We at Marching Sheep have always believed, and said, that the people managers are the key stakeholders and protagonists in the inclusion journey of any organisation. And yet, they remain the weakest link. To share a few examples that we have dealt with in recent times.
- An employee with Bowlegs applied for a role in Bangalore. The candidate met all role specifications, had the right experience and skill set, was willing to relocate, had family in Bangalore and asked for no accommodations. And yet the hiring team refused to take the candidature forward as they did not want any ‘risk’ of relocation.
- In another case, a very senior candidate with cerebral palsy, highly educated, non -wheelchair user cleared all rounds of interview. At the offer stage the hiring manager got cold feet and the hiring did not go through. The reason given, that the candidate’s shaking will make other people uncomfortable.
And there are many more such conversations that our inclusive Hiring Team deals with on a daily basis. But once the hiring manager has not bought in, it is a losing battle.
The problem is not that hiring managers do not want to be inclusive; the issue is that they have not been equipped to work with persons with Disabilities.
But what happens when an employee discovers a disability later in life, gets diagnosed with a hidden disability or acquires one due to an external factor, and decides to disclose at work.
A scenario could play out like this.
A team member walks into the room, closes the door, and says, “I’d like to share something with you.”
Sometimes it is a disability. Sometimes it is a chronic health condition. Sometimes it is a mental health diagnosis, a neurodivergent identity, or a request for flexibility.
What happens in the next five minutes often shapes that employee’s experience far more than the accommodation itself.
Over the years, I have worked with hundreds of managers across organisations. One pattern has become impossible to ignore.
Most managers don’t lack empathy. They lack preparation and the language.
Nobody teaches managers what to say when an employee shares something deeply personal. We promote people because they are technically strong, commercially astute, or operationally effective. Then we expect them to navigate deeply human conversations without ever giving them the language, confidence, or frameworks to do so.
As a result, many conversations begin with good intentions but leave employees feeling misunderstood and unsupported. Some managers become overly cautious because they are afraid of saying the wrong thing. Others rush into problem-solving before they have fully understood the person’s experience.
Some unintentionally ask questions that feel intrusive. Others avoid the conversation altogether because avoidance feels safer than uncertainty.
None of this comes from bad intent. It comes from a lack of preparation.
That distinction matters because we often invest significant effort in creating accommodation policies while spending very little time helping managers build the confidence to have accommodation conversations.
Policies that do not translate into action don’t create trust. How People respond is what matters.
Employees do not remember policies. They experience and remember behavior. They remember how their manager responded when they chose to be vulnerable.
- Did the manager listen without interrupting?
- Did they ask what support would be helpful rather than assuming they knew the answer?
- Did they focus on enabling performance instead of questioning capability?
Those moments become the foundation of belonging.
In my experience, the organisations that do this well recognise that inclusive leadership is a skill, not a personality trait.
They don’t assume managers will naturally know how to navigate sensitive conversations. They train them. They create opportunities to practise. They normalise uncertainty instead of expecting perfection.
And if we reflect on it, these conversations extend far beyond disability. The same skills help managers respond to maternity, grief, caregiving responsibilities, menopause, mental health, chronic illness, and countless other moments when work and life intersect.
That is why I believe this is not just an accessibility conversation. It is a leadership conversation.
Perhaps the next frontier of workplace inclusion is not another policy
But ensuring that every people manager is equipped to lead diverse teams, to respond with curiosity, empathy, and confidence when an employee trusts them with something that matters.