ADHD at Work

A Neurodivergent Leadership Guide: How to Run a Business When You Have ADHD

Business leaders with ADHD do best when they surround themselves with teammates who offset their executive functioning weaknesses.

By Carole Fleck Updated on May 7, 2025
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Diann Wingert’s executive assistant is a boss whisperer, a person who has the unique ability to understand their supervisor’s psychology, nature, and behavior — and respond calmly and effectively to off-topic tangents, memory hiccups, and other challenges. And Wingert says every boss with ADHD needs one.

When Wingert’s ADHD brain bursts with ideas that simply must be shared with her employees right now, even during a meeting about something entirely different, her trusted assistant gently nudges her back on track and to the subject at hand.

“When I have a new idea and fall madly in love with it, well, it’s as if we don’t have other initiatives” to attend to, says Wingert, a licensed psychotherapist, coach, consultant, and serial entrepreneur. “As a leader, I need to empower the people around me to help me manage myself sometimes.

“I’ve taught my assistants to do this: Give me a little space to share my brand-new idea because I’m so excited that, if you shut it down right away, I might get triggered and double down. So then they ask: ‘Where does this fit with our current initiatives?’ Then I think, ‘Oh, yeah, where is this going to fit?’ Then my assistant says, ‘This is a great idea, boss. Let’s put it in the idea parking lot and come back to it at our next quarterly review and see if it makes sense then.’ I get the dopamine hit from sharing the idea, and we move on.”

Wingert calls this exchange an example of “radical self-acceptance.” Because she knows her ADHD strengths, triggers, and limitations “impeccably well,” and understands their impact on the workplace, she set out to recruit a team that complements her traits as well as each other’s perspectives and work methods.

[Free Download: How to Manage Your Time at Work]

Neurodivergent Leadership Gains Traction

The business case for neurodiversity in leadership — embracing different ways of thinking, processing information, identifying opportunities, and crafting solutions—is gaining attention and driving progress. Katie Brennan, an HR knowledge advisor at the Society for Human Resource Management, a professional membership organization, says businesses with neurodivergent leaders have a strategic advantage, thanks to their “unique perspectives that enhance problem-solving, fuel creativity, and improve decision-making.”

Equally important are the ways in which a boss’s neurodivergent traits affect their employees’ job satisfaction. For instance, Sarah Yourgrau’s excitement around new ideas often led to rapidly changing priorities, which suited her ADHD brain’s need for novelty but not her employees desires for structure and stability.

“My challenges as a boss are curtailing passion and sticking with priorities all the way through,” says Yourgrau, CEO of Common Ground Studios, a television and film production company in Los Angeles. “Not everyone can be comfortable shifting gears so quickly.”

”My team would say they’re energized by my passion but sometimes need a few more moments to process the pivots and quick shifts,” she continues. “Now that I’m running a business, I’ve had to get better at communicating and applying new ways of keeping myself on task.”

[Free Webinar Replay: How to Transform Your ADHD Into a Strategic Advantage at Work]

Let’s Talk About Your Performance

Emotional dysregulation, a core characteristic of ADHD, can handicap neurodivergent bosses and workers alike. When a manager seeks to address an employee’s performance problem, it can feel like navigating a minefield of sensitivities where latent feelings of inadequacy threaten to explode.

“Most people with ADHD have emotional dysregulation, so having conversations around not meeting expectations can feel like dealing with someone who has PTSD,” says Gail Suitor, owner and coach at Ignite Change Makers. “It’s important to start with, ‘I’m bringing this to your attention because you’re one of my most important employees.’ This disengages the PTSD trigger.

Addressing performance issues can also be triggering for neurodivergent employees who feel the lingering sting of childhood criticism and rejection. So what is a compassionate and effective way for leaders to provide constructive feedback?

First, invite your employees to participate in the conversation so they don’t feel like passive team members; this should mitigate their sense of vulnerability and insecurity. Then offer them a “sandwich,” HR parlance for a technique to soften the impact: It starts with positive praise, then provides constructive criticism or corrective action, and concludes with more positive feedback.

Here’s how a script might unfold after the initial praise is given, according to Wingert:

Boss: How do you think you’re performing in your current role? What’s going well, and what are you struggling with?

Worker: [Discloses the problem that has prevented them from doing their best work.]

Boss: I agree with you on the struggles [if appropriate], and this is the feedback I’m receiving from other team members [if appropriate]. Do you have thoughts on how to make this better?

Alternatively, if the worker has trouble expressing their problems or feels under fire:

Boss: You and I are not on opposite sides. I may be the boss, but we both want the same thing: for you to thrive in this position. Let’s close the gap between where you are and where we’d like you to be. Let’s creatively solve this problem together.

Suitor says it’s important to figure out why a valued employee isn’t meeting expectations. Sometimes, she says, the slightest tweak to a job can make a meaningful impact. “If you’re noticing your worker with autism is having to stim more often, is it because they are overstimulated? Is there a light that’s bothering them? Does an employee find one part of their job harder to do because it’s not as interesting? If so, set up a system that works better.”

For bosses who also have trouble with the mundane or intimidating parts of a job, Suitor offers this advice: “Get mindset coaching. Plan your day around when your meds are the most effective and do more difficult tasks at that time.

“Mindfulness practice helps a ton with focus. And hire a person to offset your weaknesses and who is great with executive function — hire your frontal lobe.”

4 Mistakes Managers with ADHD Make

Avoid these unforced errors common among neurodivergent leaders.

Mistake #1: Lacking Self-Awareness

Bosses who fail to understand and appreciate the impact of their executive functioning deficits on team planning, prioritizing, and time estimating can create a chaotic environment and upend business goals. This leads to Mistake #2.

Mistake #2: Not Hiring Support Staff

Hire an assistant to keep you organized and focused; this will undoubtedly boost your effectiveness as a boss.

Mistake #3: Never Soliciting Feedback

Give employees permission to tell you how your management and communication styles affect them.

Mistake #4: Hogging the floor

Bosses are infamous for talking at length during meetings, effectively blocking others from engaging and contributing. This is not productive or collaborative. A better option: Seek a diversity of opinions by soliciting ideas and recommendations from disparate team members.

Neurodivergent Leadership: Next Steps

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