Brilliant leader with ADHD reaches the C-Suite
What might you need to pay attention to now?
Quick Summary
At the C-suite level, familiar leadership patterns can land differently because decisions and behaviours carry greater influence.
Speed, directness, passion and strong ownership can create both risk and reward, depending on the context.
Leaders can make their thinking and intent clearer without constantly monitoring themselves.
Strategic contribution includes giving others room to own the work. The goal is greater choice in how familiar strengths are used.
When we are working with senior leaders, entrepreneurs and members of the C-suite, we find that quick thinking, a sense of ownership and the ability to identify connections can all contribute to a successful career. At the C-suite level decisions have wider repercussions. Leaders at this level are more exposed and so a casual comment might be taken as indicating a new priority.
Familiar patterns may then be perceived in a different way. Passion has the power to increase conviction but it can also generate pressure. When there is a strong sense of ownership, it might cause the leader to take on a role that someone else should be leading. At this stage, it is necessary to select your actions more carefully and be aware of how they might be received.
This first article explores how pace, visibility, overextended strengths and role clarity shape leadership through an ADHD lens. These situations are not exclusive to ADHD, and they will not look the same for every leader.
Leadership strengths can carry both risk and reward
A direct challenge can help an executive team address an issue it has been avoiding, and too much intensity may make a colleague hesitate to contribute. Close attention to quality may protect the organization’s reputation, and it can limit ownership when every important decision still passes through the executive.
Instead of saying that a particular pattern is good or bad, consider whether it is appropriate for the role, for the room, and for the situation in the moment. Using this risk-and-reward perspective enables an honest discussion about impact while taking into account what the leader brings to the situation.
Fast thinking needs a pace the organization can follow
In the coaching context, certain leaders who have ADHD say that they are able to see connections or possible solutions swiftly. This can be of use in spotting opportunities or in giving a boost to work that has come to a standstill. However, it doesn't mean that their initial interpretation is always correct or that all people have the necessary context to evaluate it.
Wider organization may not be able to keep up with the leader's rate of thinking since people need time to understand the reasons involved, to consider the dependencies and to work out what a particular direction actually means in practice. Eventually, all the issues may start to seem equally important when new ideas constantly become urgent priorities.
We have worked with executives who could see the right destination but struggled to bring the organization with them. They needed to build understanding and engagement around the direction. This may mean separating an idea from an immediate priority, explaining the connections behind it and giving people enough time to test and absorb the direction.
Greater visibility changes how behaviour is interpreted
A leader may believe they are thinking aloud while everyone else hears a decision. A brief response may be taken as disapproval. Greater scrutiny can be especially demanding for leaders already monitoring how their communication, attention or energy is perceived. Masking more heavily or rehearsing every contribution can consume the attention they need to listen and engage.
Intentional visibility is different from constant self-surveillance. It might involve telling the room whether a comment is an observation, a question or a decision, then checking how it landed. Leaders cannot prevent people from making assumptions, and they can make their intent easier to understand and create opportunities to correct misunderstandings.
The strengths behind success can become overextended
If a person is stretched too thin, their passion might appear as intensity and speed might be interpreted as impatience. Under pressure, a leader might go into too much detail to help others understand the connections, or become controlling because the implications seem too important to ignore. People can end up reacting to the force of the interaction rather than engaging with the idea.
To be an effective leader one must have a wide range of skills. While it is important to be firm and to maintain high standards, in other cases curiosity, patience or a more gentle approach may be called for. By adjusting one's style, a leader acquires a greater variety of ways to show off their strength according to what the situation demands.
Executive value comes from understanding what it is that only you can do
Earlier in a career, contribution may be demonstrated through personal output and solving problems directly. At the C-suite level, a different question matters: What is it that only I can do in this role?
Stepping back can feel uncomfortable when a leader has deep operational knowledge and can already see how the work can be done. Stepping in may resolve the immediate problem. Over time, however, decisions can begin to wait for the executive, ownership becomes unclear and familiar operational work displaces strategic responsibilities.
Clear role definition helps leaders decide where their attention is most useful. They can provide context, define an outcome, remove a barrier or ask a question without taking ownership back. Delegation develops the team’s capacity as well as protecting executive attention.
Useful questions for leaders to explore
Reflection is most useful when it starts with curiosity rather than self-criticism. Choose a question that connects to a situation you are facing:
For yourself: Which pattern do I rely on most when pressure increases, and what am I assuming?
With your team: Where does my behaviour create clarity, and where might it create pressure or confusion?
With peers: What assumptions are we making about each other’s roles or intentions?
In coaching: What do I believe it would cost me to question this pattern, and what is one safe experiment I could try?
A useful experiment could be delaying a non-urgent decision, asking one more question before offering a solution or allowing a team member to carry a piece of work through to completion. Notice what changes rather than assuming a different response will automatically be better.
C-suite leadership calls for recalibration, not reinvention
Moving into senior leadership does not require you to erase the patterns that helped build your career. Those strengths will still be valuable. What changes is the need to adjust and choose how you use them. The question is how they are serving the role you hold now.
Join us for Part 2
Join Cathy Rashidian and Kathryn Pope on October 23, 2026, at 9:00 a.m. Mountain Time for Risks and Rewards at the Top: What It Takes to Stay There — Leading with ADHD at the C-Suite Level, Part 2.
This interactive webinar explores the less visible demands of sustaining senior leadership, including energy, responses to challenge, relationships, systems, novelty and boredom.
About the Authors
Cathy Rashidian
Cathy Rashidian - is the founder of Ready Set Choose Coaching Inc. and an executive and career coach who specializes in leadership through an ADHD lens. She is faculty with the ADD Coach Academy and brings a corporate background spanning digital transformation, marketing, and leadership development.
Cathy works with high-performing professionals, executives, and leadership teams to build self-trust, self-leadership, and sustainable ways of working — without the masking, urgency, and over-functioning most have relied on to get here.
Kathryn Pope
Kathryn Pope - is one of the senior coaches inside the Ready Set Choose Coaches Collective and an experienced executive and team coach with over 25 years working with senior leaders at C-suite and board level. She is an ADD Coach Academy graduate and holds multiple advanced credentials, including Marshall Goldsmith Certified Team Coach, Accredited Coach Supervisor, Resilience coach and Meta Team Coach.
Kathryn brings a deep understanding of leadership, organizational dynamics, and the realities of navigating change at scale. Her coaching style is intuitive, direct, and highly attuned. Clients describe feeling seen and stretched in equal measure.