The ADD Business Owner

ADD-friendly Business Travel Tip #3: Be Yourself, ADD & All

When I asked business owners to tell us their biggest challenges when traveling on business, Coach V said:

The biggest challenge for me is to remember all the people I meet at events. Chamber meetings to conferences to consulting, there are so many people and I forget names. Its embarrassing and also stressful.

Poor working memory is is a common problem associated with adult ADD. This means that it can be easy to forgot the "little things," like where you put your keys. It also means you may have a tendency to forget names and/or faces. And if you fear this challenge from the start, your anxiety and stress may make your working memory even worse!

Despite our worries to the contrary, most people are not offended when you politely explain that you have a tendency to forget names (for example.) Try saying something like, "I'm so sorry, but would you tell me your name one more time? I have an awful time remembering names!"

Or, even better, "It's nice to meet you, Jane! And please forgive me if I need you to remind me of your name a few times. It's always been a challenge of mine."

Fortunately, this is one challenge that there's really no need to stress about. It's actually much better to just be yourself, forgetfulness and all. People will appreciate your honesty, and your authenticity.

More ADD-friendly business travel tips can be found here and here.

And don't forget that it's March mADDness over at Experiencing ADDvantages! You can win some great prizes just for commenting on a post!

Delegating the Details

As a business owner and an adult with ADD, you're probably a very strategic, highly creative, intensely driven, idea-generating person. The question is...what happens to all those great ideas? Do you have someone to help you implement them?

Adults with ADD are constantly thinking up new ideas. It happens at home with ideas like I should paint this room, I want to buy an organizer for this closet, and I'm going to alphabetize my CDs right now! It happens in business, too, with ideas like:

• I want to find better software to manage problem X.
• I need to profile my customers to get a better direction for my marketing efforts.
• I think I'll explore this helpful website right now!

Here's the thing about ADDers and ideas: If we followed through on every good idea we ever had, there would be no time to eat, sleep or breathe. We have to learn to identify the good ones and leave the rest. And then, when we determine the good ideas, we have to find the right person or people to help us implement them.

While it's tempting to want to be in control and do it all yourself, a truly successful business owner knows that the implementation of great ideas is best left to someone else...someone whose strengths lie in the details. This is also known as delegating.

Delegating follow-through and implementation allows the ADD business owner to grow the business and focus on their unique skills...like coming up with the next big idea.

What tasks do you delegate in your business? Have you ever missed out on implementing a great idea because you tried to do it all yourself? Please share your thoughts and comments!

Re-thinking Email

I'm a little nuts about two things in my life.

1. I can't go to sleep without brushing my teeth. It doesn't matter if I've got the flu or I'm ridiculously drunk (which only happens on accident about once every two years), I cannot go to bed if my teeth are not minty fresh.
2. I hate email in my Inbox. I like to respond to emails as soon as possible and then delete them, thus clearing my Inbox. Seeing more than ten emails in my Inbox at any given time drives me nuts. I just want to clear them.

Now, no one can argue with clean teeth. But recently I've come to realize that I'm just being stupid about my email.

If I feel compelled to respond to emails as quickly as possible, then my attention is constantly being shifted from other things that may be more important.

It's hard to get things done if I feel like I must drop everything to deal with the emails in my Inbox. As a result, I don't have a lot of time to work on my book, my marketing, and other important elements of the business. And as the business expands, the more I suffer under the pressure of that email distraction.

So I've decided that this needs to change.  NOW.

I'm learning to embrace a full Inbox.  Okay, well maybe "embrace" is not the word. More like, I'm trying to not freak out if my Inbox has 18 emails in it (as it does right now.)

And rather than looking at it all day and feeling the pressure, I've actually been shutting down my email when I do other things. The funny thing about shutting down email is that it's not as hard as you think it will be.

Do you find that emails or phone calls distract you from the other important elements of running your business?