My Work Profile: Building Understanding and Supporting Psychological Safety
My Work Profile is a practical, self‑guided neuroinclusive tool designed to help employees clearly identify and articulate how they work best and their individual needs to help managers and teams support employees more effectively.
Workplaces are full of capable, well‑intentioned professionals who still find themselves misaligned, frustrated, or exhausted. More often than not, the issue isn’t performance or motivation, but a lack of shared understanding around how people work.
We expect employees to collaborate, communicate clearly, and perform well, and yet we rarely give them a safe, structured way to explain what they need to do their best work. Instead, we work with each other based on assumptions, unspoken rules, and guesswork.
This is something we see repeatedly through our neuroinclusive coaching and consultancy work. Over many years of supporting neurodivergent professionals, managers, and teams, we have come to understand that when people don’t have to guess how to work together, trust and psychological safety grow.
My Work Profile helps people articulate their best ways of working to stop the guesswork.
Understanding How We Work Is Essential
Work is complex. Roles are fast‑paced, environments are stimulating, and expectations are often unclear or constantly shifting. Many professionals carry a heavy cognitive and emotional load just trying to keep up, often without ever naming what’s contributing to their stress.
We tend to focus conversations on what needs to be done, rather than how people function best while doing it. This is where misunderstandings can creep in.
One person processes information verbally; another needs it in writing.
One thrives with autonomy; another needs clear structure and timeframes.
One person appears quiet in meetings but has strong ideas once given time to think.
Without shared understanding, behaviours are easily misread.
My Work Profile creates space for these differences to be named clearly and respectfully, so there is shared understanding and support for different ways of working.
Work Becomes Harder When People Have to Guess
When someone doesn’t feel able to explain how they work best, they often default to coping strategies such as:
masking discomfort or overload
overworking to compensate
staying silent to avoid drawing attention
pushing through at the expense of wellbeing
In neuroinclusive coaching, we regularly hear things like:
“I didn’t think I was allowed to ask for that.”
“I couldn’t put into words what wasn’t working.”
“I didn’t want to seem difficult.”
My Work Profile reduces this load by providing the language to help articulate what people need.
For example, instead of silently struggling, someone might name:
“I prefer written follow‑up after verbal discussions so I can refer back to it.”
“I work best on focused tasks in the morning and prefer meetings in the afternoon.”
“If possible, please let me know the purpose of meetings in advance so I can prepare.”
These are not demands, but insights into how people do their best work. And when they are visible, work becomes easier for everyone.
What Is My Work Profile?
My Work Profile is a practical, self‑guided resource designed to help people clearly articulate how they work best, and to help managers and teams support employees more effectively, without guesswork.
It invites reflection across areas that commonly create friction at work, including communication, environment, wellbeing, learning, collaboration, and feedback.
Rather than asking people to share deeply personal information, the profile focuses on practical conditions for success.
It can be used universally for any employee at any level within the organisation, taking a strengths-based and affirming approach to articulating how we do our best work.
What people typically include in their Profile
The example guide provides prompts and example responses to help people put language around things that often feel hard to articulate.
Below are a few prompts from the guide that includes dozens of examples:
Communication preferences
“I prefer written communication (email or Teams), especially to confirm verbal instructions.”
“I value acknowledgement of emails, even if brief.”
“If something is urgent, a message is better than a voicemail.”
Environment and sensory considerations
“Loud or competing noise can be challenging, and noise‑cancelling headphones help.”
“I’m sensitive to heat and work better in air‑conditioned spaces.”
“I focus best when seated away from busy walkways.”
Wellbeing and regulation
“I work best with set periods of focus followed by short breaks.”
“If I become quieter than usual, it may be a sign I’m overwhelmed.”
“Getting outside briefly helps me reset when I’m under pressure.”
These simple statements carry immense value, especially when shared, understood, and actioned across teams.
Built from lived experience and coaching insight
My Work Profile wasn’t created in isolation or drawn from theory alone, but it reflects decades of working alongside neurodivergent professionals and managers, supporting them to understand, articulate and share how they work best.
My Work Profile has been refined over years of real-world workplace use, evolving with the ever-increasing complexity of high‑performing, neurodiverse workplaces. It bridges the gap between guesswork and clarity, creating a shared language for better ways of working.
My Work Profile Supporting Psychological Safety
Psychological safety is built through everyday signals that tell an employee that it’s safe to ask, safe to share and safe to be authentic. It’s a core expectation of every workplace that psychological safety is evident and felt.
There are many ways leaders can help cultivate a safe workplace, and the My Work Profile is a practical and effective way to encourage open, honest communication, creating a sense of being heard and understood.
My Work Profile supports psychological safety by:
showing that difference is normal and to be embraced
reducing ambiguity around work expectations
encouraging curiosity instead of judgement
making it safer to talk about wellbeing before crisis points arise
For example, when someone can share: “If I miss details, please be sure to let me know so I can rectify it” or “I need additional time to transition between tasks”, they’re no longer relying on people to assume what they need.
Crucially, when leaders engage with these profiles thoughtfully, they model inclusive, human‑centred leadership for the entire team.
Case Study: My Work Profile in Practice
Below is an example of My Work Profile in action, which shows how it affects how the employee works at a deep level.
Alex works in a busy government department and is consistently described by his manager as capable, committed, and conscientious. He takes pride in producing high‑quality work and holds himself to very high standards.
Over time, however, this perfectionism began to work against him. Alex would spend significant time refining tasks to ensure they were done “properly,” often going deeper than was required.
As multiple pieces of work competed for his attention, he became increasingly overwhelmed and anxious about falling behind. From the outside, his manager could see that Alex was struggling, but without understanding what was driving the overwhelm, she was unsure how to support him without appearing to lower expectations or intervene unnecessarily.
Completing My Work Profile gave Alex language for things he had never clearly articulated at work before. He was able to explain that explicit instructions and clear expectations were critical, that he processed information best when tasks were broken into smaller steps, and that competing priorities were particularly challenging.
He also shared that guidance on what mattered most, along with indicative timeframes for tasks, helped him regulate how much time and energy he spent on each piece of work. Importantly, Alex was able to name that understanding what a good outcome looked like made a significant difference, as it helped him resist the urge to over‑perfect and permitted him to stop when the work was fit for purpose.
Once this Profile was shared, his manager adjusted how work was delegated by chunking tasks into clear components, outlining priorities, providing approximate time expectations, and describing what successful completion looked like.
As a result, Alex experienced significantly less overwhelm, felt safer asking for clarification, and was able to manage his workload more proactively. His manager also felt more confident supporting performance in a way that was structured, fair, and inclusive.
This wasn’t about special treatment; it was about understanding how Alex does his best work and being able to create the conditions to make that happen.
Stop Guessing and Start Working Better Together
My Work Profile reflects years of deep listening, coaching practice, and neuroinclusive expertise at Little Neuroinclusion Agency. We know it helps because we have seen it first-hand with dozens of neurodivergent professionals, managers and teams we have worked with across all types of industries. We also use it within Little Neuroinclusion Agency, so our team is understanding, adaptive and embracing of our differences and strengths.
My Work Profile is an invitation to start working better together. Because when people feel understood at work, everything changes.
Want to get started?
My Work Profile Template and Example Guide can be purchased as a digital downloaded. Why not make a little step towards a more neuoinclusive team today? Follow this link.
