ADHD, Emotional Accessibility and Doing What Matters
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Doing what matters is what we all strive for, right?
Doing what matters (DWM) reinforces clarity of purpose and provides a sense of fulfillment. With ADHD, though, we can often identify what matters but are then flummoxed in how to consistently execute what we know to be most relevant.
This is why Global Creatives come to work with me - to crack the QII code and to work on the stuff that matters most. QII refers to the important/not urgent quadrant illustrated in the Eisenhower Matrix. Global Creatives are wired to thrive in the urgent quadrants, masterfully responding to immediate deadlines and current crises. Remove urgency and all structural supports melt away or do they?
I’ve always thought that the QII/ADHD dilemma was a time and structure conundrum. I now see it as a time, structure and emotion dilemma. What does emotion have to do with DWM? Just about everything. Emotion is the on/off switch for action. Our emotional centers guide our choices, behaviors and automatic responses to stressful situations. As an effective coping mechanism, Global Creatives harness the stress response centers of the brain to access adrenaline which in turn creates a surplus of dopamine. This is what we call hyper-focus. Leaders who rely too heavily on hyper-focus can inadvertently ‘wire’ their team or organization to mimic the same stress centers in the brain. The result is an organization that is responsive to the immediate but lacking any real strategic perspective on long term opportunities or trends. This can also transfer into a household, ratcheting up the collective stress under the roof.
Having ADHD is having too much or too little accessibility to attention, energy, memory and emotion.
What does emotion have to do with ADHD? Executive functions regulate emotion and ADHD impacts those same executive functions. Emotional dysregulation is the industry language to describe this phenomenon. When working with clients around emotion, I prefer the term 'emotional accessibility'. Having ADHD is having too much or too little accessibility to attention, energy, memory and emotion. Part of the emotion/ADHD conundrum is that, even though emotions are in the room influencing and directing, those of us with ADHD are not seeing them in action real time. It’s hard to place value on (and regulate) something you are not seeing. Furthermore, on our Translating ADHD podcast Shelly and I often say ‘ADHDers are wired for context’. When negative emotions are in play with our contextual way of thinking, we play out scenarios to catastrophic outcomes. Tethered to the positive neural networks, however, our contextual wiring creates curiosity, compassion and visions of opportunity and success.
When we view emotion and ADHD as an access problem we can start to develop effective ‘accessibility tools’ much like a ramp for a wheelchair. Medication, cognitive therapies and coaching help to mitigate the challenges of ADHD and emotional dysregulation but I believe cracking the QII code and being an effective leader is in part figuring out how to turn emotion, much like time or people, into a consistent asset.
Accessing positive emotions is possible. In positive emotions live Flow State, hope, creativity, choice and curiosity - three of the 6 Cs. This is not some Pollyanna argument that you can just enjoy positive emotions and say goodbye to negative emotions forever. Susan David who wrote Emotional Agility emphasizes how negative emotions are essential to inform our experience in constructive and worthwhile ways. Emotional accessibility is understanding the role of all emotions and bringing a balanced approach to work and life.
I am finding that Positive Intelligence is a great ‘accessibility’ tool for some of my clients helping them better understand and leverage the emotional part of their brain but there are many sources out there. Concepts like emotional intelligence and thought leaders like Susan David, Richard Boyatzis and Chatter author Ethan Kross are ones who come to mind.