A highly creative, high-energy person, she has been diagnosed with ADHD, a neurobiochemical disorder which expresses in behaviors at the extreme of a continuum of impulsiveness, distractibility, and hyperactivity. In The BrainStyles System, she is also described with gifts allowed by the rapid right-brain access of a Conciliator brainstyle which includes the following gifts: imagination, spontaneity, personal warmth, associative thinking, (great storytelling), an ability to see holistically (instead of in a linear fashion), and therefore allows a natural ability to promote and support others.

The right brain allows us to bond with and inspire others as we give ourselves permission to focus on and apply them in our lives.

*Conciliators are 36% of the BrainStyles® database: 40% male, 60% female*

Leveraging Conciliator Strengths in Marketing

As a highly successful Conciliator in digital marketing, she uses her ADHD abilities and explosive energy to manage many projects each day to advantage, working 18-hour days, and alternating with time off.

When we started coaching, she was giving away her expertise: working 12-15 hours a day, six days a week, at pay that was less than half of the going rate to support her boss's efforts in a new business. The possibilities for the business intrigued her. However, it was an ADHD nightmare: working for a boss who had no plan, no boundaries, and no money. Her talents and many hours did not pay off. She was looking for better pay with more scope for her own creativity.

A New Opportunity – And Challenges

The new job she chose was a Conciliator's dream in a marketing opportunity: high touch, lots of people contact, media exposure, and an infinite scope for creativity. The money was somewhat better, and better funded with promises of raises and bonuses as the business matured through her efforts. The plusses it provided for her way of working were excitement and possible endorsement of her talents, and potential validation of her own work plans.

Yet there were still some nightmare elements for someone with ADHD: her boss was still in control of where she placed her efforts. He still evaluated what her efforts were worth to him, which in turn demanded her to maintain focus when she was pulled off what she saw as a priority. She did not feel in charge of her own work. She was compelled to maintain her optimism about being able to deliver.

As it turned out, she hung in much longer than she should have because the work played to her Conciliator strengths. The demands were to meet people’s needs, which gave her satisfaction. And in this job the clients' needs were insatiable. She rarely had to call upon or devote time to work in non-strength areas like analysis and planning. All she had to do was to promote, sell, and explain her projects, which came naturally to her.

She was accomplishing so much in her many projects that she regularly lost sight of what was happening to her life. Her finances were in disarray, her house cluttered with unfinished projects, and her boyfriend complained that he never saw her.

Her high energy, the opportunity to draw from her highly imaginative and visual gifts in a job compatible with her strengths made her "uncoachable" on personal issues until she finally “maxed out” and became ill. This is not atypical of this right-brain brainstyle, which is not good at setting personal limits.

Part of her burnout was intensified by the unrealistic expectations of her narrowly hyper-focused ADHD boss. My client's caring, Conciliator approach led her to understand her boss, but not protect her own time.

She looked again at what being a Conciliator means: The people strengths, the right-brain imaging of how wonderful things can be, the willingness to throw yourself into projects and get the job done with bells and whistles. 

Her revelation came when she totaled the hours worked and divided that enormous total by the dollars earned. Now she was ready to work on a plan to support her talents, honor her experience and skills, and identify those needs she had that must be met in the workplace. We made a list of 17 criteria.

Criteria for A New Role

Twelve were positive requirements like a congenial atmosphere, trust among employees, integrity of management, and enough funding to predict success for the company.

Five were "must not's” like: dependence on an MBA or similar qualifications or focus on short-term productivity.

True to her impatient ADHD, she thought she could find a new position within 2-3 weeks. She knew someone who had done that, and her black/white thinking decreed she must do the same. Her mental image of the ideal company, fulfilling all 17 criteria, was out there and all she had to do was find it. She hyperfocused on options and made a list of 120 possible companies. She impulsively, without using a map or considering transportation, scheduled three to four interviews eacn day all over the city.

After 30 interviews, she was exhausted, ready to quit her search and give up. Her ADHD took over.

What was going on? We talked about how she presented in the interviews. At each one, she offered each interviewer insights into their marketing opportunities, made them feel powerful, was enthusiastic about their products. These are the Conciliator strengths.

This job search was more planned than any she had ever conducted, and her best tool, she decided, was her 17-point list. As a Conciliator, she got caught up in the interview process and looked for things to be positive about. But once out of the office, she checked off the must not's first. Most didn't make the cut.

Coaching With BrainStyles

After more coaching, we made a plan to take more time in the search. First, she took time to research companies on the Internet and eliminate them before the interview stage. Eventually (at seven weeks) she found several companies who passed the must-not test and had high positive scores. She then looked at the list we had made of all the things she had to tolerate and be disappointed by in other jobs: like transportation at night, equipment and technical support provided, and pay schedule.

Coaching her with BrainStyle has enabled us to look at a matrix of personal strengths and non-strengths. Her Conciliator gift underlies her particular form of ADHD, giving clues to powerful and reliable ways around the inevitable challenges. We celebrate and support her strengths and develop and install systems and solutions in areas of less interest and experience.

In the end, having wrapped up all the loose ends at the company she was leaving, and getting everyone's statistics entered in her address book, like the good Conciliator she is, she chose the company NOT because it paid the most, NOT because it had the best funding, and NOT because it had the fastest support. She chose the company whose management listened to her, acknowledged her talents, respected her experience and her related interests, and applauded her support of others in her industry.

The company she chose actively supports the people they hire to do their own work. They insist that time be taken for personal life. And they offer a broad menu of ways that her more-than-expected creative work will grow the company and her bank account at the same time.

Francena T. Hancock, Ph.D., has had a career as an educator on both coasts as an administrator and instructor after receiving her B.A. from Harvard and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Human Development from University of California at Berkeley. She is a member of the International Coach Federation and Certified by Optimal Functioning institute (ADD Coach Training). Francena provides her expertise to clients across the country and in England with her telephone coaching practice. Her specialty is in supporting adults with Attention Deficit Disorder, as well as those who live or work with ADD adults.