HELP! My Accountant Has ADD!

Today I met with a new accountant. The firm I had been working with was a little stuffy for me, so I wanted to shop around. I liked this new accountant - she was not quite as knowledgeable as the last guy, but she was very down to earth and personable. What worries me is that she had some serious ADD tendencies...

She was singing "la la la la laaaaa!" loudly to herself before I was escorted into her office. (Now don't get me wrong, I do that, too, just not in front of clients!)  She talked nonstop and went off on tangents - a lot.  And she spent a lot of time looking for a paper that was right under her nose. These ADD tendencies worried me a bit.

BUT...I liked her style. The office was not your typical stuffy CPA office. She was happy, gay-friendly, and seemed to genuinely have my best interest at heart. I suppose the ultimate test will be the work that is done, as we decided to change the structure of the business from an LLC to an S Corp and make Erin a 50% partner. (More on this another time.)

I don't know whether or not the accountant actually has ADD, but it got me thinking. Maybe there are more ADDers out there in "detail-oriented" careers than I thought.

In almost 5 years of coaching, I have had only one client who was an accountant. He struggled, but he was ultimately saved by a promotion that allowed him to supervise a team of accountants and spend most of his time in a strategic role. And the accountant I met with today seemed to be more interested in working with entrepreneurs and helping them succeed than in the actual tax law stuff.

Perhaps there are more of these ADDers out there than I realized: people who effectively balance the details with the big picture and are ultimately very successful.

Do you own a business that most people would consider ADD-unfriendly? Tell us about it! Please share your thoughts in the comments field.

Comments

[John M]

I am an accountant who can really relate to a lot of the "ADD tendencies" of your accountant. When I was a youth I was diagnosed with NLD (non verbal learning disorder), which has many of the overlapping tendencies that you mentioned and is often misdiagnosed as ADD.

People with NLD can succeed at detail oriented jobs, yet have poor organizational skills.

The question that you will need to ask yourself is whether you want someone who is focused on having the most technical knowledge or someone that is focused on helping you succeed.

[Jen Koretsky]

I agree 100% John! :)