Why Your Neurodiverse Leader is Struggling with Prioritisation

Who knows a leader that has enough time to get to the bottom of their to do list?

No, me neither.

Lesson number one: It’s not your job to get to the end of the list.

Lesson number two: Prioritisation doesn’t mean choosing what to do first, it means choosing what not to do.

Prioritisation is a key leadership requirement – both for the leader’s own success and the success of the teams they lead. Prioritising requires the ability to filter information, assess importance, manage competing demands, take into account the current context, and plan action – often in dynamic or high-pressure environments. This relies heavily on executive functioning, which although most commonly associated with ADHD is actually commonly impacted in neurodivergent individuals of all kinds.

Here are some reasons why your neurodivergent leader may be finding prioritisation difficult, (aka why they might be working really really long hours):

1. Everything feels equally urgent

For someone with ADHD or anxiety, the brain often struggles to distinguish between what’s urgent, important, or optional. This can lead to overwhelm, indecision, or frantic multitasking, none of which supports focus or strategic thinking.

2. Hyperfocus can distort priorities

Neurodiverse leaders may become deeply engrossed in one area – perfecting a presentation, reworking a product, responding to messages – while losing sight of other objectives. Hyperfocus can be a superpower (when sustained focus on something is needed), but it can also mean other priorities are unintentionally neglected.

3. Difficulty estimating time or effort

If a leader struggles to gauge how long tasks will take (a common neurodivergent trait), they may under- or over-commit, causing delays, bottlenecks, or rushed work. They may not plan effectively projects over time and may not give colleagues the notice they need to complete their parts of the plan Misjudging the effort required makes it hard to rank tasks effectively.

4. Cognitive overload

Many neurodiverse people process more sensory or contextual information at once, which can be both a strength (seeing connections others miss) and a challenge. When the brain is flooded with data, it’s hard to know what to focus on first: the result is overwhelm and a complete freeze.

5. Emotional prioritization

Some leaders with ADHD may prioritize based on what feels most rewarding or interesting, what causes anxiety, or what’s easiest to complete, rather than strategic value. This isn’t about poor judgment; it’s often a subconscious strategy for getting going in overwhelming environments and may result from an almost physical inability to get started with more strategic priorities which are emotionally perceived as difficult or boring.

6. Not having enough context

Neurodivergent brains connect things together and are often outcome focused. So neurodivergent people tend to work best when their work has a clear outcome, an understood purpose, and when the big picture into which that work fits (and how and where it fits) is understood. Without this, the work may not appear to have any real meaning at all, so knowing how important it is in order to decide where it fits into the order of priorities feels impossible.

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Written by: Jo Lee, Associate Executive Coach

 Jo helps hard-working neurodivergent executives, leaders, managers get back in control of their workload, their work-related stress and their work life balance. Before becoming a coach, Jo  built a career that started in journalism and moved into marketing and then general business management where she held a CEO role. She became a full time coach in 2016 and specialises in coaching neurodivergent leaders and executives who want to achieve a better balance between their professional performance (which is usually very high), workload (which is also usually very high) and personal wellbeing and lifestyle (which is often suffering).

Jo is an Associate Executive Coach of The Coaching Solution.

If you are interested in working with Jo, please contact info@thecoachingsolution.co.uk or call on 07789 007591.