I’m working with a brilliant young lawyer who is an absolute mess. He is amazingly insightful and can absorb astonishing amounts of information in very little time. However, he can’t keep his calendar straight, can’t keep track of pieces of paper (even for 10 minutes), and has abysmal time management skills. I’ve discussed these issues with him and he’s confided that he is being treated for ADHD. His current patterns are untenable, but I’m trying to convince others that it may be worth our investing in executive function coaching for him to see if he can turn things around. This really needs to be changed; it is not simply a matter of providing him access to sufficient support staff.
Any thoughts on how to find such a coach? Has anyone had luck with this?
I would love one.
There are some around, but they don’t yet read minds.
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/coaches-help-beat-adhd/
Has he been evaluated? Has he been prescribed any meds?
I’d go that route first.
He confided that he is on medication for ADHD. The medical stuff is outside the bounds of what we can do as an employer, but we’ve used coaches in the past for exceptionally talented lawyers with other sorts of issues (i.e. presentation skills/ communications training). Not sure if there is anything that would make a difference with executive function problems and severe disorganization.
Well, he needs coping skills to compensate for his weaknesses. He’s gotten thru law school, etc, somehow…how’d he do that? What skills did he teach himself?
I wonder if in “the old days” when professionals had secretaries if the secretaries were essentially mother hens to these types.
sounds like he may need his meds changed.
Thanks. The guy’s brilliant; aced law school. The working environment is very different because there are a lot more moving parts. I think he succeeded in college and law school at a very high level by relying on his near photographic memory. He can literally memorize extremely complex documents in no time flat. Unfortunately, if he needs to show that document to a witness, he will not be able to find it even if someone just handed it to him 10 minutes before and no one has left the room. When he finally does locate it, it is likely to be crumpled up with a big shoe print on it.
Unfortunately, I don’t think he is going to have a job for much longer.
Geographically, where? I looked for over 2 years, and finally found a great organization that train well and are very effective. I saw some other references over on the disabled students thread.
This sounds like me, though not as extreme on either end. I think that someone like this is probably not cut out for trial work, absent a whole lot of secretarial and paralegal support. I’m a successful appellate attorney but I could never handle litigation. I have accepted there will be limits on the type of tasks I can happily and successfully perform. I love and am good at crafting arguments and figuring things out, but there are simply too many parts, documents, and deadlines in litigation. Fortunately, there are so many different types of law to practice he can likely find a good place in the legal world. It just may not be the job he is now doing. It may be for the best.
What the guy needs is a super executive assistant.
Check out the Edge Foundation.
Finding a good EF coach is like finding a unicorn…very difficult. I did so many searches and tried so many areas before I found one for my son. So glad you are concerned.
Where are you geographically?
If there are any colleges or universities nearby, you could try calling the student services office to see who they recommend as an EF coach. Additionally, some areas have excellent centers for tutoring and assessment that may have EF experts on staff.
Understand doughmom’s situation as I know several capable attorneys who opted out of being a litigator for either organizational or stress avoidance reasons.
@travelnut, has this actually worked for you? It decidedly and resoundingly did not work for me. I really thought it would, but the OSD offices seem not to have those lists of resources where I live.
I have not personally tried this and am sorry that it didn’t work for you. I do know others who have received such information from their student services. It seems likely that there are wide variations among colleges in how such information is gathered and shared, as well as actual availability of such professionals in different regions.
Just goggled executive function coaching and in my urban area, there is significant information on this, including hospital based programs. Many focus on younger people. There are also listings for individual EF coaches who could be interviewed. Additionally, employment ads come up from organizations seeking to hire coaches. There is clearly a demand. Frustrating to not find this service and I hope you can.
At my son’s small LAC, I doubted whether the disabilities office had even heard the term before. No help in recommendations. After my son left the school, I discovered that there was an EF coach literally two blocks from campus.
My son’s first EF coach actually made matters worse…he reinforced all the things Son was bad at, without helping him with workarounds.
Sounds like this would be a business opportunity for professional coaching in this area. There are zillions of executive coaches for other types of issues but our providers don’t have specialists in this.
It does seem to be a growing field. It seems likely that ADD focussed coaching started a bit earlier (I remember attending a lecture on this topic almost 20 years ago), and EF has more recently gained attention. I’m guessing that some coaches are able to address the needs of both groups, as there may be overlap in this population, as well as in the skill sets to be acquired.
I found what seemed to be a franchise or licensed group of “coaches.” From the credentials of the folks from that group that I looked at, the must have put them all through a very short training course.
Are there any local chapters of Ch.A.D.D. (Children and Adults with ADD), in your area. They often have people in their chapter who can assist.