I am very upfront about having Dyslexia. I\u2019ve told every boss and colleague I\u2019ve ever had, probably more than once. I lived in such fear that they would think I was stupid or incapable because: \u2018My name is Sasha Colvile, and my spelling and grammar are honestly appalling.\u2019<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t actually remember ever learning about grammar in school. I was almost certainly in the classroom but I was not concentrating. I remember my first struggle with spelling like it was yesterday. I was in primary school, and my classmates and I were all given a word we had misspelt. Everyone had words like \u2018lion\u2019 or something similarly spectacular, and I had \u2018of\u2019 \u2013 which I had spelt \u2018ov\u2019. Years went by with my creative licence when it came to spelling and grammar. And then came my Odyssey\u2026<\/p>\n
Reading The Odyssey.<\/p>\n
Only, I didn\u2019t read it.<\/p>\n
The words would move around, I would read the same thing over and over again and forget everything. So my parents got it for me on CD. I sat at our kitchen table for 13 hours and 3 long minutes, listening and making notes on that book. Unsurprisingly, a lot of my classics essays were very unkind about Odysseus and his adventures.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m honestly slightly scarred from school. I was told I was bad at writing, bad at reading, bad at concentrating and had bad handwriting. Back then, dyslexia support amounted to: \u2018Here\u2019s some extra time in your exam, do you want a laptop?\u2019<\/p>\n
The corporate equivalent of \u2018Will you write on the whiteboard in front of the class?\u2019 is \u2018Will you share your screen and take notes?\u2019 I hate it, it makes me clammy, panicked and embarrassed all over again. Your peers\u2019 laughter at school is replaced by your colleagues\u2019 laughter at work. The judgement that you can\u2019t spell or struggle with reading has continued well into my adult life even after explaining \u2018I\u2019m Dyslexic, I struggle with x\u2019.<\/p>\n
But less of the woe is me \u2013 this was meant to be more about what good qualities my brain does have, and why even in comms dyslexia shouldn\u2019t hold you back.<\/p>\n
A good business doesn\u2019t hire carbon copies of the same employee, they recognise individual strengths and create teams around that. A Dyslexic brain isn\u2019t a bad brain, it\u2019s just different. At Grayling, our growth team is small but mighty. I would say mine and my colleague Ellie\u2019s skills complement each other pretty well. She is exceptional at writing, can proof a document in double time and understands the laws of grammar like no one I\u2019ve ever met. I bring the creativity, would rather call then write an email and occasionally bake \u2013 a perfect team dynamic.<\/p>\n
My point is, your uniqueness is your USP and being neurodivergent isn\u2019t a negative, it is simply your point of difference. In the business of agency where we are constantly trying to display our points of difference in order to win new business and clients, why can\u2019t that be you?<\/p>\n
Finally, if you ever come across someone who makes you feel less than or doesn\u2019t take the time to understand your Dyslexia, you could always tell them to go away in some colourful language and then when they complain tell them it was spelling mistake.<\/p>\n
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