [44:58] What would your ideal workplace look like? [48:57] Angela speaks about what her ideal role would be. [52:34] Angela discusses how she would change the world for neurodiverse people in the workplace. [55:23] Angela shares some final thoughts about the awareness around ADHD. [57:03] Thank you for being on the show! [57:59] If you are a regular listener, consider becoming a patron click on our Patreon tap at Use my Audible.com affiliate link for your favorite titles: ADHD reWired Coaching and Accountability Groups The 16th season of the ADHD reWired Coaching and Accountability groups are ending soon.  ArC 17 Summer Sessions run July 11th – Sept. 19th.   We only have 9 spots remaining. Please visit to learn more and sign-up for our Last Scheduled Registration Event on June 11th at 3 PM CT.  You don’t want to miss it! Support the Podcast on Patreon Patreon allows listeners like you to support content creators like me. With a monthly contribution, you can get access to different levels of perks.  One perk example is our Patron-only Group Coaching Sessions.  Learn more at . ADHD reWired Facebook Group: If you would like to apply to join the ADHD reWired Secret Facebook group, go to and fill out the application. Productivity Q&A Get your ADHD questions answered live! These Q&A sessions take place on the 2nd Tuesday of every month at 12:30 PM CT. Go to Want to be a guest? Hey! What about you? Do you have a story? Are you a coach? Are you an ADHD Clinician? If you answered yes to any of these questions and you’d like to be a guest, .