Meet Sian Kilgour

Sian Kilgour is a Business Director at BWP Group, an integrated marketing agency based in Marlow. Her role involves marketing for clients, particularly social impact campaigns. Having worked with BWP Group for the last ten years, Sian notes the company’s great employee retention rate and supportive work environment. 

Sian’s neurodiversity journey started with her children. When her 9-year-old was diagnosed with autism and ADHD, Sian sat through his assessment and realised that she resonated with a lot of the ADHD traits and behaviours that were mentioned; ‘I’d go around the house and start a load of different jobs at the same time. Meanwhile, my husband would have completed one task meticulously.’ 

Sian likened her realisation to: ‘having a plug in your brain where you’ve had a restricted view of everything. But, suddenly, someone takes the plug out and you have a different perspective on life.’

Sian Kilgour, Business Director

Working With Your Neurodiversity

Upon further self-reflection, Sian recognised a pattern of ADHD behaviours throughout her life; particularly when it came to her working styles: ‘I’d complete 95% of a task, then really struggle to complete the last 5%. I particularly struggled with tasks that didn’t have a fixed deadline.’

‘Now, i’m always aware when i’m getting to the final stage of a project, and find ways to stay focused. If I can feel my interest dropping off, I try working in a different location or setting myself a false deadline. I find I can be much more productive if I take myself away from my desk and work somewhere different.’

Sian recognises the impact that her organisation has on her productivity; ‘I have a lot of freedom here at BWP Group. Our CEO will suggest meeting off site if we’ve got a big task ahead for a change in environment. We also have Hybrid working, which offers great flexibility.’ 

Offering advice for other neurodivergent individuals, Sian says: ‘learn to recognise when you’re most productive and find strategies that work best for your brain.’

The Power Of Neurodiversity

Sian notes that there are still a lot of misconceptions surrounding neurodiversity; ‘there’s still a lot of stigma around neurodiversity – a lot of negativity.’ 

Despite the stigma surrounding it, Sian believes that neurodiversity brings a lot of gifts, adding; ‘I don’t think I would have achieved as much (without my ADHD) or had as many experiences.’

Creating An Inclusive Workplace

Recently, BWP Group has created several Employee Resource Groups. Each group focuses on a different issue that the employees are passionate about; such as the environment, diversity and volunteering. Sian is part of the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) group, who are currently working on providing more company training and workshops. 

Enna held a Neurodiversity Deep Dive training session at BWP Group’s headquarters this October. This half day workshop discusses all things neurodiversity; what it is, how to talk about it and how employees can support their neurodivergent colleagues in the workplace. Sian hopes that: ‘employees will start to reach out to me (following the workshops) and be open to starting conversations about how we can better support (neurodivergent) people, as well as sharing their own experiences.’

If you’d like Enna to help you make your organisation more inclusive, you can view our training brochure here.