Thank you! The jury is still out on that, but I try to be a good human first.
I live with ASD and generalized anxiety disorder. Which I think a lot of people in our field (and the world) live with diagnosed or otherwise. I've done pretty well managing people in my own consultancy, but going into my current role I decided to do some digging on Autism in the workplace. I have some traits that aren't great and I wanted to try to get a better set of tools for handling them.
Something that really helped me was this book "Aspergers on the Job"[1]. It's not that people with ASD need special care, it's just that there are tons of things that NT (neurotypical) people can tolerate that would be massively interrupting to someone with ASD. Potentially crippling. Things like meetings with no clear beginning or end, requirements that have shifting goalposts, frequent required all hands meetings, noisy environments, or unclear chain of command.
If I align myself with more of a personal awareness than just a goal based methodology, not only can I get great results from people who aren't NT but that sort of thing is also something that everyone wants and can benefit from. Honestly, most of the productivity killers revolve around meetings and ticket process, but the how and why someone can't participate well varies greatly from person to person.
We want exponential output from our coworkers, collaborators, and partners. In startups that is the difference between living or dying. In my experience, the best way to get that is to be engaging and adaptable. You've gotta play to people's strengths. If you've got a workhorse of a guy who will silently slog through shit you think he hates but the results are fantastic, you might not want to whip that pony to death. If you've got a coworker that doesn't seem to be hitting their own estimates on deliverables, you might need to take a closer look at how those deliverables are being reviewed and communicated, rather than just assuming the person can't hit the mark.
IMO management is more a study in self awareness, compassion, getting things out of the way, and inspiring excitement than it is just making sure tickets are punched. So far I've had good results, but my methodologies aren't exactly well defined so when it fails it can easily be pointed at. Where as no one ever gets fired for managing a scrum with an iron fist.
[1] https://www.audible.com/pd/Business/Aspergers-on-the-Job-Aud...