Most managers have at least one person on their team who is hard to read. They resist changes. They go quiet after a pivot. They seem disengaged, or they overdeliver one week and disappear the next. And the usual management advice does not seem to reach them.
In this episode I sit down with Genie Love, an executive functioning and relationship coach with over 25 years of experience working with neurodivergent adults. Genie spent 13 years supporting students with ADHD and autism in schools before shifting to adult coaching, helping people whose brains were never designed for the systems being handed to them.
We talk about why more adults are getting diagnosed with ADHD and autism now, why the apps and planners always fail, and why productivity is the wrong goal entirely. Genie introduces the concept of steadiness as the target instead, and walks through two concrete starting points that actually work for neurodivergent brains. We also get into what managers can realistically do without overhauling everything, and why the accommodations that help neurodivergent employees almost always turn out to help everyone on the team.
What you'll learn in this episode:
- Why so many adults are discovering they have ADHD or autism in midlife and why it surfaces then
- Why apps, planners, and productivity systems keep failing neurodivergent people
- Why steadiness is a better goal than productivity, and what that actually looks like
- A step-by-step protocol for starting a hard task that you have been avoiding
- How to match tasks to energy levels rather than defaulting to productivity guru schedules
- What one small, sustainable change managers can make that benefits their entire team
- Resources for parents who suspect their child may be neurodivergent
CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Introduction and guest bio: Genie Love, executive functioning coach
00:47 Genie's origin story: from physical therapy to 25 years of neurodivergent coaching
04:27 Why more adults are being diagnosed with ADHD and autism now
07:10 The midlife tipping point: when systems that worked before suddenly stop working
10:17 ADHD vs. autism: overlaps and differences in the coaching approach
11:30 Why apps and planners keep failing neurodivergent people
15:12 Productivity vs. steadiness: why the wrong goal is burning people out
20:20 Technology, constant access, and the value of learning to do nothing
24:14 The hard-thing setup protocol, time blocking, and energy blocking
31:38 Mindset advice that backfires and the autistic burnout risk
34:01 Late diagnosis: shame, grief, resources for parents, and why parents need coaching too
43:37 What managers can do: one small change that ends up benefiting everyone
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https://beyondcoaching.pro/
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https://www.tessbrigham.com/podcast
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