ADHD and Leadership: Increasing Focus with The P.A.D. Strategy

Our ability to focus is important to our happiness.

 

More often than not when I start working with top executives or business owners, they talk about their lack of focus getting in the way of their success.

Being a different thinker and possibly having ADHD means that you have a different level of focus and concentration and until you really understand the type of focus you have, and how you can use it to win at the game of life, you won’t know how best to adjust it to find your happiness, joy, and passion again.

 

So, I challenge those executives with questions about their focus, because the problem is bigger than focus. It’s about the ability to harness momentum and natural skills.

 

 

Often when a neurodiverse person tells me they can’t focus, that isn’t really what they are telling me. What they really mean is they aren’t focusing on what is important and needs to get done. Instead, they are super focused on something else that has little to no value in their life.

 

One of the most valuable skills a top performer with ADHD can learn is what I call P.A.D. (Pause, Assess, Decide).

 

Often what helps someone build their initial success are their natural and developed skills. If they want to level up to find their true happiness it requires new skills they have yet to identify and learn.

Learning the PAD process applies to all areas of life and supports skill-building in so many new ways.

 

Pause
Assess
Decide

 

Pause
Take a micro-second to not do anything. That is a pause.

Example: It’s 8:00am and you are starting to sort through your emails, one of them is from an employee who says they are upset about a new process you are implementing and they want to talk with you right away.

This is an employee who you value and you think about stopping what you are doing to go and address this right away.

PAUSE (as soon as you catch yourself thinking about something other than the task at hand.)

 

 

Asses
Because you are a fast-processing person, I already know this isn’t going to take you long.

You need to ask yourself a couple of questions like; what is next, what is the purpose, what is the value, or is this a top priority?

As different thinkers we can become distracted by dramas that pop up in the moment. A key element is to minimize that time.

Example: Continuing from our pause while reading emails. Ask yourself a couple of questions: Can I complete my current task and then address this? Where do I need to add this to my schedule? Can I schedule a time to talk with them, so just reply to this email?

 

 

Decide
Once you have answered a couple of questions in your mind about the priority of what you are considering focusing on you decide if that is now, soon, or later. If you have a system for collecting your tasks I recommend you use it at this point.

Example: Instead of jumping into a conversation with that person that emailed you, you quickly emailed them back and asked to get on their schedule and offered a couple of times.

 

Doesn’t that seem simple? It is for the average person. How do you think they talk themselves out of so many fun adventures and business risks? You see they do this so much and over think things to the point of only seeing the downside.

I can watch people do it now and it is unfortunate that they don’t consult with a different thinker and push themselves out of their comfort zone from time to time.

 

Learning your focus style, its connection to anxiety and stress, and the P.A.D. process changes the way ADHD takes shape in a top leader’s life.

 

If this article got you curious about learning more about P.A.D. and other tools of top-performing different thinkers, schedule a free coaching call to learn more about your leadership process and ways to grow it to simplify your life.

 

Check in again soon for more success tips,
JoyGenea

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