You just learned that an attorney who reports to you has ADHD, and you’re wondering how do I manage an attorney with ADHD. Here are five things that you, as a manager or supervisor can do to manage attorneys with ADHD.  These techniques are good management practices and will make life easier for yourself while helping attorneys who have executive function challenges or have ADHD.

1. Provide a deadline for all projects.

And, for long projects, set up an interim check in date for questions and to check on progress. One of the challenges of ADHD is time blindness. Time blindness adversely impacts people with ADHD because they operate in two time zones “now” and “not now.” Projects without deadlines fall into the “not now” zone. In practice, projects in the “not now” time zone are likely to get started later than you want. Clear deadlines help your employee plan their work by communicating your expectations regarding when the project should be completed.

2. Schedule regular check in’s.

By scheduling regular check ins with your employee, you can create the boundaries for the “now” zone. For instance, if you meet biweekly, you can instruct the employee to report on the status of all projects due in the next 2 weeks. Consequently, everything expected in the next two weeks becomes a now project instead of an emergency that needs to be dealt with in the next 24 hours. Regular check-in’s which can be as short as 15 minutes create guardrails that ensure that projects don’t go off the rails.

3. Set Agendas.

By providing a clear agenda in advance of a meeting, you are communicating, what you expect your employee to come prepared to discuss. Obviously, a meeting with a prepared employee is going to be a more productive meeting. But, what you might not know, is that many people with ADHD are overly sensitive to criticism (perceived or real) and a meeting without a specified topic can set off an attack of negative (and unproductive) rumination. You can short circuit the rumination cycle by simply setting out the topics to be discussed and adhering to it.

4. Require Post-Meeting Summaries.

After the meeting, send out a summary of what was discussed and due dates. You don’t have to prepare it yourself. If you don’t have AI taking notes, then have one of the meeting attendees send you the minutes and To Do’s in an email. This creates clarity for all in attendance and deals with the neurodivergent staff member’s short term memory issues. Plus, the act of taking notes and writing them up or editing the AI summary will anchor the information.

5. Make the implicit explicit.

If you have preferences about how things are done, put them in writing. My partner used to send out an annual message to the staff called Pet Peeves. It saved a lot of time and aggravation for all involved. For the neurodivergent attorney, it can clearly lay out the rules. People with ADHD tend to be rule followers. A memo of this nature conserves energy for both you and the and the neurodivergent attorney because figuring out the unwritten rules is difficult and often requires using social skills they lack.

For more assistance on managing lawyers with ADHD, schedule a free introductory appointment here.