Refined Leadership - ADHD Lens

What helps an autistic professional navigate a demanding workplace—and how do they recognize and ask for that support?
In the final episode of Patterns of Divergent Minds at Work, Cathy Rashidian speaks with autistic journalist Eric Garcia, author of We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation.
Eric shares experiences from newsrooms and political reporting, including asking an editor for clearer instructions, learning from a mentor, and becoming more intentional about his working environment.
We explore:
Autistic masking at work and the distinction between hiding your needs and using tools that help you work.
How mentorship supported Eric early in his journalism career.
How interviewing other autistic people changed his understanding of himself.
Why professional capability and support needs can coexist.
Autism representation, stigma, and the importance of community.
His upcoming book’s exploration of autism and expectations of masculinity.
We close the series by inviting you to consider what you’ve recognized in your own work—and what you might adjust or ask for.
Eric’s upcoming book: Preorder Manly While Stimming: Autism and the Myth of the Masculine Ideal.
Explore your own patterns: Take the free Patterns of Divergent Minds at Work inventory.
Series: Patterns of Divergent Minds at Work · Part 5 of 5.
 
Eric Garcia is the Washington Bureau Chief and Senior Washington Correspondent at the Independent and the author of the book We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation. He is also a columnist for MS NOW. He previously worked as an assistant editor at the Washington Post’s Outlook section and an associate editor at The Hill, as well as a correspondent for National Journal, MarketWatch, and Roll Call. He has also written for the Daily Beast, the New Republic, and Salon.com. Garcia is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

What can a late ADHD diagnosis reveal after decades of leadership success?
Carlos Gutierrez, former chief executive of Kellogg and former United States Secretary of Commerce, joins Cathy Rashidian to discuss being diagnosed with ADHD at 65—and how that helped him understand his working life.
Drawing on his memoir, Sheer Will: Learning to Lead When There Is No Path, Carlos reflects on ambition, his immigrant experience, and learning to lead through observation, feedback, and trial and error.
We discuss:
Taking work home to catch up on tasks postponed during the day—and the cost to family time.
The contribution and cost of hyperfocus in his own career.
Learning that leadership doesn’t require having every answer.
Accepting support and recognizing the skills others bring.
How feedback revealed habits he hadn’t noticed.
The role of courage, empathy, and trust in leadership.
This conversation continues our exploration of work patterns that support success while demanding more than others may realize.
Carlos’s book: Purchase Sheer Will: Learning to Lead When There Is No Path.
Explore your own patterns: Take the free Patterns of Divergent Minds at Work inventory.
Series: Patterns of Divergent Minds at Work · Part 4 of 5.Carlos Gutierrez has been an influential figure in business and politics for over 35 years, but his route to global leadership was far from the well-worn path of the Ivy League M.B.A. In fact, he never graduated from college and began his life in America without knowing a word of English. When he was only six years old, his family fled the Cuban revolution with almost nothing, travelling to Miami and ultimately emigrating to Mexico. He began working for Kellogg’s selling cereal out of a van, and climbed the ranks until he became the youngest CEO in the company’s hundred-year history. He went on to serve as U.S. Secretary of Commerce for the Bush administration, and later held executive roles in nearly a dozen major companies. Despite his humble beginnings and a lifelong struggle with untreated ADHD—he was not diagnosed with the disorder until age 65—he was able to overcome any challenge and reach incredible levels of success.

You agree to a deadline you’re concerned about, then work late to meet it. You receive positive feedback, but still feel you need to prove you deserve your role. How much effort goes into looking dependable?
In part three of Patterns of Divergent Minds at Work, Cathy Rashidian explores the Adapter and Imposter patterns. We examine experiences that can overlap with people-pleasing and imposter syndrome at work, including suppressing concerns, overpreparing, and repeatedly checking work.
In this episode:
How to adapt your communication while keeping your own views and needs visible.
The distinction between professional flexibility and masking.
Why one mistake can start feeling like a judgment of your overall capability.
How to define what “enough” means before beginning a task.
How unclear expectations and inconsistent feedback can add to the pressure.
For professionals with ADHD and other neurodivergent experiences, this is an invitation to notice effort that colleagues may never see—and identify one expectation worth clarifying.
Explore your own patterns: Take the free Patterns of Divergent Minds at Work inventory.
Series: Patterns of Divergent Minds at Work · Part 3 of 5.

Do you spend more time organizing your work than doing it? Take over a colleague’s task when they only asked for feedback? Start developing several ideas before deciding which one to finish?
In part two of Patterns of Divergent Minds at Work, Cathy Rashidian explores the Architect, Rescuer, and Visionary. For professionals navigating ADHD productivity challenges or other neurodivergent experiences, these patterns offer a way to examine planning, boundaries, prioritization, and follow-through.
We look at:
The Architect: When useful structure becomes time-consuming overplanning.
The Rescuer: How helping turns into owning someone else’s work.
The Visionary: How to choose a small test when you have too many ideas competing for attention.
Questions to ask before adding another system, accepting a request, or committing to a project.
When you need clearer team priorities, ownership, or support.
The aim is to keep what helps you contribute while adjusting the effort and responsibilities you take on.
Explore your own patterns: Complete the free Patterns of Divergent Minds at Work inventory.
Series: Patterns of Divergent Minds at Work · Part 2 of 5.
Next: people-pleasing, expectations, and the pressure to prove yourself.

You’re delivering good work, but it’s taking more time and energy than you can keep giving. Is working harder still the answer?
In this opening episode, executive and ADHD coach Cathy Rashidian introduces Patterns of Divergent Minds at Work, a special five-part series within Refined Leadership: ADHD Lens.
We explore five recurring work patterns: the Architect, Rescuer, Visionary, Adapter, and Imposter. These approaches can help neurodivergent professionals organize complex work, solve problems, collaborate, and earn trust. They can also become difficult to sustain.
In this episode:
What your work patterns contribute—and what they require from you.
How workplace expectations, changing priorities, and unclear responsibilities affect your effort.
Why these patterns are tools for reflection rather than fixed personality types.
How to choose one situation and try a practical adjustment.
This conversation includes ADHD, autism, and broader neurodivergent experiences at work.
Explore your own patterns: Take the free Patterns of Divergent Minds at Work inventory. Its 25 statements provide a starting point for reflection; it is not a diagnostic assessment.
Series: Patterns of Divergent Minds at Work · Part 1 of 5.

Why can a capable ADHD professional know exactly what needs to be done—and still find it incredibly difficult to begin?
In this conversation, Cathy Rashidian speaks with Brendan Mahan, MEd, MS, author of Overcoming the Wall of Awful, about the emotional barriers that can build around work we have struggled with before.
A report, email, decision or difficult conversation may look straightforward from the outside. Internally, that task may be carrying frustration, uncertainty, shame, fear of failure or memories of previous struggles.
In this episode, we explore:
What can be hiding inside a seemingly simple task such as sending an email
How repeated struggles contribute to the Wall of Awful
Why caring deeply about the outcome can sometimes make beginning harder
The difference between activating under pressure and performing well under pressure
How urgency, anxiety, frustration and anger can become a damaging way to smash through the wall
What it means to put a door in the wall or climb it
How skills, resources and expectations affect workplace performance
What leaders often miss when they move straight into problem-solving
Questions to ask yourself when you are staring at your own Wall of Awful
Brendan Mahan is an internationally recognized ADHD and executive-function expert, host of the ADHD Essentials Podcast and author of Overcoming the Wall of Awful.
📘 Learn about or pre-order Overcoming the Wall of Awful:https://brendanmahan.com/the-wall-of-awful-book/
🎙 Learn more about Brendan:https://brendanmahan.com/
🌐 Learn more about Cathy Rashidian and Ready Set Choose:https://www.readysetchoose.com/
 
Subscribe for thoughtful conversations about professional and leadership development through an ADHD lens.
#ADHDAtWork #ADHDLeadership #WallOfAwful

What happens when the mask comes off?
In this episode, Coach Cathy dives into the unique challenges faced by high-achieving professionals with ADHD who feel pressured to conform to traditional leadership molds. Through her personal story of exhaustion and the breaking point that led her to quit her executive role, Cathy shines a light on masking—the exhausting effort to hide your struggles and maintain a polished facade.
She unpacks the toll this takes on your mental bandwidth, decision-making, and ability to lead authentically. Cathy offers clear insights into the signs you might be leading from survival mode, why understanding ADHD is a game-changer, and how small, strategic shifts can help you lead with clarity, sustainability, and alignment with your values.
Whether you’re feeling stuck in the cycle of burnout or navigating your next leadership transition, this episode will leave you with actionable steps to recalibrate your approach in a way that works with your brain, not against it.
Episode Breakdown:
00:00 Introduction: What does it mean to lead with ADHD?01:09 Personal Story: The moment the mask shattered.01:31 Understanding Masking: Why it’s so draining and its impact on leadership.02:46 Survival Mode vs. Authentic Leadership: Recognizing the signs.04:56 Reflecting on Leadership and ADHD: A new lens for aligned leadership.07:05 Steps to Aligned Leadership: Practical strategies to start leading differently.08:37 Invitation to Connect: Learn how ADHD-informed coaching can help you lead authentically.
If you’re tired of performing leadership and ready to step into authenticity, this episode is for you. Tune in to reclaim your energy, find clarity, and lead in a way that feels true to who you are.
Feel free to reach out if you’d like to have a conversation about how you can work together. Schedule a call using this link.
 

"I know what I need to do, but I don't trust that I'll do it when I need to do it."
If that sentence lands, this conversation is for you.
In this episode of Refined Leadership: ADHD Lens, I sit down with Dr. Russell Ramsay, one of the leading voices in adult ADHD and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. We talk about his new book, Once I Get Started, and the cognitive theme he believes runs beneath much of adult ADHD: self-mistrust.
This is not a productivity conversation. It is a conversation about what actually happens between knowing what to do and doing it — and why that gap shows up so often for capable, high-performing professionals.
What we explore:
Self-mistrust as a possible central cognitive theme of adult ADHD, and how it shapes self-worth, decisions, and follow-through
Why ADHD is better understood as a performance problem than a knowledge problem
Motivation as an emotion, and why deadline pressure stops being a sustainable strategy
Self-regulatory efficacy: why some people disengage early, and what protects against it
How thoughts, feelings, and behaviors operate as a braided cord rather than a linear chain
People-pleasing, social capital, and why ADHD professionals may overestimate their relational debts
Procrastivity, or productive procrastination — when it is adaptive, and when it is avoidance
Taskidermy tasks: the items that keep reappearing on your to-do list without moving forward
The SAP Method: Specific, Actionable, Pivot Points for getting unstuck
How CBT for adult ADHD differs from CBT for depression or anxiety, and why the implementation focus matters
Masking, intentional self-presentation, and the difference between coping and concealment
This episode offers language for patterns that often go unnamed at work — and a more grounded way to think about why standard advice keeps falling short.
About Dr. Russell Ramsay: Dr. Russell Ramsay is a psychologist who specializes in the assessment and psychosocial treatment of adult ADHD. He has lectured internationally, published widely, and authored six books on adult ADHD, including his most recent, Once I Get Started. He is a CHADD Hall of Fame inductee.
 
Pre-order Once I Get Started by Russell Ramsay, Ph.D.: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/783710/once-i-get-started-by-russell-ramsay-phd/
 
 
Connect with Cathy Rashidian: ReadySetChoose.com
Resources:
Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS-v1.1) Symptom Checklist Instructions
https://add.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/adhd-questionnaire-ASRS111.pdf
 

In this episode of Refined Leadership: ADHD Edition, I’m sharing the story of two career-defining decisions I made at the height of my corporate leadership roles—both of which I now realize were driven by ADHD.
On the outside, they looked like bold, deliberate moves. On the inside, I was in fight-or-flight mode, making fear-based calls that brought short-term relief but long-term consequences.
You’ll hear:
How ADHD traits like impulsivity, emotional intensity, and uncertainty intolerance can influence leadership decisions under pressure
Why big life transitions (like parenthood) can magnify ADHD tendencies at work
The difference between acting from clarity versus acting from discomfort
What I wish I had done differently—and how you can apply those lessons in your own leadership role
If you’ve ever left a role, made a major career move, or passed up an opportunity only to later question the decision, this episode will give you tools to pause, assess, and choose with strategy, not stress.
If you are at that tipping point—knowing something needs to change, but not sure what—this is where a pause can change everything. My ADHD-Powered Clarity Pit Stop is a focused, one-on-one session to help you slow down, see the full picture, and make your next move from strategy, not stress.
You can learn more here → ADHD-Powered Clarity Pit Stop
 
Subscribe to our new YouTube channel here:Get leadership insights through the ADHD lens

If you’re ADHD and high-performing, here’s what no one tells you — self-leadership is your lifeline.
In this episode, Coach Cathy explores how neurodivergent professionals can lead themselves with more clarity, compassion, and confidence. You’ll learn how to: • Track your energy patterns (instead of forcing productivity) • Identify personal anchor practices • Ask for what you need — without over-explaining
You’ll also hear personal stories, practical tools, and an invitation to connect with others on the same journey.
📍Topics Covered:0:00 – Welcome0:32 – What is Self-Leadership?1:53 – Why Knowing Yourself Changes Everything4:49 – Owning Your Story6:59 – Practical Tools That Actually Work8:39 – Final Thoughts + Community Invite
👉 Join the Quantum Thinkers Community:http://qtcommunity.com
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