it takes
an ADHDer
to know
ADHD
Kevin Exley. But Kev.
I’m an ADHD expert and ICF-certified coach, with a level two Diploma in Transformative Coaching – accredited by the International Coaching Federation, the European Mentoring & Coaching Council and the Association for Coaching.
A twenty-five-year career in advertising saw me rise to board-level positions at some of the most respected agencies in the industry – something I achieved not only by mastering the challenges that come with my own ADHD, but by identifying and leveraging the unique strengths it brings, too.
This first-hand lived experience is coupled with my ongoing commitment to study and understand the neuroscience of ADHD, which I pursue alongside a strong network of leading practitioners in the fields of medicine, science and wellbeing.
I love working with adults who have ADHD, helping them navigate their careers; strengthen their relationships; and enjoy all aspects of life a little more.
When I was diagnosed, so much of my character and so many of my ways suddenly made a lot more sense – even if that was a tragically predictable and disappointingly unoriginal response to have had. My propensity to hyper focus (yeah, superpower, woo-woo, whatever) soon had me reading the library on the subject and befriending experts in fields as fancy sounding as neurology, psychology, neuro-nutrition, and mindfulness – all in an effort to satisfy a creeping obsession for properly understanding what’s going on inside my head.
The popular trend for celebrating any neurodivergence as a condition that somehow blesses its lucky sufferer with a set of superhuman abilities is, I soon came to realise, a long way wide of the mark. In fact, on behalf of many of the people I work with, I’d go so far as to call this go-to phrase patronising, as it in no way recognises the many real-world struggles that someone with a neurological condition can face. Daily. In all manner of situations. And sometimes with a dangerously accumulative negative effect.
“There’s a different way of looking at problems, seeing connections and arriving at unique solutions that many other people would simply never have landed upon.”
Amongst the darker stuff, however, can be found a rather fascinating creative up-side. A different way of looking at problems, seeing connections and arriving at unique solutions that many other people would simply never have landed upon. Why would they? Cognition-wise, we’re talking about brains that operate a little differently to the norm.
This is quite possibly why the creative industries have long been a magnet for ADHD-types. It’s almost certainly why I made my career in the space – landing board-level positions at some of the better known (and some of the more obscure) agencies in London, Manchester and Toronto. I’ve run creative departments of over a hundred people; travelled the world on obscenely expensive photo-shoots; and pranced round the boardrooms of many a corporate Goliath to pitch for its business. But I’ve also fallen to overwhelm; suffered crippling imposter syndrome; and suffered the inertia of comorbidities like procrastination and time-blindness – none of which, career-wise, is always considered a great look.
And so, whether it be subconsciously (pre-diagnosis), or consciously (post), I’ve had to learn to cope. Not in any suck-it-up-and-make-do way; but with a conscious commitment to do right by myself and develop the best strategies and mechanisms to not only tackle my own particular flavour of executive functioning, but to allow its strengths to actually improve my game as well.
I don’t believe anyone ADHD needs fixing, because I don’t believe they’re broken. But I do see the value that combining first-hand experience, in-depth knowledge of ADHD and professional training in transformative coaching can bring when helping others get more out of their own lives too. I hope we speak soon.