The Pain of Untapped Potential: Why So Many Gifted ADHD Minds Struggle to Lead
- Angela Greenwell
- Jun 26
- 5 min read

Most gifted, creative, and neurodivergent individuals struggle to reach their true potential. It’s a pain point that few people truly appreciate or understand.
It can feel like your mind is full of brilliance, but your energy is either scattered or full throttle and on the edge of burnout. Like your best ideas come in bursts, but follow-through is slippery, where you can lose the trail and find yourself lost. Like your inner drive is strong, but cumulative ambition injuries ask, is anything ever going to stick? And underneath it all, there’s fear. Fear that you’ll repeat old patterns of burnout and inconsistency. Fear that you’ll lose your focus again, and this time, you won’t find your way back. Fear that your gifts remain unrealized, no matter what you do.
These aren’t character flaws. They’re signals that someone is fighting against a norm, a system, a a model of success that was never designed for how their brain works.
Research from Barkley (2008) emphasizes that ADHD-related impairments in executive functioning are not about laziness or lack of willpower. They are neurological. These challenges impact motivation, planning, and follow-through in profound ways, especially in leadership environments.
When you are wired for intensity, curiosity, creativity, speed, or depth, you also tend to wrestle with cycles of overperformance, overthinking, and overwhelm. It’s not that you don’t know what to do. It is that your energy, attention, and motivation do not follow a predictable path. And traditional leadership advice? It compounds the issue.
Neurotypical leadership models often assume linear progress, consistent focus, and behavioral predictability. But research shows that ADHD leaders often demonstrate non-linear problem solving, high sensitivity to stimulation, and divergent thinking. These traits are often misinterpreted as inconsistency rather than innovation (White & Shah, 2006).
To neurotypical leaders, this can be difficult to grasp. Imagine:
Having endless creativity but never being able to finish what you start.
Being told you have potential but constantly feeling like you're falling short.
Having big ideas but struggling to organize them, prioritize them, or execute them consistently.
Having ADHD isn’t about being lazy or disorganized. It’s like learning to surf in a world built for trains. Neurotypical minds often move like trains on tracks: steady, predictable, and built to run on schedule. But an ADHD brain is more like a surfer navigating the ocean.
Sometimes you're catching an incredible wave and riding it with focus and energy. Other times, you're waiting for the right set to come in, or paddling hard just to stay in place. Some days, you’re duck-diving under crashing waves, out of breath but still in the game. It’s not a flaw. It’s just a different way of being. That’s why coaching ADHD leaders requires a different model.
As someone with ADHD, I found the CORE Foundation Principles created by iPEC (the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching) to be one of the best collections of guiding principles for the ADHD brain. These principles focus on the process, not the outcomes, and give those with ADHD a new way to lead, not by fixing themselves, but by working with their brains, their values, and their natural patterns of momentum. They are also the foundation of my coaching practice.
The first three are the bedrock of positive change.
Awareness of your values, how your unique mind operates, of your dopamine patterns, your mindset, your stories, your past ambition injuries, etc.
Acceptance of who you are, the brain you have, how you process, what is truth beyond what feels true, and what motivates you.
Conscious Choice of a life vision, the systems you want to build, the projects you want to prioritize, and the leadership path you decide to blaze that is in alignment with how you naturally thrive.
Research confirms that self-acceptance and strengths-based coaching significantly improve leadership self-efficacy and decision-making capacity in ADHD professionals (Prevatt & Yelland, 2015). Because you can’t build a powerful vision on a foundation of shame. And you can’t lead others when you’re still at war with yourself.
Once a foundation is created through awareness, acceptance, and conscious choice, and there is a goal and plan that truly aligns with how your brain works, the next phase is about execution. This is where many ADHD brains get stuck, not because of a lack of capability, but because of how traditional systems fail to account for our wiring. Here we develop seven key internal anchors: trusting the process, being authentic with how we operate, and choosing fearlessness even in the face of past setbacks.
We learn to move forward with confidence, not because we’re doing it like everyone else, but because we’re doing it in a way that honors our own brains and values. We lean into connection because growth and execution aren’t sustainable in isolation. We practice presence in the moment because clarity and choice only exist in the now. And we aim for 100% energetic engagement ,which is not perfection, but full-hearted participation in a life that fits. Together, these principles support real, lasting action without burnout, shame, or pretending to be someone you're not.
The pain of unrealized potential is real. But so is the possibility of claiming your own definition of success, and designing a business, career, or creative life that is tailored to you.
This isn’t about being more productive. It’s about being more you.
And when that happens? Your leadership doesn’t just grow. It changes the game for others, too.
If this resonates, take a moment to reflect:
What might shift if you let go of the expectation to move like a train on tracks, and instead allowed yourself to follow a path that matches your actual energy, rhythm, and brilliance?
What would be possible if you led from process instead of pressure? From self-trust instead of self-correction?
Imagine what your work, relationships, or creative efforts would feel like if you fully embraced the 10 foundational principles, not as ideals, but as internal anchors:
What if trusting the process replaced urgency?
What if authenticity replaced masking?
What if fearlessness wasn’t about risk, but about showing up anyway?
What becomes available when you lead from confidence, connection, presence, and full energetic engagement, without needing to be perfect or predictable?
You might begin by journaling:
What does success feel like, not just what does it look like?
Where in your life are you still trying to lead like someone you’re not?
What would it mean to show up as the leader your brain is built to be?
And if you’re ready to explore that leadership on your terms, I’m here.
References:
Barkley, R. A. (2008). Executive Functions: What They Are, How They Work, and Why They Evolved. New York: Guilford Press.
White, H. A., & Shah, P. (2006). Uninhibited imaginations: Creativity in adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Personality and Individual Differences, 40(6), 1121–1131.
Prevatt, F., & Yelland, S. (2015). An empirical evaluation of ADHD coaching in college students. Journal of Attention Disorders, 19(8), 666–677.
Comentários