BrewDog chief James Watt, who's been rocked by claims of toxic behaviour towards staff since last year, has revealed he's seeing a specialist over possible autism and also having regular therapy.
Watt, who co-founded the craft beer company that is now the 16th largest in the world and last year reported revenue of £286million, has since last year suffered allegations of personal impropriety, marketing scams, and a culture of growth at all costs, with the firm attacked in a damning BBC Disclosure documentary in January this year.
He has since overhauled the company's relationship with its staff, but he also revealed he continues therapy which he first had after his marriage break-up, and he's started seeing a specialist to see if he has autism after reading the conclusions about his character in an April newspaper interview.
The piece called him an "obsessive" and "cold-eyed" person who struggles to "express empathy or read social cues", but one who is not the ogre he's been portrayed.
Watt, who said he also now does breathing exercises, said: "Looking at that feedback I started exploring as to whether I am a little bit autistic, and it's still something I'm exploring at the moment.
"But, working with some specialists, I think I might have some kind of light level autism in the mix that would explain some of the social cue thing, some of the mindset thing, and some of the awkwardness as well.
"Because of that exact quote - and I was chatting with my doctor, and she's like 'I've thought that for a while James, quite possibly'.
"So I'm working with a specialist at the moment to see if there's a diagnosis there or not.
"I definitely need to do better in empathy 100%. I think I've reflected and learned more than I have in my entire life over the last 12 months.
"One of the things I'm definitely working on at the moment is how can I be more empathetic as a leader.
"Going through the last few years I've had hyper-vigilance, just when you're constantly on alert, jammed in kind of fight or flight, I've had anxiety.
"From a business perspective it's been really tough, from a personal perspective it's been tough as well.
"We've felt like we've been under siege for large parts the last couple of years, and some of that's been with things that are untrue. So you feel your body convulsing with the cortisol.
"When you're in that state I've got to get myself back on an even keel because I don't make my best decisions, I'm not the best leader at that time, so how can I calm myself down.
"I'll work on a few breathing exercises, breath work is really good, so I use a daily breath work practice, which I think is really key as well.
"Monitoring how many minutes I spend on my phone every day is very important."
Asked on Diary of a CEO podcast if he'd ever had therapy, the 39-year-old Scot said: "I got therapy. I actually started when I separated from my ex-wife to kind of help us through that transition, help us be the best co-parents we could to our two amazing little daughters, and I've continued going because I just think it's really useful.
"Being CEOs is lonely, in the tendency 'let's just bottle all this stuff and let's keep going with it'.
"I think I can be a better leader if I've got someone to talk to about those things.
"I think it's just an understanding of myself. I actually did last year five days of intensive therapy in the woods outside of Nashville. So I was living in a little hut for five days and kind of doing an intensive course.
"It's so useful and I urge everyone to do this, but the more you can understand how you're put together as a human, and so much of that is things that happened in your early life....means you can avoid default patterns which are not helping you."
While Watt, 39, now admits he had been too tough with employees in the past - prompting a total overhaul of staff relations following reviews - he and his lawyer have refuted many of the claims and have launched legal action over some they say are false.
He has denied claims about misconduct and says while some other complaints about management were justified, some were falsely made just to financially damage the company.
The Scottish brewer has now spent £9m on people and fixing "toxicity" in its culture, including improving salaries and benefits and giving shares for staff.
The firm, which was founded in Ellon, Aberdeenshire in 2007, has expanded across the UK, Europe and into the US, and now owns more than 100 bars worldwide employing more than 2,000 staff and is valued at nearly £2billion.
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