Who wants a blowgun and some Ritalin darts?

When I wander off topic during meetings with my colleague Geoff, he puts two fists to his mouth, points them at my neck and goes, “Phoompf!”

It’s good for co-workers to help keep each other out of ADD trouble.  Geoff shoots me with his blowgun.  I interrupt one of our other colleagues when he interrupts one of our clients.  And I ask my own clients, “If I get on a roll and can’t stop talking about something that isn’t useful, please tell me so I can stop.”

Just remember to deliver the “hey, let’s stay on track” message in a way that doesn’t cause more harm than good.  Get agreement in advance that you’re going to do this for each other, so nobody gets surprised or angry.  And do it with tact and maybe a little humor. Phoompf!

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Photo credit: Isaac Councill, blowgun demonstration in Peru. Copyright 2006. Used with permission.

Early in my first job out of college, I asked my boss if she would assign me to an interesting new project  that our company had just started.  Unfortunately, started. Unfortunately, she told me, it would be at least six months before there’d be a slot for me.

“Have patience,” she said.

“‘Patience’”, I asked. “What’s that?”

“I don’t know, but I’m told it’s a virtue.”

Though this conversation is now almost twenty years old, I remember it often, especially in the context of “play to your strengths.”  Many smart people suggest that in our careers, our twenties are a time for finding out what we’re good at and what we’re not — a time for trying to “fix” our weaknesses.  But by the time we’re in our 40s (or 50s, as my then-boss was), it’s time to play to our strengths.  Patience was not one of hers, and she didn’t put herself in situations where it was a critical success factor.

In some ways, the same advice applies for executives with attention deficit disorder: we have a nature that’s great at some things and lousy at others, and we should find (or create) environments that make the most of the good and that don’t penalize us severely for the bad.  That said, most (or at least many) executives with attention deficit disorder got their diagnoses later in life — sometimes years or even decades after being in the working world.  With these late diagnoses, we didn’t have the normal “learning sequence” of coming to understand, in our teens or twenties, what we were good or bad at.  Which is to say, we may have some catching up to do.  It may make plenty of sense to spend time “shoring up our weaknesses” (e.g., time management, communication skills, etc.) even if we’re well-established in a career that rewards our other strengths.

It is a damn poor mind indeed which can’t think of at least two ways to spell any word.

– Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States (1829-1837)

You can’t have a lot of balls in the air unless you’ve got a lot of balls.

– an anonymous friend of the ADDexecutive

“Cover your mouth with your hands, then sit on your hands.”

– a tried and true method for staying out of impulsive or compulsive trouble.

I used to have a note taped to my desk, as a reminder to me.  “Shut up and be nice,” it said.  It worked as long as I didn’t have my desk covered in papers.

“I write lots of notes in meetings. That’s how I keep my mouth shut.”

– Adam S., marketing consultant

When you were in second grade (or high school, or grad school), were you one of those hand-in-the-air “ooh! ooh! I know! call on me!” kids?

Apparently, that kind of thing doesn’t always go away.

There’s a quote somewhere about “you have two ears and one mouth so you can listen twice as much as you talk.” Hard sometimes to do in meetings where the things your colleague (or clients or staff) are saying keep giving you ideas you want to share.

But, obviously, sometimes you need to let the other person keep talking. Even if you’re only half-listening. Because half-listening but looking like you’re listening is almost always more politically welcome than half-listening but obviously not listening because you’re talking!

So use your pencil. Write down what you really want to say so it gets out of your body (where it’s making you twitch for however long it’s confined there). Then, later, you can share your brilliant thoughts when they’re done talking and finally ready to hear what you have to say.

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related: (1) I now know that when I want Adam to listen to me, I should hand him a notepad and a pen.

The good news is that while ADD can be debilitating in children and other normal human beings, it is actually an asset in executives. I can’t imagine what corporate life would be like without it–sitting like a slug for hours attending to conversations, bending my nose to the grindstone as I tackle one aggravating duty after another…feh![Instead,] I’m…

* Often blurting out answers before questions are completed. Even when they’re wrong. I know many more wrong answers than right ones, and I like to offer them as often as I possibly can. I hate waiting to reply to people. It means that they’re talking and I’m not.

* Often interrupting or intruding on others. Have you ever known a senior manager who didn’t do this? You’ll be sitting in somebody’s office, having interrupted what they were doing, and another boss just strolls in and interrupts you interrupting the other guy, completely intruding on your intrusion! Man!

– excerpted from Stanley Bing’s Diagnosis: Executive ADD, Fortune Magazine, 31 May 2004.

This Bing guy seems to be onto something. Click link for the full article. You know, just as soon as you’re done interrupting somebody.