I don’t know if executives with attention deficit disorder mess up any more than other executives, but I do know that on occasion, we miss deadlines, we forget meetings, we get names wrong.  We interrupt and embarrass our clients or colleagues, we accidentally deliver incorrect products, and we break fragile mementos.

All executives need to learn how to make good apologies and to make appropriate amends.  Given our propensity to make (and perhaps repeat) mistakes, the burden may be even higher for ADDexecs.

CareerBuilder ran a nice article in 2005 on How to Apologize at Work.  Among their tips which are particularly important for ADDexecs.  Here’s one for when you pledge to make amends: “promising more than you can deliver is a sure way to set yourself up as the target of future outrage.”  It’s easy for people with ADD to make a hasty promises that we haven’t taken the time to figure out whether we can fulfill.  And here’s another: “After you say you’re sorry, be quiet and listen while people tell you how angry they are.”  This is hard for the hyperverbal among us, but all the more important if you want to be sincere.

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