When I first watched K-Pop Demon Hunters with my kids, I expected cool animation, lighthearted comedy, and great music.
What I didn’t expect was a case study in adaptive leadership and the psychology of difference.
This reflection is about one of the three members of Huntrix – Zoey. She’s talented, loyal, chaotic, and deeply lovable. Her lyrics sound deceptively simple:
“I’ve lived two lives, tried to play both sides, but I couldn’t find my own place.”
She’s talking about dual identity – growing up in the U.S., performing as a K-pop idol in Korea – but it resonates on another level for many neurodivergent individuals who navigate systems not designed for how their minds work.
The leadership lens
Leaders today are facing an economy of contradictions:
- Systems demanding precision and creativity simultaneously.
- Cultures craving innovation yet still rewarding conformity.
- Teams expected to produce consistently in an environment that is anything but stable.
Zoey’s internal struggle mirrors that tension. Her need for structure (autistic cognition) coexists with her love for novelty and stimulation (ADHD traits). For those who recognize both, it’s not pathology – it’s paradox management.
And paradox management is the core skill of modern leadership.
When systems punish the gift
Organizations still tend to optimize for linear thinkers… those who process steadily, predictably, and socially “smooth.” However, the world’s most adaptive systems thrive on cognitive diversity.
The challenge is that many high-performing neurodivergent individuals learn to “mask” – to perform what is palatable to their environments. It’s costly. Innovation becomes exhausting when survival takes the same energy.
Zoey’s “two lives” are a metaphor for that masking. She builds one self for belonging, and one for authenticity. Most leaders have employees doing the same – quietly splitting themselves between who they are and who the system rewards.
The strategic opportunity
Neurodivergent thinking isn’t marginal; it’s strategic infrastructure for complex problem solving.
Pattern-recognizers. Hyperfocusers. Context-shifters. Boundary-spanners.
They are the early sensors in a volatile system – canaries in a coal mine – often detecting shifts before others notice them.
To access that capability, leaders must create conditions where difference isn’t merely “accommodated” but activated.
That means:
- Measuring contribution by impact, not conformity or ‘culture fit’.
- Valuing intensity as a form of care, not volatility.
- Building psychological safety around honesty, not just agreeableness.
Inclusion as competitive advantage
K-Pop Demon Hunters* succeeds because it doesn’t “fix” Zoey. Her friends don’t make her less herself; they integrate her difference into the group’s strength.
That’s not just good storytelling… it’s sound team design.
Inclusive systems don’t erase contradictions; they metabolize them.
The future of innovation will belong to leaders who can hold structure and chaos in the same hand – who can see what looks like “too much” as a gift and not a challenge.
A closing thought
When Zoey sings,
“Why did I cover up the colour stuck inside my head?”
It’s more than a line in What it Sounds Like. It’s a reminder to every leader designing the next product, policy, or culture playbook:
Don’t ask your brightest minds to dim to fit the room.
Build rooms that can hold their light.
Because the future.. of creativity, leadership, and sustainable innovation… will be built by the ones who were once told they were too much and not enough, and learned to turn that contradiction into genius.
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Note: this is a personal reflection and is not as data-driven or evidence-based as my usual writing. That’s what notes to self are for. If you want less personal and more professional, you’re in the wrong place! Please visit The Blog instead!