Refeyn
Neurodiversity Global
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Scenario 04

The customer-facing specialist who masks well

Technical Sales Manager · No formal disclosure

Persona

Name
Priya
Age
38
Role
Technical Sales Manager
Disclosure
No formal disclosure. Priya has privately said she thinks she may be neurodivergent but is not ready to disclose formally. She is worried it could affect how senior colleagues see her capability.
Context
Priya works across complex customer conversations, technical product detail and commercial targets. Externally, she appears confident and capable. She is good at translating scientific detail into customer value. Since the restructure, her internal reporting line changed and the forecasting process was updated. Internal follow-up has started slipping. She is still performing well with customers, but admin, forecasting and internal updates are becoming inconsistent.

Record

  • Strong customer relationships.

  • Good technical-commercial translation.

  • Positive feedback after customer meetings.

  • Increased late-night email activity.

  • Missed one internal forecast update.

  • Has become more irritable when asked for pipeline detail.

  • Says she is keeping the important things moving.

Scenario

Priya delivers a strong customer meeting and helps move a potential deal forward. Later that week, she misses an internal sales operations deadline. In the pipeline review, her manager raises it. Priya says: I am doing the customer work. I cannot do every internal process perfectly as well. The manager has a choice. They can let it go because customer numbers are strong, or they can have a direct conversation about role expectations.

"I am doing the customer work. I cannot do every internal process perfectly as well."

What happened after

If the manager lets it go, Priya works later to catch up on internal tasks. Her replies become shorter. She avoids raising workload concerns because she does not want to be seen as unable to cope. A senior manager praises her customer work, which makes it harder for her line manager to challenge the internal slippage. If the manager has the direct conversation, Priya might push back at first, but the issue is named while it is still small.

Now, in your groups

Discuss in your group

  1. 01

    What is the actual performance issue here?

  2. 02

    What is the cost of waiting?

  3. 03

    How would you open the conversation without making it about disclosure?

  4. 04

    When does this become a formal performance issue, and what would have to change first?

The stretch of discussion

The easy answer is that Priya is performing, so leave it. That is the trap. The harder discussion is that role performance is not just the visible part. If internal commitments are slipping, the role is not being delivered in full, regardless of how strong the customer work is. Treating this as wellbeing only is a mistake. It is a management conversation. The wellbeing question may come later, but it should not replace the role conversation.

What if there was no disclosure?

There is no formal disclosure. The manager should not diagnose or push Priya to label herself. The manager can still say: I have noticed a pattern. I want to understand what is driving it. Let us look at workload, priorities and support. You do not have to disclose anything for us to improve how the work is managed.

Capture your thinking

Group output

Use this to note what your group lands on. One person can capture for the share-back, then save to send it to the facilitator review.