Leading with ADHD- Ten Strategies to Help You Manage Teams When Your Own Brain Feels Unmanagable
Terri Finney
Author
Managing a team when you have ADHD can be both challenging and empowering, especially once you understand how to work with (rather than against) your brain. Here are ten strategies to manage effectively while honoring your ADHD:
1. Know Your Strengths & Weak Spots. Where does ADHD interfere with your leadership and where does it help? Assess yourself and get feedback. Your strengths are likely to be in the areas of: problem solving, quick thinking, empathy, energy, vision. Your challenges are likely to be in the areas of distractibility, time blindness, task-switching, follow-through.
2. Build External Systems and support that fill in the gaps. Rely on systems, not memory.
Calendar: Meetings, deadlines, prep time, and thinking time.
Use project management tools like Asana, Trello, or ClickUp
Set reminders & alerts (multiple if needed) to check in with team members.
Batch work: Group similar tasks together to reduce task-switching fatigue.
3. Delegate Strategically. Identify who thrives on structure, detail, and follow-through – delegate admin-heavy or sequential tasks to them. Communicate clearly about what decisions or updates you need and when.
4. Be thoughtfully transparent depending on your context and comfort. Share with your team that you work best with certain types of communication (e.g., written summaries, meeting agendas). Normalize asking for reminders or clarity builds psychological safety. You don’t have to name ADHD directly unless it serves a purpose but being upfront about how you work fosters trust.
5. Create rhythms to stay on track. Daily check-ins: Brief team huddles or a Slack update.
Weekly planning blocks to look ahead and set priorities.
End-of-day reviews to capture loose ends.
6. Protect Your Attention. Minimize distractions in your environment: Use website blockers, noise-canceling headphones, or schedule “deep work” time when you’re most focused. Consider body doubling (working in parallel with someone else) for tasks you resist.
7. Ask for Feedback Regularly. Because ADHD can make self-monitoring tough, build in feedback loops such as “Is there anything I can be doing differently to support you?” Encourage honest input and make it safe for others to speak up.
8. Work with a Coach or Accountability Partner. Someone to help you set goals, check in, and strategize around your tendencies.
9. Emotional dysregulation is common with ADHD. Learn to pause before responding—especially to conflict.
Use grounding tools (e.g., breathwork, stepping away, journaling) before reacting.
Practice self-compassion: ADHD is not a flaw, it’s a difference.
10. Use Medication and/or Therapy if Helpful. If you're open to it, medication or ADHD-focused therapy can dramatically improve executive functioning and emotional regulation. Talk to a professional about this possibility.