October is a big awareness month for me (in general and for my coaching business) - Emotional Intelligence Awareness Month AND ADHD Awareness Month.
This month, I’ll be sharing information about both, along with some more personal stories.
As I’ve shared before, I was diagnosed with ADD/ADHD (it was separate back then, and yes, I got diagnosed with both) in 1997. This was HUGE for many reasons, mainly because ADD/ADHD was more studied and associated with adolescent boys, not college-age females.
As neurodiversity has been studied so much more in recent years, I am learning about my diagnosis as if I were just finding out about it.
I felt like there was very little support for neurodiversity while I was in aerospace/defense. Honestly. I don’t think neurodiversity was ever even acknowledged, but less talked about.
I felt safe sharing my diagnosis with a couple of close co-workers, but it wasn’t taken that seriously… because I didn’t present as ADHD - hyperactivity.
I do recognize that, at the time, the information about the traits/characteristics of ADHD (and other neurodiversity) wasn’t readily available for me to educate myself, to then educate colleagues and managers/leadership.
In retrospect, even now, being more educated, I wouldn’t have felt safe sharing my diagnosis (and how it presents itself) with the majority of the people I worked with.
It would have been an annoyance that I was different and that they might have to adjust, or it would have been something they would tease me about (being the only non-engineer, non-former-military, and only female in my group - I got teased and bullied. That’s a whole a different topic for some other time.)
After leaving my career in aerospace/defense, I was drawn to Emotional Intelligence (EQ) training and coaching. Partly because I had a natural skill for EQ but didn’t have the language, and so many of the people I worked with lacked emotional intelligence. The few that showed signs of above average emotional intelligence were often the most trusted and best people leaders.
I am often surprised by how many organizations don’t value ‘soft skills,’ such as EQ, especially in the tech industries. Data clearly demonstrates that organizations with emotionally intelligent leadership tend to see significant improvements in key performance metrics like profitability, employee engagement, creativity, decision-making, and customer satisfaction. The data consistently shows that prioritizing emotional intelligence leads to better business outcomes across various industries and job roles.
And then there is the relationship between ADHD and EQ - not only for the individual but also for the colleagues and managers of neurodivergent individuals…
I will be touching on this a little bit later this month and will be a focus for 2025.
I hope you enjoying learning a little more about ADHD and EQ with me this month.
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