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 failure or memories of previous struggles.

In this episode, we explore:

• What can be hiding inside a seemingly simple task such as sending an email

• How repeated struggles contribute to the Wall of Awful

• Why caring deeply about the outcome can sometimes make beginning harder

• The difference between activating under pressure and performing well under pressure

• How urgency, anxiety, frustration and anger can become a damaging way to smash through the wall

• What it means to put a door in the wall or climb it

• How skills, resources and expectations affect workplace performance

• What leaders often miss when they move straight into problem-solving

• Questions to ask yourself when you are staring at your own Wall of Awful

Brendan Mahan is an internationally recognized ADHD and executive-function expert, host of the ADHD Essentials Podcast and author of Overcoming the Wall of Awful.

📘 Learn about or pre-order Overcoming the Wall of Awful: https://brendanmahan.com/the-wall-of-awful-book/

🎙 Learn more about Brendan: https://brendanmahan.com/

🌐 Learn more about Cathy Rashidian and Ready Set Choose: https://www.readysetchoose.com/

Subscribe for thoughtful conversations about professional and leadership development through an ADHD lens.

#ADHDAtWork #ADHDLeadership #WallOfAwful

What happens when the mask comes off?

In this episode, Coach Cathy dives into the unique challenges faced by high-achieving professionals with ADHD who feel pressured to conform to traditional leadership molds. Through her personal story of exhaustion and the breaking point that led her to quit her executive role, Cathy shines a light on masking—the exhausting effort to hide your struggles and maintain a polished facade.

She unpacks the toll this takes on your mental bandwidth, decision-making, and ability to lead authentically. Cathy offers clear insights into the signs you might be leading from survival mode, why understanding ADHD is a game-changer, and how small, strategic shifts can help you lead with clarity, sustainability, and alignment with your values.

Whether you’re feeling stuck in the cycle of burnout or navigating your next leadership transition, this episode will leave you with actionable steps to recalibrate your approach in a way that works with your brain, not against it.

00:00 Introduction: What does it mean to lead with ADHD? 01:09 Personal Story: The moment the mask shattered. 01:31 Understanding Masking: Why it’s so draining and its impact on leadership. 02:46 Survival Mode vs. Authentic Leadership: Recognizing the signs. 04:56 Reflecting on Leadership and ADHD: A new lens for aligned leadership. 07:05 Steps to Aligned Leadership: Practical strategies to start leading differently. 08:37 Invitation to Connect: Learn how ADHD-informed coaching can help you lead authentically.

If you’re tired of performing leadership and ready to step into authenticity, this episode is for you. Tune in to reclaim your energy, find clarity, and lead in a way that feels true to who you are.

Feel free to reach out if you’d like to have a conversation about how you can work together. Schedule a call using this link.

"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 what actually happens between knowing what to do and doing it — and why that gap shows up so often for capable, high-performing professionals.

What we explore:

• Self-mistrust as a possible central cognitive theme of adult ADHD, and how it shapes self-worth, decisions, and follow-through
• Why ADHD is better understood as a performance problem than a knowledge problem
• Motivation as an emotion, and why deadline pressure stops being a sustainable strategy
• Self-regulatory efficacy: why some people disengage early, and what protects against it
• How thoughts, feelings, and behaviors operate as a braided cord rather than a linear chain
• People-pleasing, social capital, and why ADHD professionals may overestimate their relational debts
• Procrastivity, or productive procrastination — when it is adaptive, and when it is avoidance
• Taskidermy tasks: the items that keep reappearing on your to-do list without moving forward
• The SAP Method: Specific, Actionable, Pivot Points for getting unstuck
• How CBT for adult ADHD differs from CBT for depression or anxiety, and why the implementation focus matters
• Masking, intentional self-presentation, and the difference between coping and concealment

This episode offers language for patterns that often go unnamed at work — and a more grounded way to think about why standard advice keeps falling short.

About Dr. Russell Ramsay: Dr. Russell Ramsay is a psychologist who specializes in the assessment and psychosocial treatment of adult ADHD. He has lectured internationally, published widely, and authored six books on adult ADHD, including his most recent, Once I Get Started. He is a CHADD Hall of Fame inductee.

Pre-order Once I Get Started by Russell Ramsay, Ph.D.: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/783710/once-i-get-started-by-russell-ramsay-phd/

Connect with Cathy Rashidian: ReadySetChoose.com

Resources:

Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS-v1.1) Symptom Checklist Instructions

https://add.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/adhd-questionnaire-ASRS111.pdf