Final month within the Oval Workplace, President Trump said that people with learning disabilities shouldn’t be president, particularly calling out California Governor Gavin Newsom’s dyslexia. This wasn’t simply deceptive—it was dangerous. Listening to the individual within the highest workplace within the U.S. declare that dyslexia disqualifies somebody from management sends a harmful message to the following era.
One in 5 folks have a learning and thinking difference like dyslexia and ADHD, and so they battle stigma and misconceptions each day. Even so, listening to an achieved dyslexic chief known as “dumb” and a “low-IQ individual” in entrance of all the world will be deeply damaging.
Dyslexia isn’t new or uncommon. It’s a distinction that impacts roughly 20% of the population. It additionally accounts for 80-90% of all studying disabilities. It impacts studying and spelling, not mental skill or management. In truth, in accordance with a report from Made By Dyslexia, at the least one in three entrepreneurs are dyslexic. So after we counsel excluding dyslexic folks from management, we’d be excluding an enormous share of expertise. And as a dyslexic government myself, I can say firsthand that my dyslexia has not held me again. It has helped me turn into a greater chief.
NO ONE THINKS THE SAME
It ought to be understood by now that no two folks study or assume the identical approach and that distinction will not be a deficit. Neurodiversity is partially what makes people able to main, creating, and connecting in extraordinary methods. In accordance with an Understood.org study, practically half of individuals within the inventive business—together with promoting, marketing, public relations, and media—determine as neurodivergent, which is considerably greater than the overall inhabitants (31%). However prevalence isn’t the purpose. The true story is what dyslexic thinkers deliver to management.
The world was not constructed to accommodate these with studying and pondering variations like dyslexia. These residing with it must navigate these techniques and develop new approaches to inventive drawback fixing, big-picture pondering, and communication. The traits that may make college tough are sometimes the identical ones that permit folks to construct corporations.
Barbara Corcoran was a daydreaming, straight-D student who endured years of children calling her dumb. She now runs an actual property empire price tens of millions, which she credit to her dyslexia. As she shared on LinkedIn, her dyslexia fueled her creativeness, resilience, and empathy wanted to turn into the “queen of New York actual property” and enterprise mogul we all know at the moment.
Barbara’s fellow Shark Tank investor Daymond John struggled with studying and spelling at school, however recognized early on that he thrived at the intersection of creative and analytical thinking. He leaned into these abilities, which led him to create the massively profitable clothes line FUBU and launch his entrepreneurial profession.
INCREASED AWARENESS
Governor Newsom’s profession is proof that he can deal with adversity. He’s spent greater than 20 years in authorities as a dyslexic chief. And he’s definitely not the primary dyslexic public servant. Some historians consider that presidents George Washington and Woodrow Wilson had been dyslexic. Proof that how your mind processes data doesn’t decide health of management.
Lately, there’s been rising consciousness of neurodiversity, particularly amongst younger folks and within the office, however many myths and misperceptions nonetheless exist. In accordance with the Neurodiversity at Work examine we carried out with The Harris Poll in 2025, 70% of neurodivergent adults shared that they expertise greater ranges of stigma within the office. This has elevated from 60% the earlier 12 months. Feedback like these made this week definitely don’t assist.
Nonetheless, progress is underway. Corporations are starting to acknowledge neurodiversity as a aggressive benefit. Extra organizations are constructing neuroinclusive hiring and leadership programs. Employers are studying that alternative ways of pondering drive innovation and development, and types are constructing products and campaigns that talk to the neurodivergent neighborhood.
EMBRACE THE DIFFERENCES
However actual change requires motion. It begins with management and is strengthened by training. And by embedding neuroinclusion into hiring practices, methods of working, and worker and enterprise useful resource teams. It means leaning into what fuels each creativity and productivity: flexibility, autonomy, and teamwork. It additionally means shifting from reactive to proactive lodging, together with universal design approaches that assist all workers from the beginning.
However most of all, it means giving folks the area to embrace their mind and lean into their superpowers.
I’m somebody who has made my approach as much as the C-suite degree in a corporation devoted to supporting folks in my footwear. My management at the moment is a direct results of the challenges I confronted getting right here and the presents that my uniquely wired mind provides me. And for Barbara Corcoran and Daymond John, it’s the identical. So why ought to this alteration for the position of presidency?
Management shouldn’t be outlined by how simply somebody reads or writes. It ought to be outlined by imaginative and prescient, creativity, and the flexibility to unravel issues. Dyslexia doesn’t stop management. In lots of circumstances, it helps create it.
Nathan Friedman is co-president and chief advertising and marketing officer of Understood.org.
