Diann Wingert’s executive assistant is a boss whisperer, a person who has the unique ability to understand their supervisor’s psychology, nature, and behavior — and respond calmly and effectively to off-topic tangents, memory hiccups, and other challenges.
And Wingert says every boss with ADHD needs one.When Wingert’s ADHD brain bursts with ideas that simply must be shared with her employees right now, even during a meeting about something entirely different, her trusted assistant gently nudges her back on track and to the subject at hand.“When I have a new idea and fall madly in love with it, well, it’s as if we don’t have other initiatives” to attend to, says Wingert, a licensed psychotherapist, coach, consultant, and serial entrepreneur. “As a leader, I need to empower the people around me to help me manage myself sometimes.“I’ve taught my assistants to do this: Give me a little space to share my brand-new idea because I’m so excited that, if you shut it down right away, I might get triggered and double down.
So then they ask: ‘Where does this fit with our current initiatives?’ Then I think, ‘Oh, yeah, where is this going to fit?’ Then my assistant says, ‘This is a great idea, boss.