How ADHD Managers Can Effectively Lead Their Teams

You probably came across this article because you were searching for help addressing your challenges as a manager and leader with ADHD. 

That’s great. Learning how to do better in your role will help you feel more confident and enjoy what you do day-to-day.

And as you read through this article, notice which areas stand out to you. Think about one area you want to experiment with and change how you are operating now. 

Remember, small experiments beat big intentions when it comes to follow-through for adults with ADHD.

Shoring Up ADHD Weaknesses Is Not The Solution

The first step is to get clear on your current strengths and talents. I’m using this definition. Strengths = Talents + Skills + Knowledge.

A combination of your talents, what you’re naturally good at, and your strengths is probably what helped you secure your leadership position.

Maybe you have talents, such as being an out-of-the-box thinker, a natural problem solver, or someone who is good in a crisis, a risk taker, etc. And you don’t want to lose these by focusing only on your weaknesses as you’re looking to become a stronger manager and leader.

Because, as Dr Ed Hollowell, renowned ADHD expert, notes: 

The best way to change a life of frustration into a life of mastery is by developing talents and strengths, not just shoring up weaknesses.

I think what this means for leaders and managers with ADHD is that you want to get really clear on your talents and strengths. And then see how you can augment these by upgrading the skills and knowledge you need to be a good manager/leader. 

For example, if one of your talents is being quick to solve problems, you may need to upgrade your ability to guide your team to solve problems on their own, without jumping in prematurely. 

So let’s get on with exploring how you can become a better manager without losing all of those qualities that make you a good manager right now.

Why ADHD Adults Need To Decide Essential Work

One of the first places you might need to start, if you want to excel as a manager, is what Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, is being more discerning about how you use your time and energy.

So you can make your “highest contribution” as a leader without stretching yourself too thin.

If you’re unsure whether you’re being discerning enough, ask yourself:

Am I following through on the work necessary to be the kind of leader I want to be?

For example, as a leader, you need to be clear on your vision, what success will look like long-term. But for adults with ADHD, immediate tasks often feel more compelling than long-term priorities. Are you clear on your vision? 

Another example might be team development. Are you helping each team member handle problems independently, so your time is freed for higher-level priorities?

Once you know your essential work, the next challenge is protecting time for it.

#1 Spend Too Much Time In Reactive Mode

But if you’re not spending time on your essential work, it may be because you are spending too much time in reactive mode. 

Remember that the ADHD nervous system is interest-based. What this means is that you’re naturally motivated to do work that is challenging, interesting, novel or has a sense of urgency. In fact, if you’re not careful, you may over-rely on urgency to guide your decisions.

So instead of doing your more essential work, you may instead: 

• Accept requests without checking if you have the bandwidth.
• Spend most of your time putting out fires rather than building your team’s problem-solving skills.
• Answer emails immediately instead of prioritizing more important work and scheduling email time.
• Let people stop by or answer calls whenever they want, rather than setting boundaries while still handling real emergencies.
• Say yes to meetings without considering if your presence is essential, rather than being selective about which ones to attend.

I’m sure you have other examples.

The key is making sure you are protecting time for your essential work.

#2 Don’t Do Enough Up Front Thinking

And the first step to ensure you are doing your essential work is to make sure you’re doing enough review and planning (upfront thinking) on a regular basis. As doing this on a yearly or even quarterly basis won’t be enough.

You’ll need a weekly practice of thinking strategically to remind yourself of your intentions and plan how to carry them out. Otherwise, you will likely forget what they are and then revert to the business of doing, solving the latest crisis, attending meetings, writing and responding to emails, etc.

Yet, even if this sounds like a good idea, I know you may resist doing this upfront thinking, at least in the beginning. One reason is likely that you feel you have too many urgent matters on your plate and don’t have time.

And it’s true. You do have too many urgent issues on your plate.

So, the key in the beginning, before you can really notice the efficacy of doing this, is to remind yourself that in the long run it will save you time, as you will be clear that you’re focusing on the right things. That is, you’ll have to trust that it’s time well spent until you can really see the benefits and believe that it’s true. 

Then once you see these benefits, it will become easier to do. You will likely want to do it. Promise.

Of course, faith won’t be enough!

You will also need to build support to follow through, such as:

• Coworking with colleagues or friends
• Using a service like Focusemate.
• Working with an accountability partner (Check out How to Create ADHD Friendly Accountability Partnerships for guidance on how to do this.)

Ready to take this leap of faith?

You can design your weekly planning and review checklist using the suggestions in my post, The ADHD Adult’s Guide to the Weekly Review.

And when you do this, you will be better able to steer the ship the way you want and become the leader you want to be.

#3 Have Inconsistent Expectations

Of course, in order to ensure that you and your team members are aligned and that they consistently follow through on what they need to do, you’ll also need to be consistent in your expectations.

But right now, because of your ADHD, you may struggle to have consistent expectations. And, as a result, your team may also end up delivering inconsistently. Sound familiar?

There are three main reasons you’re being inconsistent with your expectations:

Memory challenges. For example, maybe before your one-on-one, you have a clear idea about what you want to check in about. But then, in the midst of the conversation, you forget because of working memory challenges.

Or perhaps you didn’t think of a topic before the meeting, and because of long-term memory challenges, you forgot to bring it up at all. Then weeks later, you remember and bring it up in frustration because they haven’t followed through.

Resistance to follow-up. Even when you do remember, you may resist following up because it feels like yet another thing on your already overwhelming plate. Following up with team members is time-consuming, and, sure, it’s reasonable to expect them to do their work without you needing to micromanage every detail.

But you still need to follow up, right?

Changing course without full consideration. One of your ADHD strengths is generating lots of ideas and seeing new possibilities. That may be part of what got you into leadership. And when you shift direction, you probably have what seems like a good reason. But maybe you did not think through the full implications of that change on your team’s current workload.

The result of all this inconsistency? Your team gets frustrated. They think the work isn’t important to you. So they prioritize other things. Then they’re not fully invested in executing because they’re not sure whether the direction will stay the same. Makes sense.

You definitely don’t need more willpower. The fix is better systems. 

• Don’t rely on your memory. Keep notes and checklists, and refer to them constantly. 
• Build the scaffolding with tools like a task manager to remind you of who needs to do what by when. 
• And do enough upfront thinking to consider the implications before changing direction. 

If consistency is one of your challenges, where would you like to start turning that around?

#4 Try To Solve Everyone’s Problems

There are many valid reasons you might step in to solve your team members’ problems. Maybe you want to be helpful, avoid risk, or keep things moving.

But you know your ADHD brain also loves a good “crisis.”

So, when a team member comes to you with a problem that feels urgent, it can activate your brain’s reward system. Then, yes, dopamine is released, and you’re feeling energized and motivated. You’re locked in, and solving the problem feels incredibly satisfying. 

As a result, whether because of your ADHD or other reasons, you may jump in prematurely into fix-it mode and create unintended consequences: 

• Your team starts leaning on you instead of figuring things out themselves.
• You might be solving the presenting problem, but not the actual core problem.
• You’re making more work for yourself.
• You’re missing chances to build your team’s skills and confidence.

Instead, try shifting into coach mode. Ask questions that can guide your team toward their own solutions, such as

• “What have you tried so far?”
• “What would success look like here?”
• “What are possible solutions?”

This still engages your ADHD problem-solving brain without needing to come up with the solution.

Check out The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever by Michael Bungay Stanier to learn how to develop this skill and become more coach-like in how you lead.

You’ll free up your time and build a more capable team. Win-win.

What’s one problem you jumped into recently that your team probably could have handled themselves?

#5 Do Not Delegate Enough

The last mistake that you may be making as a manager, and one that I see often in my work with clients, is not delegating enough.

Ultimately, of course, it’s your responsibility to ensure your team completes the work they are responsible for. At the same time, it is obviously not your responsibility to do all the work. I know you get that.

But right now, you may be shouldering too much of the load.

I find that one of the primary reasons many ADHD adults do not delegate enough is because of the challenges with their ADHD executive functioning.

After all you need to:

• Look ahead enough to be able to see what tasks your team members are capable of doing and give them enough lead time.
• Decide what the ultimate deliverable needs to look like.
• Organize your thoughts well enough.
• Explain how you want it done.
• Check in with them to ensure they have what they need.

This is a lot, no doubt! And the sheer cognitive load of thinking through all these steps can feel overwhelming.

So you may decide that “It’s just easier if I do it myself.”

And in the short run, that’s probably true.

But in the long run, you’re probably seeing the bottlenecks you’re unintentionally creating because you just don’t have time to do all of the work that’s currently on your plate.

And you’re also aware that you’re not spending your time doing the higher-level thinking that your job requires, like strategic thinking. Again, because you don’t have time.

It’ll be no surprise to you that the solution I’m suggesting is to put aside time to do more upfront thinking to make delegation decisions. And the time to do this is during the Weekly Review and Planning Time I referred to above.

Of course, learning how to delegate well takes time and skill-building. But here are a few questions to get you started during your weekly review:

• What’s on my plate that only I can do? (Everything else is potentially delegatable)
• Where do I want to build my team members’ capacity, and how can I start developing that?
• Where are there opportunities for someone who already has the skills to step in?

To start building better delegation skills, I recommend The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey by Ken Blanchard. It’s a quick read and can help you identify when you’re taking on tasks that belong to others.

Not only will you free up your time, you’ll help your team grow and become more capable.

Next Step to Becoming a Better Manager With ADHD

What is one area you want to begin turning around and become the kind of leader you envision?

What is the first step you can take to do this?