Why Congruent Leaders Might Want an Executive Function Coach

Executive function is generally a group of abilities that allow you to manage your thoughts, emotions, and actions in order to get things done.

If you’re a congruent leader who struggles with executive function, you might run into problems like:
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• Getting paralyzed by an oversized to do list, not knowing where to start.
• Being overwhelmed with a too full email inbox, or taking a huge amount of time to respond to that one email you just can’t get right.
• Being calm, calm, calm, calm in the face of all kinds of demands then all of a sudden blowing up, sometimes over something seemingly insignificant.
• Things that other people seem to do just fine are more difficult for you like keeping up with errands or having a consistent morning routine.
• Managing the groceries in your fridge – seems like there are too few groceries with nothing healthy to eat or so many that the food goes bad.
• You may have trouble designing a meeting agenda and/or sticking to it.
• When you’re leading a meeting, it can be hard to manage the time well so the most important agenda items get the most attention.
• It might be hard to know what the most important agenda items are.
• You can be really attentive to someone in a conversation one moment then find your mind is completely somewhere else the next. And you’re confused about what you missed.
• You might be good at juggling a bunch of tasks at once… until all of a sudden you feel you can’t possibly do any other task at all.
• You mean to keep your desk organized, you really do. But you often turn around and notice it looks like a small explosion.
• You have trouble keeping track of what happens between meetings. For example, in a one-on-one meeting with a direct report, you may forget about a key topic an employee’s been working on.
• Sometimes you can appreciate interruptions when someone has a question and sometimes you want to scream because it feels like that one interruption prevents your train of thought from ever getting back on track. 
• You can get things done, but there's a parental voice in your mind insisting you stay on top of things.
• You have trouble getting places on time. Or if you are on time, it's because you had to set an alarm (or multiple alarms) to get there.

For leaders who are accomplished in their fields, these inner struggles may surprise others. They’ll see ways you slip up from time to time, but they have no idea just how hard you’re working all the time in your mind to get things done.

It’s so hard, and it takes so much effort.

Fortunately for those of us with low executive functioning, we’re not alone and we have options. Autistics and people with ADHD have been developing resources for years, and you don’t need an autism or ADHD diagnosis to benefit from their good work.

Celia King, Arrants McSwain's lead consultant, deals with her own low executive functioning, and has spent her career developing resources to help herself and others. She can integrate executive function coaching into any of the Arrants McSwain coaching packages.