The skills and confidence of line managers can often have a profound impact on the experiences of employees with disabilities. And whilst many forward thinking organisations invest in line manager training, for many disabled colleagues, it can be a lottery.

At PurpleSpace, we’re on a mission to build the confidence of employees with a disability to share elements of their story and request the adjustments/ accommodations they need to thrive, regardless of their manager’s level of disability confidence.

The best definition of confidence we have found, through our research and in talking to many thousands of employees with disabilities, is that confidence is ‘a strong expectation of a positive and satisfactory outcome’.

That may be a task or a conversation or an ask.

This month we invite you to consider:

• How can ERG/Network leaders help colleagues with disabilities build a strong expectation of a positive outcome into their everyday work conversations?

• What are the barriers and fundamentals to having confident conversations with line managers?

• What would happen if organisations invested at least as much in the development of colleagues with a disability as they do in line manager confidence?

Peer Leadership Roundtables

One of the most valuable aspects of PurpleSpace membership is the opportunity to build your leadership capacity via quality conversation with other disability ERG/Network leaders.

Each month we convene groups of disability ERG/Network leaders to stimulate discussion on the monthly leadership lesson.

Connect with your peers during these interactive one-hour sessions for disability ERG/Network leaders. These sessions are a great way to share good practice and challenges, swap ideas and build your ERG/Network leadership capacity. 

In July, we have two sessions to choose from to explore an ERG/Network leader role in developing the confidence of their disabled colleagues:

10 July 10:00 BST / 15:30 IST / 20:30 ACDT

15 July 16:00 BST / 11:00 EST

PurpleSpace and External Useful Resources:

Tap into our Networkology know-how and check out some of the external learning that links to this month’s leadership lesson:

• 10 Condition-specific Confident Conversation guides that disability ERG/Network leaders can cascade within their organisations to disabled colleagues developed thanks to GSK and other sponsorsand powered by the Futurists.

• Confident Conversations Video Resource. The Fundamentals and The Hurdles to bring to life the issues around tough conversations.

• Confident Conversations Podcasts. In-depth interviews hosted by PurpleSpace Founder Kate Nash with leaders with lived experience discussing what they have learned about navigating disability and a successful career.

• Confident Conversations Podcasts Series 2, published in summer 2025.

Purple Confidence Strategic Forum

The Purple Confidence Strategic Forum is Chaired by PurpleSpace Ambassador and Workplace adjustments and accessibility director at GSK, Andy Garrett.

The Forum exists to help organisations to develop the confidence of every employee with a disability and to inform PurpleSpace content upstream for downstream delivery.

The Purple Confidence Strategic Forum meets on 8 July 16:00 BST / 11:00 EST

For more information, email nick@purplespace.org