In my last newsletter, I talked about neurodivergence in the workplace and someone asked me to explain executive functioning for the people. Dear gentle reader, I do miss regular facilitating, so class is in session. Gather ‘round.
A Little Brain Science (in case you never hyperfocused on it)
The prefrontal cortex is the last part of your brain to develop, generally reaching full development in your mid-20s. You may know it from such hits as abstract thinking, working memory, planning, and impulse control. It’s also your internal office of Executive Functioning (EF), which works differently for people with ADHD, AuDHD, and other forms of neurodivergence.
What Is Executive Functioning?
When I’m assessing people for EF challenges, I’m looking at 6 domains:
- Activation
- Focus
- Effort
- Emotion
- Memory
- Action
Every single person with a neurodivergent brain is different. People can have strengths in some of these areas while struggling in others. And, a person can struggle in any of these domains without being neurodivergent.
Executive Function Domain: Activation
For today’s lesson, let’s take a closer look at “Activation.” It includes: organizing, prioritizing, and task initiation. People with low activation might struggle with things like:
- Getting focused in the morning
- Estimating how long a task will take
- Tracking multiple aspects of a project
- Starting something they’re not confident about, don’t enjoy, or find mundane
Take a look at these again and ask yourself where you’ve seen them before. Do they maybe sound like the kinds of things that show up on performance reviews?
Why Activation Challenges and Performance Reviews
Did you ever stop to think that folks with ADHD and AuDHD have impairment in the parts of our brains that handle these exact tasks?
You might notice activation challenges showing up on your team as:
- talented people who struggle to start complex tasks
- projects that stall even when everyone is capable
- employees who do brilliant work but miss deadlines
- team members who seem overwhelmed by unclear priorities
You might be penalizing them for something they have to try a million times harder to manage than someone with a neurotypical brain. It’s sort of like if you put a diabetic on a Performance Improvement Plan because they weren’t producing enough insulin.
Why Modern Workplaces Make Activation Harder
Modern workplaces can be especially challenging for knowledge workers who have activation challenges. Here are a few workplace conditions that tend to make activation challenges worse:
- Unclear timelines
- Chaotic documentation
- Lack of consistent process
- Ad hoc meetings (and probably 80% of meetings in general)
Every time a job description lists, “comfort with ambiguity” as a qualification, your favorite Work Shrink gets her grays.
Why? Allow me to get on my soapbox for one minute.
What does that actually mean? Are you going to fault them when they don’t read your mind? Will you help them prioritize their tasks based on their own, the teams, and the company’s goals? Will you make space for them to get things done in the order that works for them?
End soapbox.
Don’t get me wrong, some folks with ADHD thrive in the chaos of startups, newly formed teams, or giant colossal project pivots. However, sometimes working at that pace is unsustainable.
Sometimes the novelty wears off. Sometimes they burn out from masking or hyperfocusing. Sometimes they’re asked to switch contexts too abruptly. When these things happen, it can look to the manager like a performance dip which can cause a host of other problems.
Neuroaffirming Tips for Managers
Enable your neurodivergent team members’ coping strategies
Folks may know themselves, their triggers, and their coping strategies really well. If they have a very curated calendar, that’s probably for a reason. If they ask to switch the order of tasks, they might be trying to hack their brains. If they have periods of the day they tell you are best for focus work, help them protect that time! One other really fun thing about executive functioning strategies is sometimes they stop working, so show patience while your direct report tries a new experiment.
Avoid judgmental language
If I had a dime for every time someone with a neurodivergent brain told me they wished they weren’t so lazy, I could buy LinkedIn. A good deal of the work I do with therapy clients is helping them manage internalized shame and guilt over this very thing. So trust me, they know you wish they could get started faster.
Clarity, clarity, and more clarity
Some questions to ask yourself regularly and seek feedback from your team about: Are expectations clear? Are priorities clear? Are decisions clear? Are those decisions documented and communicated? Is it clear where one can find what they need to complete the task?
Rethink task distribution
Does the teammate who struggles to estimate time really need to be great at estimating time? Do they have to be a project manager AND a project worker? What historical data can you use? What estimates can you or the actual PM make using a host of project management tools?
Allow a new task order
Maybe I can use myself as an example here. One of the biggest parts of writing is rewriting and I sometimes get overwhelmed when I’ve shared a script with several people and gotten lots of notes and opinions. My mind swirls with, “If I fix that, I’ll break something in a later scene.”
So, sometimes I task myself with just fixing little things, typos, or incorrect scene headers. While my friends with neurotypical brains think it’s a waste of time to fix a typo when that whole scene might get cut, for me, sneaking up on a draft by working on things that feel easy, is the only way I’ll ever get in there to do the harder work.
I’m hoping this story inspires my fellow ADHD folks and gives managers permission to imagine tasks happening outside of the sequence that works for your brain.
Map out ideal collaboration times
First learn when each of your teammates experience their optimal focus time, then avoid scheduling meetings during that time. I mean, not to be a broken record but, the real advice is to do a deep audit of your meetings. Invite your directs to block their focus time completely. It should feel safe for them to turn off notifications and expect to not be interrupted. Unless you work in a hospital and people’s hearts are stopping left and right, maybe not everything’s an emergency.
FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, AUDIT THOSE MEETINGS!
At a certain tech company that shall remain nameless, I became known as The Meeting Slayer. I taught people how to have more effective meetings, but I also helped them dramatically reduce the number of meetings. I co-designed team workflows so they didn’t need to rely on meetings to get work done. I taught them how to perform stakeholder analysis to decide who needed to actually be present for a meeting, and how to engage them if they didn’t. I helped them document and communicate the results of meetings, so the work could keep moving.
I previously wrote about how concerning Microsoft’s research on the Infinite Workday is for folks who can so easily get sidelined by distractions. The short story is, in today’s world of knowledge working, there are so many distractions, people have to do their work during hours that should be reserved for their non-work lives. That’s a recipe for projects taking longer than they need to and for people to be burned out, exhausted, and disengaged.
You could have your very own Meeting Slayer, asynchronous workflow designer, and collaboration doctor for your team. Just reach out!
Shall I keep this 101 going by writing about the other EF areas?
If this closer look at activation was helpful, I can do the same for the other executive functioning areas to help you understand why different neurodivergent presentations struggle with different tasks. I also work with individuals and teams to translate these insights into real strategies for work and life.
For individuals who wonder if they have ADHD: I provide neuroaffirming ADHD assessments that focus on understanding how your brain works and building practical strategies to thrive.
For professionals wanting support with executive functioning: I offer coaching around task initiation, prioritization, follow-through, and sustainable productivity, so you can get work done without burning out. I look at it as optimizing your work and life to meet your strengths and find ways to support your challenges.
For managers and team leaders: I help organizations design neuroinclusive workflows, map optimal productivity times, reduce unnecessary meetings, and create systems that allow your team to collaborate efficiently.
Contact me to schedule a free consultation to see if I can support you or your team!