Neurodiversity in the Workforce: Eric Lefebvre Of Sovos On Why It’s Important To Include Neurodiverse Employees & How To Make Your Workplace More Neuro-Inclusive

Let the world know. If you’ve nailed the first 4 practices, then break out the megaphones and spread the word. Share your values on your corporate website. Include them in your recruiting announcements and press releases. Get the proverbial neon sign reading ‘Neurodiverse Welcome Here’. The more companies that share and promote, the more it becomes a norm and we truly change the world.

Research suggests that up to 15–20% of the U.S. population is neurodivergent. There has been a slow but vitally important rise in companies embracing neurodiversity. How can companies support neurodiversity in the workplace? What are some benefits of including neurodiverse employees? To address these questions, we are talking to successful business leaders who can share stories and insights from their experience about “Neurodiversity in the Workforce: Companies Including Neurodiverse Employees”. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Eric Lefebvre.

As chief technology officer (CTO), Eric sets and oversees the technology strategy for Sovos. With more than 25 years of experience leading technology teams, he is a strong proponent for establishing a vision and then providing his teams with room to work, ensuring they have the freedom to tap into their full potential. Eric has worked in many industries including consulting, healthcare, consumer goods, and financial services, and is a US Army veteran.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you ended up where you are?

Well, I started my adult life in uniform with the US Army & Connecticut National Guard, which was a logical fit having grown up in a US Navy household. There I learned at a very early age about leadership and operating in high-change environments. That carried through most of my career after completing my bachelor’s degree and starting my professional work as a traveling consultant. Once I was engaged to my wife, I started as a developer for a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) and completed my Executive MBA. From there I moved into consumer goods, then on to the payments industry, finally landing at Sovos in the compliance technology space.

Throughout my entire career, I usually had a new role every 12 to 18 months. This led me down the road of being more of a generalist with leadership roles in many technology and product management functions, while even spending some time as a pre-sales system engineer. Again, the common element in these companies was constant change and the opportunity to continue learning new things.

You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

• Desire to learn — As an avid reader, much of my career was marked by adjacent moves into new areas. This afforded me the opportunity to learn new skills, business, and operations. I spent 16 years at Avon Products and had about 14 different roles across functions and geographies. There’s nothing more powerful than learning lessons in one context and being able to apply them in another context.
• Willingness to listen — I took the management track for most of my career, so I spent as much time on soft skills as I did on hard technology skills. While in a management course for my MBA, the professor showed us a picture of the then-current CEO of Subway, Fred DeLuca, at some conference. The picture showed Fred leaning in as someone was speaking to him. The lesson I learned from that photo was that good executives listen more than they talk. Those who know me will tell you I like to talk, but I also try very hard to be a good listener.
• Ability to motivate and support — I served at the end of the Cold War, and we had a saying ‘Mission First, People Always’. Early on it was ingrained into me that leaders accomplish goals through their people and while getting the job done (completing the mission) was the measure of success, it could not be achieved without the squad, platoon, or company (taking care of your people). Today, I spend a lot of time working with seasoned professionals helping them grow and develop to ultimately become a CIO or CTO of a company (if that’s their desire).

Can you share a story about one of your greatest work-related struggles? Can you share what you did to overcome it?

Earlier in my career I was passed over for a promotion. I thought I had done everything and more. I hit all my SMART goals, nailed my stretch goals and was ready for the recognition of my hard work. I was crushed as I left my annual review with my manager. After the disappointment turned to anger, then to pity, I decided to ask. I set up time with my manager and had a fact-based conversation about my goals, my achievement and provided examples of how I was operating at the next level.

The manager was hesitant to give me any actionable feedback, nor any concrete examples of where I was lacking. After a prolonged time probing for areas of improvement, they finally told me that some of my peers felt I was too blunt, too quick to act, and too decisive. This was obviously difficult for me to hear as I prided myself on being a resolute and action-driven leader. My time in uniform led me to believe these were the character traits of great leaders. This was the day I learned that 2 things can be equally true and seem equally opposite at the same time.

That day I also realized that how you do the job is as important as getting the job done. That day really changed my approach to how to get people bought into a vision, rally for the kickoff of a project, or invest in driving an initiative. Years later I would read the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson and see a quote that encapsulated this concept: “If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together”. I found out later that this is an African proverb, but I’m no paremiologist. The point is when you face a setback, get through the 6 stages of grief quickly so you can assess and learn from the experience. Then apply that learning to the next scenarios you encounter. Make a conscious effort until it becomes muscle memory.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

So many come to mind it’s hard to pick just a couple. My leadership team often jokes that we are changing everything, everywhere, all at once and we often ride the same emotional rollercoaster as those who have seen the movie. One initiative underway which I spend a lot of time on is the digitization of economies in Europe. Post-COVID, there was a massive wave of changes to the indirect or value-added tax space. Major European economies are redefining concepts around the identity of their citizens and how indirect (non-payroll) taxes are defined and captured. VAT in the Digital Age (VIDA) will literally transform business and how citizens interact with their government for millions of people. It is one of the largest changes in Europe since the Marshall Plan. Being involved in change at this scale is both exciting and humbling.

While that is externally facing, internally we have several efforts underway to modernize the look and feel of many of our flagship products. This past fiscal year we launched major new experiences for our Sales Tax Filing system, our Small Business 1099 product, and ShipCompliant. This new fiscal year we are working to modernize our flagship 1099 product for large enterprises, TaxPort. There are also significant efforts underway on retiring technology debt, modernizing our data center infrastructure, cloud-enabling our corporate technology services and optimizing our business applications to support our massive growth forecast in the coming years.

Fantastic. Let’s now shift to our discussion about neurodiversity in the workforce. Can you tell our readers a bit about your experience working with initiatives to include neurodiverse employees? Can you share a story with us?

I’ve always been a strong ally and supporter of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) before we even had a name for it. In the military we were taught that we were all green, meaning it didn’t matter your skin tone, background, or religion, because we were all soldiers. Green was the color of our uniforms.

Today, our work at Sovos around inclusion and belonging often is led through DEIB efforts as we listen, learn, and evolve our interactions with each other. I’ve always been an advocate in this space yet was also aware that diversity can be internal as well as external. As a veteran, I, like many others, see the impact of service on young men and women whose scars aren’t always on the outside.

Neurodiversity is often the same in that there aren’t always physical indications. Many people may themselves not even be aware they are neurodiverse as we’re just starting to have real conversations about the topic and mental health in general. This is acute for me as we have a neurodiverse household where my family and I all have had our own challenges and each one is unique to them. We use the term neurodiverse, but the spectrum is broad and within each category are further spectrums. One thing both parties must understand is that knowledge is power, and questions are not judgments. People generally want to know how to work together, and so open and honest communication is always key.

This may be obvious to you, but it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you articulate to our readers a few reasons why it is so important for a business or organization to have an inclusive work culture?

In a post-COVID world, moving into the fourth industrial revolution, so much of what we expected in a professional working environment has changed:

• Businesses are truly global, spanning multiple time zones, and yet the need to communicate effectively and timely remains.
• Knowledge work can now be performed anywhere, at any time, on any device.
• Asynchronous communication and delivery are now the norm and in-person 9 to 5 office schedules are the exception.
• Successful organizations are measuring outcomes and individual contributions while moving away from the traditional time at desk/online measures of productivity.
• Many employees value a firm’s vision, its stance on ESG principles, and its position on inclusion as much as compensation and benefits.

Inclusion of people, experience and thought is critical for businesses to succeed because every scaled business is already geographically, culturally, and operationally diverse today. An organization that does not embrace a diverse and inclusive environment will be stunted in growth and quickly outpaced in today’s climate. Add in that technology as often divides us as it unites us and there is a huge desire for people to feel like they belong somewhere to something.

Can you share a few examples of ideas that were implemented at your workplace to help include neurodiverse employees? Can you share with us how the work culture was affected as a result?

We recognized Neurodiversity Celebration Month globally by providing our organization with information about the aspects of neurodiversity and the strengths of those individuals which can drive benefits to businesses. We delivered training to help employees and managers understand how to be more supportive of their colleagues who may be neurodiverse. This training is available to everyone globally and we will also discuss some of the resources available to assist neurodiverse employees like the feature to turn off pop-ups or how to decrease the brightness on your monitor or mobile. In addition, we will have an open discussion about accommodations.

We have a group of employees who have self-identified as neurodiverse, and they are providing the training. They are happy to be able to discuss how to be more supportive, so others don’t have to struggle as they have in the workplace. They feel included by having the organization listen and try to understand their lived experiences. They are more motivated because they believe Sovos cares — one of my colleagues said in her 30+ years of working, this is the first time she has felt psychologically safe enough to inform her manager and colleagues that she is neurodiverse.

We are providing exposure and education to the various aspects of diversity as we show our organization how to be more inclusive and are actively helping our team recognize and mitigate bias towards that which they do not understand.

What are some of the challenges or obstacles to including neurodivergent employees? What needs to be done to address those obstacles?

One of the most important steps for living with neurodiversity is to fully understand how it impacts your life and what coping tools you can use to excel. My career is somewhat atypical in that I’ve had many roles across many industries — the desire for new stimuli is a manifestation of the need to always be moving, contributing, and learning. Even while working at companies for multiple years, I’ve spent time in numerous functions, including application development, infrastructure, support, architecture, project management and product.

This is all well and good for me, however, a young professional without self-awareness, supportive leadership, and an inclusive culture, will struggle. Like most DEIB efforts, education is critical for both staff and leadership. This is not something that happens organically in most cases. Senior leadership must declare that this is the organization and cultural construct the company will follow and then drive programs to educate, support and assess progress.

Getting immersed in a range of roles allowed me to tap into a broad spectrum of experiences and see the whole picture, ensuring that teams are not left out or brought in late. This directly impacts my leadership style of encouraging larger kickoff meetings that have multiple levels of people from the organization, so everyone can understand the “why.” I find that when a team truly understands the why and is also empowered to craft the “how,” they are more successful and feel a greater sense of ownership and engagement. Not every leader has had that kind of experience and so we must also be inclusive and appreciate that not every leader has the tools necessary to make that change without support.

How do you and your organization educate yourselves and your teams on the concept of neurodiversity and the needs of neurodivergent employees? Are there any resources, training, or workshops that you have found particularly helpful?

I mentioned a few examples we are doing as an organization to increase awareness in the workplace, foster a more inclusive environment, provide examples of coping tools to help individuals be more successful, and a peer network for that person to touch. There has been a noticeable uptick in the number of company-backed programs raising awareness and teaching teams how to be inclusive of those with neurodiversity. At the same time, at least here in the U.S., mental health and diversity, neuro or otherwise, have seen a massive increase in education for both managers and employees. The reality is that neurodiversity can’t always be seen from the outside, and there’s likely a fair number of people who don’t even realize they are neurodiverse. Perhaps those individuals have never done well in school, or they struggle taking tests, or get impatient quickly; but because they’ve not spoken with a professional, they may not even be aware.

Encouraging employees to explore their own neurodiversity must begin with fostering a culture of acceptance. DEI programs must be open to all variations of diversity, including those who are not neurotypical. It’s not necessary to label everyone and match them to a category. Instead, provide a safe environment where everyone can bring their whole selves to work. Leaders should be trained to listen and appreciate someone with a background different than their own and to collaborate on processes and manage expectations.

Every engagement survey I’ve seen in the last 30 years has indicated that this is the direct supervisor and their relationship with their team that drives culture, belonging and success. Pairing emotional intelligence models with a coaching mindset requires us to move past labels and understand the person, often forcing us to better understand ourselves in the process. Those who create a culture of acceptance, where each employee can bring their whole self to work, will win in the race for talent, while simultaneously creating a better organization for the future.

This is the main question of our interview. Can you please share five best practices that can make a business place feel more welcoming and inclusive of people who are neurodivergent?

1 . Define your culture as one that is inclusive and reinforced. Write it down, put it on posters, and reference it at every opportunity. Today’s world is more remote than ever and requires a constant effort to be purposeful about your corporate culture. It must be more than words. Executives need to be vulnerable and share their own stories as examples to managers. Chances are there’s a neurodiverse executive at your company. If you are in an early-stage growth company or a startup, there are likely a few of us.

2 . Ensure your DEIB program includes neurodiversity within its scope. Culture-driven top-down only will get you so far. DEIB programs must play a key role here. Review your DEIB’s 5 P’s and assess whether they need updating or not. Like any improvement program, these should be reviewed frequently as we learn more and see progress. Managers and staff must be educated on eliminating bias and seeing people as just people. These values aren’t limited to just supporting neurodiverse individuals, but all individuals.

3 . Recruit for roles where neurodiversity behaviors are considered strengths. Find roles where people can be successful and actively recruit. Things like attention to detail, the ability to hyperfocus, pattern matching, and creativity all describe the external manifestations of someone neurodiverse in the workplace. Every company has roles that require these kinds of skills. Also ensure that the support system is in place as hyperfocus is great until the individual misses 3 meetings because they were in the zone.

4 . Establish peer support groups. Whether you call them Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), Bird of a Feather (BoFs), or some other name, the number one contributor to success in any organization is whether your staff feel they have people who care about them at their workplace. That sense of belonging is extremely important for all employees and for young staff, essential for their success. These groups provide comradery, shared experiences, a support network, and mentorship. Sometimes just knowing you are not alone is the most overlooked kindness.

5 . Let the world know. If you’ve nailed the first 4 practices, then break out the megaphones and spread the word. Share your values on your corporate website. Include them in your recruiting announcements and press releases. Get the proverbial neon sign reading ‘Neurodiverse Welcome Here’. The more companies that share and promote, the more it becomes a norm and we truly change the world.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story about how that was relevant in your own life?

“Be the change you wish to see in the world” is often attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, although more accurate would beIf we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change toward him… We need not wait to see what others do’. It resonates with me in that we must pick up the mantle and mold the future world the way we want it. If we don’t, things will stagnate and progress ceases. The buck truly stops with us. I wish I had this appreciation when I was younger and yet today, I still struggle with consciously knowing and actually doing.

Knowing and doing are two distinctly different things and I find myself in situations where I should know what to do yet I do something different. It happens to me at work dealing with peers or staff and it still happens at home with my wife of 30 years and our children. Thankfully many of the people in my life are willing to call me out when that occurs. I’m usually not happy about being called out, but after I move past the annoyance, I can see their perspective and try to improve from that example. We are imperfect beings, and our communication is also imperfect. We must be willing to accept that and find common ground. If one person reads this interview and makes a change at their company that helps one neurodiverse person increase their chance of success, it would be worth it.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I would like to see a more inclusive work environment where people can bring their whole selves to work, partnering with leadership on productivity goals achieved through flexible schedules creating a reasonable balance while still delivering massive value for all stakeholders. Someday we’ll be at a point where the common conventions around where people work and what hours they work will be less important than the value they contribute to the success of the organization. While we redefine the measure of productivity and value, we also move past highlighting that which makes us different, and we focus on pulling together to achieve common objectives in a safe space where we can be who we really are always.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Folks interested in the industry or general technology management, you can follow me on LinkedIn or on the Sovos website.

For those who are struggling with their situation, I encourage them to reach out to their Employee Assistance Programs and see if their company offers coaching programs. The International Coaching Federation, ICF, is a professional certification body for coaches and offers coaches that specialize in supporting neurodiverse individuals to achieve.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success and good health!

About the Interviewer: Eric L. Pines is a nationally recognized federal employment lawyer, mediator, and attorney business coach. He represents federal employees and acts as in-house counsel for over fifty thousand federal employees through his work as a federal employee labor union representative. A formal federal employee himself, Mr. Pines began his federal employment law career as in-house counsel for AFGE Local 1923 which is in Social Security Administration’s headquarters and is the largest federal union local in the world. He presently serves as AFGE 1923’s Chief Counsel as well as in-house counsel for all FEMA bargaining unit employees and numerous Department of Defense and Veteran Affairs unions.

While he and his firm specialize in representing federal employees from all federal agencies and in reference to virtually all federal employee matters, his firm has placed special attention on representing Veteran Affairs doctors and nurses hired under the authority of Title. He and his firm have a particular passion in representing disabled federal employees with their requests for medical and religious reasonable accommodations when those accommodations are warranted under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (ADA). He also represents them with their requests for Federal Employee Disability Retirement (OPM) when an accommodation would not be possible.

Mr. Pines has also served as a mediator for numerous federal agencies including serving a year as the Library of Congress’ in-house EEO Mediator. He has also served as an expert witness in federal court for federal employee matters. He has also worked as an EEO technical writer drafting hundreds of Final Agency Decisions for the federal sector.

Mr. Pines’ firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas and has offices in Baltimore, Maryland and Atlanta, Georgia. His first passion is his wife and five children. He plays classical and rock guitar and enjoys playing ice hockey, running, and biking. Please visit his websites at www.pinesfederal.com and www.toughinjurylawyers.com. He can also be reached at eric@pinesfederal.com.