Refined Leadership - ADHD Lens
Refined Leadership: ADHD Lens" is a leadership podcast tailored for professionals with ADHD. Hosted by Certified Executive Coach Cathy Rashidian, it offers actionable strategies and insights that harness the strengths of ADHD in leadership roles. Each episode is designed to help you navigate your career advancement with ADHD, providing tools and tips to reshape your professional habits and enhance decision-making.
Ideal for emerging leaders and high-performers, this podcast builds a community around advancing leadership capabilities through the ADHD lens. Tune in to transform your leadership approach and achieve professional success.
New to Refined Leadership: ADHD Lens?
109
Oct. 10, 2026
ADHD at Work: Why Working Harder Isn’t Helping
You’re delivering good work, but it’s taking more time and energy than you can keep giving. Is working harder still the answer? In this opening episode, executive and ADHD coach Cathy Rashidian introduces Patterns of Divergent Minds at Work, a special five-part series within Refined Leadership: ADHD Lens. We explore five recurring work patterns: the Architect, Rescuer, Visionary, Adapter, and Imposter. These approaches can help neurodivergent professionals organize complex work, solve problems
107
May 7, 2026
Why Knowing Isn't Doing: Adult ADHD Through a CBT Lens | Dr. Russell Ramsay
"I know what I need to do, but I don't trust that I'll do it when I need to do it." If that sentence lands, this conversation is for you. In this episode of Refined Leadership: ADHD Lens, I sit down with Dr. Russell Ramsay, one of the leading voices in adult ADHD and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. We talk about his new book, Once I Get Started, and the cognitive theme he believes runs beneath much of adult ADHD: self-mistrust. This is not a productivity conversation. It is a conversation about
Recent Episodes
113
Oct. 10, 2026
Autistic Masking at Work: Finding the Support You Need with Eric Garcia
What helps an autistic professional navigate a demanding workplace—and how do they recognize and ask for that support? In the final episode of Patterns of Divergent Minds at Work, Cathy Rashidian speaks with autistic journalist Eric Garcia, author of We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation. Eric shares experiences from newsrooms and political reporting, including asking an editor for clearer instructions, learning from a mentor, and becoming more intentional about his working enviro
112
Oct. 10, 2026
Diagnosed with ADHD at 65: Leadership Lessons with Carlos Gutierrez
What can a late ADHD diagnosis reveal after decades of leadership success? Carlos Gutierrez, former chief executive of Kellogg and former United States Secretary of Commerce, joins Cathy Rashidian to discuss being diagnosed with ADHD at 65—and how that helped him understand his working life. Drawing on his memoir, Sheer Will: Learning to Lead When There Is No Path, Carlos reflects on ambition, his immigrant experience, and learning to lead through observation, feedback, and trial and error. W
111
Oct. 10, 2026
People-Pleasing and Imposter Syndrome at Work: When Proving Yourself Becomes Exhausting
You agree to a deadline you’re concerned about, then work late to meet it. You receive positive feedback, but still feel you need to prove you deserve your role. How much effort goes into looking dependable? In part three of Patterns of Divergent Minds at Work, Cathy Rashidian explores the Adapter and Imposter patterns. We examine experiences that can overlap with people-pleasing and imposter syndrome at work, including suppressing concerns, overpreparing, and repeatedly checking work. In this
110
Oct. 10, 2026
ADHD Productivity: Overplanning, Overcommitting, and Too Many Ideas
Do you spend more time organizing your work than doing it? Take over a colleague’s task when they only asked for feedback? Start developing several ideas before deciding which one to finish? In part two of Patterns of Divergent Minds at Work, Cathy Rashidian explores the Architect, Rescuer, and Visionary. For professionals navigating ADHD productivity challenges or other neurodivergent experiences, these patterns offer a way to examine planning, boundaries, prioritization, and follow-through.
109
Oct. 10, 2026
ADHD at Work: Why Working Harder Isn’t Helping
You’re delivering good work, but it’s taking more time and energy than you can keep giving. Is working harder still the answer? In this opening episode, executive and ADHD coach Cathy Rashidian introduces Patterns of Divergent Minds at Work, a special five-part series within Refined Leadership: ADHD Lens. We explore five recurring work patterns: the Architect, Rescuer, Visionary, Adapter, and Imposter. These approaches can help neurodivergent professionals organize complex work, solve problems
108
Aug. 2, 2026
Why ADHD Professionals Get Stuck | Overcoming the Wall of Awful
Why can a capable ADHD professional know exactly what needs to be done—and still find it incredibly difficult to begin? In this conversation, Cathy Rashidian speaks with Brendan Mahan, MEd, MS, author of Overcoming the Wall of Awful, about the emotional barriers that can build around work we have struggled with before. A report, email, decision or difficult conversation may look straightforward from the outside. Internally, that task may be carrying frustration, uncertainty, shame, fear of fai
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