Is balance harder to achieve for ADHD leaders? Neurodivergent Leadership and Climate Transition (Part 3)

In the last two articles of the 3-part series, I talked about the more empowering lens of looking at neurodiversity and the missing conversation about ADHD strengths. In this article, I want to talk about the reality of the challenges that many ADHD professionals and leaders grapple with.

The climate sector, while not typically associated with neurodiversity, can appear attractive to ADHD professionals as a field to work in for several reasons. Many neurodivergent people have justice sensitivity - a strong sense of fairness and justice [1]. This makes them more inclined to choose a career path aligned with social-environmental issues such as climate change. The sector also moves very fast. Frequency technological, policy and commercial development in this fast-paced sector offer a huge amount of enjoyment and growth needed for neurodivergent brains that require a lot of stimulation and information. As climate impacts almost every field in our society, it is more welcoming for people with non-linear career paths and multi-interests to find their unique contribution. Many ADHD professionals I've worked with often move into leadership positions quicker in climate, because they’re being valued for their generalist experience, ability to connect the dots, and inclusive and encouraging style of management.

But the same traits that make ADHDers well-suited to climate work can also make it difficult for them to achieve balance. Like many people who find deep meaning in working in the climate sector, the work can be all consuming. It’s difficult to keep work as just work if you feel deeply about the impact of climate change. This gets highlighted in high stake leadership roles, where one is constantly aware of the weight on their shoulders, as well as the wellbeing of people they manage.

While the amount of information in the climate sector can be highly stimulating, it could exacerbate ADHDer’s already heightened sense of impostor syndrome, leading them to live constantly in a state of 'not knowing enough'. They often respond to this by seeking more information: taking more courses, being glued to sector news, keeping up with people updates in their network. This can have a detrimental impact on their wellbeing, relationships, and getting through the mundane parts of day-to-day lives.

Without understanding their processing differences, others may perceive ADHDers as lacking motivation, struggling to complete tasks or negligent of tasks and people outside of current focus. Neurodivergent people often have internalised these fictions as the cause of problems, rather than perceiving them as differences, leading them to overcompensate by working longer hours, ignoring their own wellbeing and needs, and holding themselves to impossible standards to avoid potential criticism.

The combination of a highly interesting and purposeful field, their attention style, and over-compensation can all lead to neurodivergent people having careers that take up a big part of their lives, making work-life balance more difficult to achieve. It is also worth noting that the same behaviours can often be interpreted differently depending on the situation or the norms and cultures of a particular field/organisation, as well as genders. Many behaviours associated with neurodivergent working styles are often accepted in men (the creative genius, dynamic entrepreneur, absent-minded professor tropes) but criticised and punished in women [2] (this is partially why neurodiversity in women are significantly under-diagonised, a topic for another article in the future).

While I’ve listed several challenges in balancing passion, ambition and life, it is still possible to have a fulfilling and enjoyable work life as a neurodivergent leader. So if you want to make a meaningful impact without burning yourself out in the process, what can you do?

First, neuro-affirmative knowledge, awareness and strategies can help you see your patterns of attention, energy and interests and create an environment that works better for your brain. This is an important first step because we've all absorbed a lot of information around neurodiversity that is false, oversimplified or outdated (just this week, a pioneer of autism research has come out to say he regretted how his framing of autism had been interpreted and used in the past couple of decades.) Replacing these unhelpful narratives and strategies with supportive ones is the first step to working with (instead of against) yourself. Some resources I recommend are ADHD UK, the book How to ADHD by ADHDer Jessica McCabe, the podcast 'Divergent Conversations' by two neurodivergent mental health professionals.

Next, it’s important to build genuine confidence in your own strengths, skills and unique contributions, so you don’t feel like they have to work harder than everyone else to justify yourself at work. As a neurodivergent professional and leader, you have many unique strengths that you might have taken for granted, minimised or simply haven’t uncovered. Developing confidence in your contribution does not only help you claim more personal time back, but also help you to be more regulated and grounded at work, therefore accessing your genuine creativity and natural leadership strengths. There are many resources to help you with this, the VIA Inventory of Strengths being a common system for categorising strengths. Once you've identified your top strengths, brainstorm how these strengths help you make a positive contribution at work, which strengths you might not have been tapping into.

Finally, even if you can appear competent and capable on the outside, you could still benefit from workplace support, adjustments and flexibility to allow you to bring your best self to work. Many neurodivergent people have learned to internalise and minimise their struggles from an early age, the idea of requesting accommodations and help can feel undeserving, shameful and professionally risky. Workplaces in the UK have a responsibility to help you identify and make reasonable adjustments to support your needs, and they genuinely will benefit from you accessing your full potential. Specifically, The UK government also has an Access to Work programme that offers grants for many types of support, such as ADHD coaching as well as equipment that might support your work (e.g. noise cancelling headphones).

The climate transition is a complex, interdisciplinary problem that urgently demands creative problem solving. We need everyone to bring their best work to the challenge, and I really believe neurodivergent professionals and leaders have a huge amount to offer to the challenge.

This article concludes my 3-part series on Neurodivergent Leadership and Climate Transition (here for part 1 and part 2). Whether you’re a neurodivergent professional in climate or closely with them, I hope these articles have been helpful. If you're interested in working together 1:1, you can check out my neurodivergent leadership coaching work here, or drop me a message directly. As always, thank you for reading!

[1] https://adhdworking.co.uk/adhd-traits/justice-sensitivity-in-adhd/

[2] https://www.additudemag.com/gender-differences-in-adhd-women-vs-men/