A Broken Brain or a Powerful Thinking Style? How Nancy Unleashed the Gift of Dyslexic Thinking To Help Companies Succeed

Nine years ago, Nancy life changed with a single call from her daughter’s neuropsychologist. Her child had just been diagnosed with dyslexia. In that moment, everything in Nancy’s own life began to make sense. Every late night spent rereading emails, every childhood meltdown over spelling words, every moment of doubt suddenly connected. She realized this wasn’t just her daughter’s story; it was hers too.

After two decades leading HR teams, Nancy had built a successful career in a world that wasn’t designed for her. She hid her struggles and worked twice as hard to keep up with linear thinkers. She thought her brain was a weakness until she realized it was the very thing that had set her apart. Her bosses had unknowingly tapped into her strengths, placing her in roles that played to her creativity, intuition, and problem-solving ability. They gave her room to lead with her strengths instead of punishing her for her differences.

That diagnosis became a mirror. Nancy saw that her dyslexia and ADHD weren’t barriers; they were engines for innovation. When she learned how common dyslexia really is, she was stunned. One in five people are dyslexic. Forty million adults in the U.S. live with it, yet only a small fraction are diagnosed. Most will go through life unaware that the very thing they see as a flaw might be their hidden strength, proof that untapped brilliance is sitting quietly in workplaces everywhere. Nancy’s ability to visualize systems, spot patterns, and read emotional cues helped her build stronger, more balanced teams. She learned to surround herself with people who complemented her strengths rather than hide her challenges. It wasn’t about fixing her weaknesses, it was about using them as fuel for collaboration.

In her HR work, Nancy began to see how many others were quietly doing the same, concealing their differences just to get by. The cost was immense: lost creativity, untapped potential, and burnout. She decided she wouldn’t stay silent. Nancy began sharing her story and coaching others to see their neurodivergence not as something to manage but as something to celebrate.

Her message is simple: the world doesn’t need to fix differently wired brains; it needs to tap into their brilliance. “Some of us are just Macs living in a PC world,” she says. “There’s nothing wrong with the software; it’s the system that needs the update.”

As October marks Dyslexia Awareness Month, Nancy’s journey reminds us that awareness is just the first step. Real progress comes when organizations start designing systems that support every kind of thinker and leaders begin seeing difference as their greatest advantage.

If you think this sounds like you or someone on your team, there’s a path forward. Nancy now coaches professionals and organizations to embrace their different thinking styles, helping turn hidden challenges into visible strength.

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