Adult ADHD symptoms may inhibit your ability to appropriately interact with others at work, be a good team player, handle criticism, deal with authority figures, and conduct yourself appropriately during meetings. These factors often play a significant role in how others perceive you and can be the difference between getting promoted and getting fired.

Managing Your Emotions

Many ADHD adults have fragile egos. If your self-esteem is wobbly, you need to be especially careful about acting defensive, continually putting yourself down, or letting other people's perceptions or opinions of you affect your conduct.

Instead of letting a bad temper or inappropriate comments jeopardize your job and work relations, practice staying in tune with how you really feel. Communicate your thoughts to colleagues when necessary.

Managing the Effects of Low Self-Esteem

Many ADHD adults have low self-esteem, and this can manifest in the workplace in a variety of negative ways that can be detrimental to establishing, maintaining, or advancing your career. For instance, low self-esteem may cause you to be to overly concerned about or sensitive to what others think or feel about you, causing you to put your time and energy into more worrying than working.

Your low self-esteem may cause you to be very self-critical, defensive when it comes to accepting criticism, or angry because you feel you aren't valued or appreciated. A therapist can help you uncover some of the reasons or dysfunctional thinking behind your poor self-esteem and help you look for ways to improve or bolster it.

Dealing with Authority Figures

Many ADHD adults have trouble dealing with bosses and superiors. Despite all evidence to the contrary, many ADHD adults simply believe they are right about everything most of the time, and that other people are wrong most of the time. Before you let your stubbornness get the best of you, you may want to consider the possibility that you could actually be wrong this time (or any time).

If you still think you're right and your boss is wrong, think carefully about what confronting your boss would accomplish, taking into consideration his personal track record and your personal relationship with him. Would he be likely to listen and thank you for your input, or even be so impressed by your insight that he'd change his mind? Or would he be more likely to be annoyed and insulted that you had the nerve to defy him?

Discovering Your Work-Related Strengths and Weaknesses

Adult ADHD can hamper your ability to look at yourself realistically and gauge your strengths and weaknesses. Not knowing what you're good at (or bad at) can impact your work performance in many ways.

You may struggle with a job because it doesn't match your innate talents, or become bored, disgruntled, or disappointed when your efforts don't yield the results you had expected. A good therapist can help you zone in on your strengths and weaknesses so you can minimize your shortcomings and maximize your many gifts. In fact, many ADHD adults decide to change careers after working with a therapist and wind up in a different job that better fits their ADHD skills and temperament.