Effective leadership means understanding and leveraging the unique strengths of every team member. For those with ADHD and executive function challenges, your thoughtful leadership can help turn struggle into engagement and teamwork. Here are three key strategies with a variety of tactical approaches to foster an inclusive and productive work environment for everyone:
Lead with Structure and Clear Communication
- Establish consistent routines, predictable schedules, and step-wise check-ins. Source employee input for ideas you might not have thought of.
- Provide explicit training on company use of project management tools for better organization and to create clear, concise work instructions.
- Use diagrams, visual aids and checklists created with your direct reports. Test and iterate to get them right.
- Push back against your “No” and create a culture of “How might we?” collaboration, where asking for and giving feedback is the norm.
Make Meetings Work
- Distribute a clear and concise agenda before meetings, allowing attendees to prepare and understand the structure. Reduce distraction by providing a roadmap to follow.
- Stick to the schedule. Allocate specific times for each topic to maintain a steady pace and keep the meeting on track.
- Incorporate various formats such as visual aids, interactive polls, or breakout discussions. Change the dynamics to maintain attention and involvement.
- Conclude meetings with a summary of key points and actionable items. Provide a clear outline of what comes next to help reinforce understanding and retention.
Build Psychological Safety
- Develop your personal connection skills to build trust and a sense of belonging.
- Normalize shared risk-taking and open dialogue, ensuring team members feel their contributions matter and they can speak up without fear.
- Actively invite input and questions. Encourage diverse perspectives. Make sure everyone feels safe to share their thoughts to increase engagement and provide a sense of inclusion.
- When failure happens, foster candor and explore what was learned, instead of blaming and shaming.
Want to explore how to do any (or all!) of these things in your workplace? I have decades of experience working with people who have learning, attention, and executive function challenges and can help you work more effectively with them, too.
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