Increasing Awareness Helps Leaders with ADHD
- Your Path Counseling Center
- Mar 21
- 5 min read
One of the features of ADHD is that your mind frequently consumes more information than what your brain knows what to do with. Neurotypical individuals are better at filtering information, making it easier to focus on tasks and not get distracted by noise. Attention regulation is a strength because it comes with the ability to apply the appropriate amount of attention to a situation. Individuals with ADHD have a tendency to hyper-fixate or be inattentive, which can make their performance and productivity sporadic. Sporadic performance can create distinct challenges within a workplace because both the employee and those around them see the potential the employee has when they are at their best, but they are also aware that stress, anxiety, distractions, and low interest hamper individuals with ADHD from performing to their potential.
Everything starts with awareness.
Understanding how your brain works is essential for consistently performing at your best. Brains are like cars. They all have the same basic structure, but the amount of horsepower, maneuverability, responsiveness, and stopping ability differ. The ADHD brain is like a stick shift, while a neurotypical brain is more like an automatic. One is not inherently better than another; they are just different.
Driving a stick shift requires more focus, attention, and skill than driving an automatic. You have to pay more attention to the car. You have to feel how hard the engine is working and listen to the sounds the car is making. Being mindful of these details lets you respond accordingly and create a smooth, pleasurable driving experience. Making the most of an ADHD brain is similar, except instead of listening to the signals that the car is giving you, you have to listen to your body and the world around you.
Paying attention to signals instead of noise
Remembering critical information is essential to maximizing one's potential. It is easier to remember information when one perceives it as applicable to one's daily life. The challenge for individuals with ADHD is differentiating between essential details one should retain and noise one should ignore. Giving too much attention to things of little consequence can rob you of the time and energy you need to achieve your goals.
Have you ever been to a baseball game and heard the sound of a ball hitting against a bat? When you heard that noise, was it a signal you needed to pay attention to or just background noise that you ignored? Your answer depends on the context.
Why were you at the game?
Where were you sitting?
What was your reason for attending the game?
If you were sitting in a suite during a business outing and your primary purpose for being at the game was to get to know a potential customer better, you would register that sound as background noise. If it was early in the game and you had no threat of being hit by a ball, you likely were paying attention to your potential customer and not the details of the game.
You would have heard the sound differently if you had paid $200 to sit on the third baseline and watch your favorite team with a close friend who also loves baseball. The pop would have been a signal to look away from your phone and see what was happening. You would have wanted to see if the batter just hit a home run or if a foul ball was coming your way. Context significantly impacts what a signal is versus what a noise is.
Individuals with ADHD tend to have a more challenging time differentiating between signals and noise. Regardless of the context, their brain are more likely to pay attention to both the signal and the noise. The drive to hear and pay attention to everything can distract you from the details of what is truly important. Being distracted by noise carries the risk of not identifying the importance of critical information.
The solution
It is critical to acknowledge that ADHD brains function differently. There is no cure for ADHD. Having ADHD is not your problem. Your problems likely are that you become easily distracted, focus on the wrong things, have challenges starting projects, and hyper-fixate too much. By getting specific about the challenges you have, it is easier to develop solutions. In addition, many of the best practices for managing ADHD are also helpful for neurotypical individuals.
The first thing you should focus on is mental health hygiene. Mental health hygiene involves eating well, getting enough sleep, exercising, and finding outlets to express yourself creatively. Be intentional about taking care of your mind and body.
Next, it is good to have clear goals. These goals must be visual. Get your aspirations out of your head, and on to a piece of paper. This can be done through vision boards, vision statements, journaling, and form is not as important as the process. By getting your goals on paper, you can reference them daily, and reflect on how your current actions an behaviors align with your goals.
Develop a system for tracking what you should be doing to achieve your goals. This system should include a calendar and things to-do list. Individuals with ADHD love novelty, so do not worry if you change your system periodically. Using paper or an app is not as important as the behavior of writing things down, leaving yourself reminders, and scheduling when you will do specific tasks.
Finally and most importantly, define what you will not do. One of the most significant challenges of people with ADHD is overcommitting to task. Overcommitting happens for two reasons. One people with ADHD are generally not good at gauging how long things will take. Two, they find many things interesting and want to pursue various paths. To succeed, you have to fight the belief that more is always better. Committing to fewer things will give you the time and energy to achieve those truly essential things.
Summary
Having ADHD is a blessing, and it is a curse. Many of the best small business owners and creatives I know have ADHD. Their dynamic minds are their superpower. They know when they have to self-regulate and be on. They also know when to relax and allow their minds to wander. Regardless of how your mind works, you must understand your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to build a strategy to help you succeed. We live in an extraordinary time period with access to information and support. Dedicate time to reading about ADHD. Work with coaches and therapists who specialize in helping people with ADHD. You can achieve more of your goals if you seek knowledge and help and commit to getting a little better every day.
Comentarios