Rob Martin

When and how were you diagnosed as autistic?

I was a marketing consultant for DaDa, which is a Deaf and Disability arts charity, and I shared my requirements with the team for how I liked to work as part of an access audit. I set out how I needed information to do my job and, for example, explained that the most important thing for me was the purpose, the end point, and from that everything else follows. In the interval, someone came over and said, ‘I have only known you for a while, but have you ever considered that you might be autistic?’. I was surprised at the strength of feeling I experienced at that moment, when I quite forcefully said ‘No’. She quite kindly said it might be something I’d want to look into because everything I had described is a sign of autism. That led me to talking to my husband who had been working with autistic CEOs at the time, and consulting Dr Google. I asked my sister, ‘have you ever thought I might be autistic?’ and she said, ‘Yes of course’. I was diagnosed at age 56. The report said that there was no aspect of my life that had not been impacted by my autism, which was quite a shock. Initially, the way I dealt with it was to write a blog about it as I am a writer, and this is the best way for me to articulate my thoughts.

How has being diagnosed as autistic helped you?

Being diagnosed was a shock but also a relief. For years, I had sensed I was different and thought something was wrong. After being diagnosed, I realised there was nothing wrong with me, this was just how I am built. If I hadn't been diagnosed I think I may have continued to feel that I was a bit of a pain in the arse, a bit difficult. Overall, being diagnosed has been a really positive experience. I am a superb masker, and the diagnosis allows me to know I can let some of the masking go, which is helpful to me and those around me personally and professionally.

What strengths do you have from being autistic?

I have a need for clarity and purpose. In marketing, this is ideal as I am always asking ‘what is the point of this?’ ‘what are we doing it for?’ ‘how do we connect to an audience or a set of people?’ This need for logic, clarity, and purpose means I am methodical, analytical, look for facts rather than opinions and I like to keep to the point in a process. This helps me to lead work towards delivering outcomes.

I have very strong values - fairness, kindness, treating people with respect and embracing diversity. My values are quite uncompromising. I don’t understand discrimination because it makes absolutely no sense and is cruel. Racism, sexism, being anti-gay - it makes absolutely no logical sense in my brain. I’ve been a vegetarian since I was a teenager because I couldn’t see the difference between my dog and a pig, and I think it’s this empathetic view - that we should all treat and be treated with respect - that has informed my strengths as a leader. My values were informed by my upbringing, family and the way my brain works but were also reinforced by the experience of growing up gay at the height of the AIDS crisis, and seeing people dying around me. Witnessing so much hate and discrimination first-hand had a real impact on me.

There is a lot of talk about autistic people finding empathy difficult, but I, if anything, am overly empathetic. I really feel others' experiences and I care. But this, combined with my need for logic and purpose, is one of the things that has made me a good leader. It's leading by example of how I would want to be led - with kindness, clarity and a sense of purpose.

Looking back at my career, I also credit my autism with the fact that I have never taken a job I didn't want, and I have always worked for organisations where the purpose mattered. I have only ever done jobs I believed in, and this has to be down to the strong sense of values and not doing things for the sake of it.

What are the biggest challenges?
The flip side of needing a purpose, clarity and responding to empathy is that I can be impatient when that clarity isn’t there and intolerant of different views that I might see as unempathetic. This impatience and intolerance is quite common amongst autistic people. As I work in both the arts and in areas around social justice strongly aligned with my values, this doesn’t happen often at work. However, socially, I do come across views and opinions different to mine and these can get me into situations where I might come across as argumentative and tenacious. I’ll use facts to explain why you are wrong. People don’t like to be told that they are wrong… My bible is a book called 'Factfulness' by Hans Rosling, which I urge everyone to read. It’s about the difference to our lives if we base them on facts rather than opinions, and how much society is governed by opinions over facts. But what I have learnt since my diagnosis is that you can't explain away people's beliefs or their values, as their values are intrinsically held.

Another challenge is knowing when to reveal that I am autistic, not as an excuse, or because I am asking for an adjustment, but in order to help others understand what I might need and the way that I need it, in order to do my job. I usually use the example of someone explaining a card game to illustrate it. Often, someone explaining a card game concentrates on the sequential explanation: first you shuffle the cards, then you deal five of them to each player, then you… What I need first is the endpoint. I need to know from the start what I am aiming for. If I don't know that, then I can't engage. If anything, the strength autism brings to my leadership is always having the end point in mind, whether it's a meeting, creating a strategy, a policy discussion, I am very good at keeping to what we are aiming for, bringing everyone in and steering towards the goal.

Can you tell us about your role as Chair of DaDa?

The Chair of DaDa has to be a deaf, disabled or neurodiverse person. I took the role on temporarily and somewhat reluctantly to help the organisation fulfil funding expectations when the previous Chair had to step down unexpectedly, with the idea that I would hand over to someone I felt would be better qualified. The organisation at the time was going through real challenges and one of the things I was able to do as the Chair was put in place a new CEO who is quite brilliant.  Since, I’ve worked closely with her to strengthen the organisation. The wonderful thing is that it all worked - I haven't seen the organisation, the great team who work for it and the artists we support this buoyant, happy and productive for some time.

I think the part I played was my forthrightness in acknowledging when things are not right and outlining the need to change. And I was not afraid to tackle those situations with kindness and clarity of purpose. What I can do is keep the big picture in mind and bring in the skills and expertise that I don’t have and that we need to improve things. This is something I have learnt that I am good at. Collaboration - trying to ensure that everyone is included. So I’m happy to remain as the Chair for the time being, for as long as it is helpful to the organisation.