Your managers and your #accommodations process are undermining your team’s effectiveness

Your managers and your #accommodations process are undermining your team’s effectiveness.

We already know the two key truths:

👩‍💼 Managers have a bigger impact on employee wellbeing than doctors or therapists.

📈 High-performing teams are built on how people work together, especially psychological safety.

Most managers are not trained to create that safety and the ones causing harm often do not realize it.

So, when a team member mentions a #disability or a barrier they're experiencing during a 1:1 and the manager immediately defaults to "oh go talk to #HR, that's outside of my purview," they're not just passing the buck, they're avoiding an important opportunity to build trust, safety, and team cohesion.

Then HR steps in with invasive questioning, pressure to disclose, and demands for documentation. This invasive accommodations process further erodes trust, safety, and team cohesion because people don't ask for accommodations they don't need.

People do not request accommodations they do not need.

Shocking, I know! 🥴

If you want high-performing teams:

👩‍🏫 Train managers to handle real human conversations, not deflect them.

🤝 Give them the authority and trust to support their teams directly.

👂 Teach them to listen well enough to actually remove barriers.

👀 Have leaders model disability inclusion openly, including their own needs.

⛔ Stop outsourcing trust to HR. Build it inside your teams.

🆘 Want help doing that? DM me or email gill@thelowachiever.com