Adult ADHD; A Neglected Condition Gets More Attention

I have the sense that anyone who has managed employees within an organization over the years may have encountered individuals who have extreme difficulty managing projects and who, it now seems, may have adult ADHD. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal raised this topic (see: Mind Games: Attention-Deficit Disorder Isn't Just for Kids. Why Adults Are Now Being Diagnosed, Too; subscription required). Below is an excerpt from it

Generally, ADHD can make life very difficult [for adults]. It's thought to be an imbalance in neurotransmitters, the chemical messengers that relay signals in the brain, particularly in the frontal cortex that governs planning and impulse control....Adults more typically have trouble with paying attention, focusing and prioritizing. Managing time and money are particularly difficult."What it really is is a disturbance of the executive functions of the brain -- it's the inability to plan things, to initiate them at the appropriate time, not to skip any of the steps and to terminate them at the appropriate time," says [a medical expert]. "An awful lot of these people are very bright but they can't keep it together. They keep screwing things up."

Here's another link to a web site focusing on this medical problem (see: Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: ADHD in Adults) with another brief description of the disorder:

Adults with ADHD may have difficulty following directions, remembering information, concentrating, organizing tasks or completing work within time limits. If these difficulties are not managed appropriately, they can cause associated behavioral, emotional, social, vocational and academic problems.

In my career in academic pathology, it has usually been project management difficulties that have brought individuals who may have ADHD to my attention. I think that focused projects are a special challenge for them because they entail goals, delivery dates, and effective communication within a team. In fact, managing an LIS seems to entail an endless number of projects at various stages of completion in addition to the daily operational demands of your legacy system. Based on my personal experience, I would suggest the following litmus test to raise the possibility that an employee may have this problem. Do you have someone working for you who repeatedly fails to deliver assigned work on time and on schedule? When asked about this failure, the individual will usually suggest that he or she was lead astray by inadequate directions or instructions, perhaps from you. However, no one else involved with the project seems to be having similar problems. You then find yourself spending more and more time with that person and doing more and more of their work.

Comments

[A-line Halter Taffeta Wedding Dresse]

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[Project Management Software]

Today, we are living in an era of the Internet where online project management software serves as a great tool to help us complete projects on time. Such software is the simplest tool that helps the project managers plan and manage different tasks that are involved in each project.