The problem of resolving fear has two aspects. We shall have to try for all the freedom from fear that is possible for us to attain. Then we shall need to find both the courage and grace to deal constructively with whatever fears remain.

– Bill Wilson in As Bill Sees It: The A. A. Way of Life …Selected Writings of the A. A.’s Co-Founder

You don’t need to be in a 12-Step program for this quote to look familiar.  It’s essence is derived from (or at least parallel) to the Serenity Prayer: “Lord, let me have the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Relevance to executives with attention deficit disorder?  Executives and business owners strive for excellence, and seek to eliminate mistakes in work, and in the way we manage our own lives.  Of course we want to manage our ADD and of course we want to get rid of as many of its problems as we can.

What we need to stay wise about is that we’re not going to make all of our ADD nature go away.  We have to learn how to live with the parts that we’re going to have to live with.  We can’t obsess about it.   It would really stink to have our attention deficit disorder be more of a problem because we paid too much attention to it.

This month’s issue of Entrepreneur Magazine talks about the costs of depression in the workplace:

“Entrepreneurs who run bars, restaurants and child-care or elder-care businesses have a new worry: depression. Their employees are more likely than those in other fields to get depressed enough to hurt productivity, boost absenteeism and deflate morale, according to a 2007 government study. And we’re not talking about a bluesy afternoon: A major depressive episode, as the 2007 “National Survey on Drug Use and Health” defines it, lasts two weeks or longer and involves a depressed mood, a general lack of interest and possible problems with sleep, eating, concentration and productivity. The annual cost to U.S. companies is $30 billion to $44 billion, according to the study.”

– Mark Henricks in The Moody Blues– Depressed workers bring the whole company down, so get them the help they need, Entrepreneur Magazine, April 2008

While Henricks  doesn’t mention attention deficit disorder, the points are clearly transferable: mental health problems affect everyone, and they affect the bottom line. For any business with more than a few employees, there’s a decent chance that some executives may have ADHD (or other mental health concerns) that are affecting the whole company.

The Entrepreneur article mentions several options that companies can consider, including mental health coverage, mental health advising, and access to free programs that may help. If you have staff who may have ADHD (yourself and/or others), look at the options for making things better. Compassion notwithstanding, the dollar math says you should.

As a “brain personality,” attention deficit disorder drives people into executive positions and business ownership via its strengths (e.g., ability to multitask) and its weakenesses (e.g., lack of patience). Research just reported in the New York Times looks into the role of dyslexia as a similar driver, particularly for its role in causing people to develop “compensatory skills”:

Tracing Business Acumen to Dyslexia
By BRENT BOWERS

It has long been known that dyslexics are drawn to running their own businesses, where they can get around their weaknesses in reading and writing and play on their strengths. But a new study of entrepreneurs in the United States suggests that dyslexia is much more common among small-business owners than even the experts had thought.

The report, compiled by Julie Logan, a professor of entrepreneurship at the Cass Business School in London, found that more than a third of the entrepreneurs she had surveyed — 35 percent — identified themselves as dyslexic. The study also concluded that dyslexics were more likely than nondyslexics to delegate authority, to excel in oral communication and problem solving and were twice as likely to own two or more businesses.

The article also quote the well-known Kinko’s founder Paul Orfalea:

Mr. Orfalea, 60, who left Kinko’s — now FedEx Kinko’s — seven years ago, and who now dabbles in a hodgepodge of business undertakings, is almost proud of having dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

“I get bored easily, and that is a great motivator,” he said. “I think everybody should have dyslexia and A.D.D.”

Full article here: Brent Bowers, Tracing Business Acumen to Dyslexia. New York Times. December 7, 2007.

For a preliminary copy of the 2004 research report from Julie Logan, click here for a .pdf on dyslexia and entrepreneurship (at her research institute, Simfonec at the Cass Business School in London).  Click here for Julie Logan bio.

Some naysayers argue that attention deficit disorder isn’t a real problem, or that it’s only a problem for people who fail to take personal responsibility for their brains and behaviors.

Admittedly, many past ADD-management have relied too broadly on medication with little focus on self-management. Things are better today with greater use of additional techniques such as cognitive-behavioral therapy. But what about good old fashioned “willpower”? It looks like it’s on the comeback to an active role in personal health management. This from the New York Times:

Every day, we are tested. Whether it’s a cookie tempting us from our diets or a warm bed coaxing us to sleep late, we are forced to decide between what we want to do and what we ought to do.

The ability to resist our impulses is commonly described as self-control or willpower. The elusive forces behind a person’s willpower have been the subject of increasing scrutiny by the scientific community trying to understand why some people overeat or abuse drugs and alcohol. What researchers are finding is that willpower is essentially a mental muscle, and certain physical and mental forces can weaken or strengthen our self-control.

Studies now show that self-control is a limited resource that may be strengthened by the foods we eat. Laughter and conjuring up powerful memories may also help boost a person’s self-control. And, some research suggests, we can improve self-control through practice, testing ourselves on small tasks in order to strengthen our willpower for bigger challenges.

– Tara Parker-Pope on Health, How to Boost Your Willpower, New York Times.  December 6, 2007.  <– Click title for full article.  Registration may be required.

I learned that quality requires minute attention to every detail, that everyone in an organization wants to do a good job, that written instructions are seldom adequate, and that personal involvement needs to be frequent, friendly, unfocused, and unscheduled—but far from pointless. And since its principal aim is to seek out people’s thoughts and opinions, it requires good listening.

–Hewlett-Packard co-founder David Packard, in The HP Way.

For an ADDexec, “MBWA” may have as much benefit for managing their ADD/ADHD as it does for managing their staff. Executives with the “H” in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder need the movement.

So how do we get more movement into our days? Fidgeting is one obvious outlet, but do we have others? Management By Walking Around sounds like a good one, as long as it isn’t aimless or hyperactive motion. Pre-work or mid-day exercise may be another, for the deskbound among us.

But picking a walking-oriented career may be even better. A recent CareerBuilder.com listed ten fields “considered to have the best physically active job opportunities, based on information from the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Census Bureau”:

1. Registered nurse
2. Physical therapists
3. Physician assistants
4. Elementary school teachers
5. Radiologic technologists and technicians
6. Kindergarten teachers
7. Occupational therapists
8. Secondary school teachers
9. Police and sheriff’s patrol officers
10. Veterinarians.

Granted, most of those jobs aren’t considered “executive” positions. But you might find more in Laurence Shatkin’s 175 Best Jobs Not Behind a Desk. In the CareerBuilder article, Shatkin says,

“The shift to an information-based economy has meant a constant increase in the proportion of workers who manipulate data for a living, and who therefore spend most of the workday behind a a desk…. Fortunately… there are still plenty of high-activity jobs for people who prefer them… active jobs that have good earnings and are expected to have good job opportunities. They allow you to use your brains as well as muscles and involve the kinds of people and problems that can keep you interested in your work.”

– from “Out in Front”, in the News & Observer careerbuilder.com section, 4 November 2007

——

Amusing related quote: “MBWA is a hyperactive, out-of-the office, interventionist top management practice.” –Vadim Kotelnikov

In the Future:

People will change clothes every six minutes but still never be quite happy with their appearance.

–George Carlin, 2006 daily calendar.

Some things ask for our attention but don’t really require it. Just because you can monkey with something doesn’t mean you should do it.  And just because you changed it doesn’t mean you’re going to be happier about it.  If people reminded me of this once a week, it wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Etiquette mavens, too, have practical advice for an ADDexec:

The biggest mistake a meeting organizer can make is assuming that a well-planned meeting can run itself. That’s like assuming that if you peel the vegetables and cube the beef, the stew will make itself.

START ON TIME

A late meeting start sets an unfortunate tone, signaling to participants that you are not in control and that you’re not altogether respectful of their schedules.

KEEP THINGS ON TRACK

Use the agenda to keep your meeting on track… Be polite but firm. “That’s an interesting point, Sarah, and I’d like to discuss it with you after the meeting. But right now, I want to stay with the problem of…”

–Peggy Post and Peter Post in Emily Post’s The Etiquette Advantage in Business: Personal Skills for Professional Success, Second Edition (1999).

What triggers your ADD? For many of us, fear is the number one trigger. Fear of a difficult task, a negative outcome or an unpleasant encounter makes us look for any new candidate for our time and attention. The only requirement for the new thing is that it feel less stressful.

We’ll write more on this topic at the ADDexecutive, but let’s start with this quote from Frank Herbert’s Dune. Dune is known as a work of science fiction, but it spends a significant fraction of its time discussing business, economics, and the leadership mind:

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

– Frank Herbert, in Dune

‘Be Quick But Don’t Hurry.’ By that, I meant make a decision, take action; decide what you’re going to do and do it. Keep this word of caution in mind: ‘Failure to act is often the biggest failure of all’.

– John Wooden, from his website CoachJohnWooden.com

“Be Quick But Don’t Hurry” is usually quoted by itself, without extra explanation from the coach.  For the ADDexec, the “don’t hurry” part may be the most important part of Wooden’s advice.  But the full explanation has value, too.  Especially when unmanaged attention fails to engage the gears of action.

Coach Wooden is widely regarded as the best coach in the history of college basketball. After winning ten national championships at UCLA, Wooden has also emerged as a voice of leadership and ethical behavior. His most-frequently quoted advice is the title of his new book.

Available at Amazon: Be Quick But Don’t Hurry

Bad signage contributes to more people getting lost than a poor sense of direction. Consider the times that you failed to see a sign because it was too small or obscurely placed. Or stood baffled before a directory that was illogically organized and badly lit. In the realm of graphic information, wayfinding systems abide by their own set of rules. Many typefaces that are easy to read on a printed page are frustrating to make out in signage. The same goes for colors. This is why some designers and their clients are chagrined to find that the system that looked so stunning in miniature mock-up failed miserably when installed at actual size. [For guidance on how to do things the right way, a] recommended source is “Wayfinding: People, Signs and Architecture” by Paul Arthur and Romedi Passini (Focus Strategic Communications Inc.)

From: @issue The Journal of Business and Design, Fall 2005

Our businesses may not have to worry about wayfaring and road signage, but are there other ways we make it hard for people to see what we want them to see, and to find their way to the place or message we want them to get to? “Signage” has analogues in many things we do: from the way we organize our speeches, write our reports, or “sell” our plans. To build good signage, we need clear thinking, we need clear commitment to our message, and we need consideration for our audience. Failure to give good signs may be a symptom of missing something even more important.